ILance® - Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

When I purchase ILance, what am I buying exactly?

You are buying an exclusive software license to run ILance software on your own web site. You do not own the software, but you are free to completely modify it to your customization requirements without limits.

What terms must I comply with when using ILance?

All license holders of ILance powered solutions must adhere to the EULA (end user license agreement) and ILance requires all customers to sign this agreement in written signature to be faxed back to ILance prior to purchase.

Is ILance source encoded or encrypted in any way?

No. When you order ILance, you are purchasing a fully un-encoded, non-encrypted open source version of the ILance software framework. Furthermore, the installer system (not part of ILance Framework) is in fact encoded using Zend and/or IonCube that will require appropriate server modules installed for the reading of the installation scripts. This installation system ensures the customer has a valid license key and that the license key is still active for the product being installed (or upgraded) which simply prevents tampering of the license key verification process located in the install system.

What are the server requirements?

1 domain name and 1 email account. For disk space, we recommend 500MB to 1GB. For memory we recommend 512MB to 1GB RAM. The server/CPU recommendation is 2GHz or higher (but anything over 1GHz will do just fine).

What are the PHP requirements?

PHP version 4.3 or higher.

What should I configure before I start?
Your minimum values for PHP settings within the php.ini should be similar to:

max_execution_time 300
memory_limit 32M

If you are on a shared hosting account sometimes php.ini is not available. If you do not have access to the php.ini file you can do this within a .htaccess file which is placed in the root folder of ILance. It should look similar to the following:

php_value max_execution_time 300
php_value memory_limit 32M

The following PHP extensions are also required:

ILance Product:
bcmath, date, hash, iconv, pcre, session, libxml, tokenizer, zlib, SimpleXML, dom, SPL, wddx, xml, xmlreader, xmlwriter, mbstring, curl, exif, gd, image, mcrypt, mysql, openssl.

LanceAlert Product:
sockets

What are the MySQL requirements?

MySQL server version 3 or higher; 1 empty database available. For best usage, we recommend MySQL server version 5 or higher and a hosting provider that does not set "cap limits" on how much data can be transfered to and from the database server.

Can I use a different database server than MySQL?

Not at the moment. Oracle® and MS-SQL® may be available in the near future.

How is ILance support handled?

We provide all licensed clients with updated versions of our software every month. The updated software download is available from the members download area. Additionally, members looking for ILance support or just want to chat regarding the ILance platform, can visit the ILance Forum. Support policies are subject to change at any time, without prior notification to the customer.

Do I receive life-time software updates?

No. We provide all clients with 12 months of product updates from the time of purchase. Each additional year will cost $99 which includes regular software updates within this support period.

I've modified ILance code, am I eligible for updates?

Yes, but unfortunately ILance cannot provide support to your customized code. If you had modified any script in ILance, you can simply review the ILance Forum for updated release information as to what files were affected in the previous versions and update your own ILance customized code accordingly. Furthermore, if you update official ILance scripts by uploading and overwriting existing scripts, you will lose your modifications unless you are able to migrate manually or use the new Product Addon Manager now available.

Can I integrate ILance with my existing software / script?

Yes, but this requires knowledge of PHP and MySQL. Additionally, ILance now offers developers the ability to add in your own customized php code within certain areas of the official ILance codebase. For example, if your developer needed to make a change to one of the accounting sections, they would be able to accomplish this by searching for a desired api location in the accounting sources and basically attach any custom php code to that specific api location which will ultimately execute your code without altering the ILance framework. This allows the site owner to modify the framework at the same time be eligible for official upgrades or updates to newer versions of our software.

I run vBulletin® - Can my members login to ILance also?

There is a vbulletin_to_ilance.php importer script that will handle this for your programmer. It will read from the VBulletin database tables and write to your ILance database tables using each members email address as the key. The script will check for duplicate emails within the ILance database table and skip if an existing vbulletin user exists (great for running this script as a cron job every day to import vb users to il) if you have more members signing up to your forum than the marketplace. This script will handle keeping your vbulletin and ilance users in tact.

I found a bug! What do I do?

Please report any / all bugs you find in the software to the official ILance Bug Tracker. Team ILance can directly communicate with bug reporters on a per bug basis.

Is it easy to integrate my design into ILance templates?

Yes, if you have knowledge of HTML & CSS, you will have no problem, there is a complete template manager in the backend of ILance software to allow for customization. And even if you do not have experience with this type of work, we have many professionals in our community and a section for Hire, if you ever wanted to have someone handle these tasks for you.

Does ILance support multiple languages?

Yes, the software provides a language phrase system which allows you to search, add or replace existing phrases, and if you are looking to translate to different languages, you can do so easily via editing an XML file and then uploading the newly translated xml file to appear as a new pulldown language option in your marketplace.

Is my native language supported?

No. ILance is an English speaking team. However, you are freely able to edit the English XML translation file and translate this into your own language. It will be up to the language translator to keep updated with new, removed and updated phrases in the official ILance English US language package.

Does ILance support Paypal?

Yes, the ILance / Paypal gateway module is already programmed to work with ILance's "Deposit Funds" as well as "Direct Payment Functionality" utilizing Paypal's IPN feature. Additionally, you may utilize Paypal's recurring billing logic into your ILance subscription plans for ultimate customer retention rates. Furthermore, since ILance software is provided in open source format, you can easily write new programming logic that allows the addition of other payment gateways. Authorize.net already exists in ILance as well.

Does ILance support Paypal's Payflow Pro Gateway?

No, ILance does not support Paypal Payflow Pro Gateway at this time.

When I register on Paypal, what plan should I choose to use IPN?

ILance recommends Paypal's Business account. Although other plans at Paypal.com may be available with supported IPN functionality. You will require IPN functionality to use the Paypal module with ILance.

Does ILance support 2Checkout?

No, ILance does not support 2Checkout at this time.

Does ILance support Authorize.Net?

Yes. Live credit card payments can be made in your marketplace without making your customer leave your web site. Currently the only functionality using the credit card features is the "Deposit Funds" menu. This allows your customers to make realtime payments into their online account balance.

Does ILance support Recurring Billing via Authorize.Net?

No, ILance does not support Recurring Billing via Authorize.Net at this time.

How does ILance handle payments?

Various ways. Users are instructed to deposit funds into their online account balance to then be able to pay for unpaid invoices, fees and other related costs such as Portfolio upgrades, Credential Verification, auction upsell enhancement fees, subscription fees, etc or you as the administrator may decide to allow "Direct Payment Functionality" via Paypal or any other payment module within ILance that support direct payment functionality. This type of interaction allows direct payment and less delays for unpaid payments (if members do not deposit funds to their account).

Subscription fees on the other hand may be handled in the system on a recurring basis. This allows Paypal to interact with your ILance powered marketplace and to update their on going payments allowing their subscription plans to remain active and paid on a consistant basis until they opt to cancel. Logic within the framework of ILance allows the administrator to decide on a maximum payment date (for example 15 days) before a transaction becomes outstanding, which at this point, a nightly scheduled task takes place and automatically learns what user still owes what to the marketplace, and would check their online account balances, debit funds if available (or dispatch a late payment email notice) and move on to the next client.

How does ILance handle my local taxes and zones?

ILance provides tax administrative controls allowing for Countries, Cities and States to be defined within the system. Any customers matching the defined values will be charged accordingly for taxes such as GST and / or VAT on related invoices and transactions.

Does ILance support Credit Card payments?

Yes, when you have credit card support enabled members can add their credit card to the system and use this card to deposit funds into their online account balance. There is no support for allowing your members to use credit card payments/purchases directly for invoices and other related fees in the system. The deposit funds menu is the gateway to allowing members to safe transfer money into their accounts, ensuring all payments are verified by the administration, billing or staff in the marketplace.

Can I charge my members for a monthly membership?

Yes, you have flexible options to configure different subscription types such as 1 day subscriptions, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year and so forth. This type of subscription matrix is talored toward the various role types you create and define (e.g: buyers, sellers, bidders, storefront owners, etc) using a unique subscription permission system allowing you to define resource rights on a per subscription basis. Check it out in the AdminCP > Settings > Subscriptions for more information. Additionally this information is covered within the ILance Operations Manual.

Does the price reduce in forward product auctions?

The forward auction method is mainly used for product auctions and the more people that bid, the higher the price becomes based on custom bid increments you define on a per-category basis. If you are looking to use reverse auction for products or items where the price goes down with more bidders that participate, the software is flexible enough to allow posting of product auctions via the reverse auction method.

Are there any sites using ILance?

Yes, since our inception in 2000, we have clients using ILance worldwide, however, our privacy policy prevents us from providing our clients urls or domain names to new, existing and/or potential clients. Furthermore, you are free to ask on the ILance Forum, as we are sure you can find someone to provide their marketplace url.

How fast is ILance with rougly 600 users simultaneously?

Depending on your server, it could easily handle 600 users or more. You would need to tweak your apache or web server configuration outside of the scope of ILance software to customize your server offerings. However, the more addons you introduce such as LanceAlert (IM Server via Sockets) and/or LiveBid (Flash / PHP / MySQL ), it may slow things down. Framework is PHP + MySQL which is very quick processing from page to page for each user.

Does ILance have any documentation?

Yes, there is an online printable manual with over 250 pages with full featured screenshots, content and information about all areas, sections and features of the ILance software platform. Our clients receive access to this documentation once they become a licensed customer.

Are the input fields pre-defined? can I change them?

The defined input forms that are already available within the registration, profile section and auction descriptions are in a default state. These will only change if you create new custom question input fields for each of these areas in specific niche categories. You can do this within the admin control settings. This way, if there is an auction posted in a category titled Home Builders, then the input fields will be different than another category you introduce, and can be geared towards that specific category / market. It all depends on the questions you create for each category. The software is completely flexible and can be customized to match your business needs in the form of pulldown menus, radio buttons, select lists, multiple choice and much more!

Is it possible launch ILance without charging fees?

Yes, you can disable all possible fees, subscription, commission, etc. This is a good idea when launching a new marketplace by providing a free period where the web site is open to retain potential buyers, sellers and professionals. These settings are available through the admin control for maximum control and functionality.

Can I launch ILance on multiple domains / web sites?

Yes, but for every unique domain name you will need to purchase a seperate license key for that associated domain. You cannot run 2 instances of ILance using 1 license key. This is against our end user license agreement and can have your license key suspended if caught doing so.

Installation Step 8 - I can't install db schema!

If you cannot install the database schema during step 8 of installation, it's most probably a script maximum execution time limit problem. To fix this problem open the .htaccess file which is in the root of your ILance software and add the following:

php_value max_execution_time 300

Why can't I upload large images or files?

There can be 2 reasons:

1. You have limits set in you attachment settings in the ILance AdminCP. To change this, visit AdminCP > Distribution > Attachments > Settings > Limits and set proper limits and extensions you want to accept for uploading.

50M

For dedicated server clients, changing the above values within the php.ini will accomplish the same results without the need to alter or create a new .htaccess file.

My LiveUpdate is not working. What can be wrong?

Make sure you have installed the CURL extension in PHP. You can do this by uploading to your server a file called phpinfo.php with the following php code:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Launch it and look for CURL. If you find it and and it is enabled it means you have it installed. Otherwise you should contact your web host provider and ask them to install it for you. Additionally, you should try uploading this script:

<?php
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "http://www.ilance.com/");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
?>

If you see blank page then your LiveUpdate will not work and you should contact your web host provider to configure it properly. If you see ILance page it means your LiveUpdate should be working properly.

ILance

How long to wait after purchase?