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Known Participant
April 16, 2007
Question

cf search

  • April 16, 2007
  • 24 replies
  • 2203 views
Hi, my name is Andy and I know just enough about web design & server-side, client-side stuff to get very frustraited.
I don't need anything too fancy (at least at first). I dont need the client to write to the database and I don't need the data base to change.
Here is what I do need:
On my home page I need the client to have a search box to enter thier zip code (which I guess I need to make my primary key) to find an electrician in thier area which may or may not be there depending on wheter we have one in our data base or not.
If one is there then I need a form to pop up for thier info. When the form is submitted, it needs to SMS to that member's cell phone.
Note: I have all of the network strings for the different phone company carriers but I know there is probably an easier way to do it with CF. For now though, I just need to know how to put a search box on my home page that will query the zip of the different members in my db. Thanks, Andy
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24 replies

ace4uAuthor
Known Participant
April 26, 2007
no-no I don't mind answering some questions. That's what promotion is all about.
If you have a contractor's license I would be glad jto list you for free.
The way it works is this:
I plan to pay a couple of people $3-5 a lead to sign contractors up for free for an indefinite amount of time with the stipulation that once www.electriciansnet.com starts generating leads for them, they will be given the option to pay a certain amount per month on the following month or be taken off the list. ColdFusion should be able to track/report who is getting leads.
Participating Frequently
April 29, 2007
Hi Andy. sorry about the delayed reply. Thanks for the offer but I work in a different area so I could not use your service. It sounds like a good system though. So you will advertise electriciansnet on google and in the newspapers as well? by the way how did you think of the name? why isn't it electriciansnetwork or something? I'd like to stay in contact to see how it develops.
Participating Frequently
April 26, 2007
All right I get it. As you probably figured I am also an electrician so I know what you mean. So how does your site work? Would any electrician sign up in their area then you woul list them? And how much would it cost? Sorry if you think I am asking too many questions, but I have been researching alternatives myself for a while.
ace4uAuthor
Known Participant
April 26, 2007
Well to answer the 1st part of your question- there seems to be a 100 sites for everything. It's a big world out there. As far as telling the public, well that's the beauty of the web. Posting 'how to' info is common place. There are sites out there that offer the best way to commit suicide. Get my point? Now if I was selling the info then I could possibly be on the hook in terms of liability. I'll probably have to post some kind of disclaimer. Lucky for me, my best friend is a corporate lawyer. I didn't even know about electrician's tool box. I'll have to check them out for ideas. Anyway, I have spent my whole life biting off more than I can chew so, why should this be any different?
ace4uAuthor
Known Participant
April 26, 2007
Well, not so much fed up because I get a 300-500% return on what I spend because they have excellent search engine position. I just want a piece of the action. Also, my site will be unique. I'm not an advertiser by nature, I'm an electrician so I will offer free resources for electricians such as support forum, applications like a load calculation form, pre-configured estimating scenarios and, for consumer, reporting service for shoddy work (electricians dog house), how to articles written by myself and other master electricians. So if consumer Googles "how to wire a 3 way switch" they get 'enet'; if electrician Googles "load calcs" they get 'enet'. Whatever drives traffic you know.
Participating Frequently
April 26, 2007
Hi Andy. So it sounds like you are fed up spending all that money and decided to start your own business. Is that right?
ace4uAuthor
Known Participant
April 26, 2007
If you want to try it out, go to www.electriciansnet.com and use 33617 as your query. If you fill the form out correctly, I will recieve a text message immediately. The only problem is that I have my cfmail form rigged (#foo# = 33617). I need #foo# to be dynamic. Thanks, Andy
Participating Frequently
April 26, 2007
Hi Andy. I see. So it sounds like that you are fed with paying other people and decided to start your own internet business. Is that right?
ace4uAuthor
Known Participant
April 26, 2007
Yes, all though I'm not in advertising. I'm an electrical contractor myself and I pay other sites to list my company every month. My online advertising budget is presently $700/ month and it generates about 25-30 leads a week.
But, i'm ignoring every one of them out of frustration because I dont want to do anything until I get my site to work. Kinda childish huh? Nothing else matters until I get a grip on this CF thing. They say its so easy! Having real problems with cfc's and putting my cfoutput where I want it.
Participating Frequently
April 26, 2007
That sounds great. I thought there was already a site like that. Something like 'electricianstoolbox' or similar. Do you think you should be telling the public how to do specific electrical jobs like wiring up switches etc? I was always told not to give advice like that, secrets of the trade and to avoid lawsuits.
Inspiring
April 23, 2007
i think the best solution will be to redirect a user to your form page
if they access the form results page directly. so, just put the
<cfif NOT isdefined("form.myzip")>
<cflocation url="yourformpage.cfm" addtoken="no">
</cfif>
at the top of the form results page.

--

Azadi Saryev
Sabai-dee.com
http://www.sabai-dee.com
ace4uAuthor
Known Participant
April 23, 2007
OK Jdeline, I have figured a lot of things out and you are the 1 who got me rollin.
However, I do have a small problem. You have my form (NAME=myZip) pointing to findElectrician.cfm (which is now a contact form) and it works great if you get there the intended way but if a user does not fill out the form correctly or has to refresh the form you get the error: ELEMENT MYZIP IS NOT DEFINED. Can you tell me how to fix this? Thanks, Andy
Participating Frequently
April 26, 2007
Hi ace4u. I was following your conversation regarding electriciansnet. I am interested to know whether you are designing a new website for electricians? I am doing something similar that's all. Thanks.
ace4uAuthor
Known Participant
April 18, 2007
No the term "postalcode" was just a unique visual aid so that I did not mix it up with my zip code db. its strictly numeric.
I spent all day registering CF to an SQL driver so that I could use all of the newer features that come with the .accdb format. Dont ask me why because i'm confused enough with the .mdb format. Anyway, should I not make SQL do some of the work instead of just the cf commands? For instance- I have a seperate table created from a downloaded .csv containing 42000 zips with thier respective citys and states. I want to make an if/ then that says: Sorry! We currently have no members in #ZipCodes.City# if thier zip matches one in the zip table but does not match one in the ContractorInfo table. One more thing- there is another table called "NetworkID" consisting of six lines, one for each cell carrier.
Ok well, lets just say the member uses AT&T which is NetworkID.1. In table "ContractorInfo" this colum aslo exists. Can I automate this process to render on the form (#PostalCode#) is #CellNumber# @ #NetworkID#?
You see if I cant find a way to automate a bunch of this then, the member sign up process will be extremely dificult. Not to mention that each member has several zip codes (which I cannot figure out how to enter in a single line) and any zip can have up to 3 members.

Yeah I have a long way to go but I'm just elated to see my page spit out the results of my quiery.
Myself as well as countless other electrical contractors across the US pay $250/ mo for this service from a similar site.
Azadi - I'm going to play with what you sent tommorow. Thank You, Andy