Publisher review:xcAuction adds the power of real-time internet auctions to your web site. Add the power of real-time internet auctions to your web site. If you need powerful auction software for your web site, xcAuction can deliver the auction functionality you need.
Because it is very configurable, the number of ways that xcAuction can be used in any business is virtually unlimited. xcAuction can be custom tailored to suit the exact needs of your business, or fit your vertical market or niche industry. Features and Value
xcAuction allows any web site to have powerful and feature rich auctions. Loaded with the kind of features that you might only find on industry leading auction sites, xcAuction packs in more features for the price than any similar products.
Flexibility
Since xcAuction is very configurable to meet the needs of many different types of businesses and users, you have the power to make changes in the look and feel of it's functionality.
xcAuction's appearance can be quickly and easily integrated with the rest of your web site design to give it a seamless appearance with your existing or new site. An extensive variety of configuration options make it easy to tailor xcAuction to suit your preferences. Instant Gratification
As soon as you receive xcAuction, you can begin using it. Since xcAuction is a complete turnkey solution, it can be running live auctions on your site right away.
Experienced web site designers have literally had xcAuction running and operational on their site within minutes. If you can design and create web sites, then you can set up and run xcAuction.
Users Features:
Auction Watch
The auction watch feature allows users to register an interest for items they want. When items meeting their criteria are listed, they will be notified via Email. Additionally, users have the option to make their auction watch public. This is a way that your users can influence the type of items offered for auction since auctioneers can use the public auction watches to decide to list any matching or similar items that they might be able to offer.
Specify Exact Starting and Ending Time
You can configure xcAuction to allow your auctioneers to specify an exact starting and ending time for their auction listings. This feature is useful for your power users that want to time closings for a specific time of day, so that they can follow up on activity and be more responsive to their buyers. It is also very useful when used in conjunction with a live physical auction, so bids can be accepted on location and online. Memorized Auctions
Users can click on a button when viewing any auction in order to add this to their custom list of Memorized Auctions. This allows users to have one central place to keep track of all the items in which they are interested. Bulk Uploader
The Bulk Uploader feature is a powerful tool that allows advanced users to list a large amount of auctions at one time. All you need to do is to create a CSV file (typically in Microsoft Excel) with a row with the properties for each auction.
Based on your own configuration options, XcAuction will generate a sample file that users can download. This file will contain the necessary headings and samples of what kind of data should be in each cell. Users can take their time creating a CSV file when they are offline, and just come to the site to upload all of their auctions at once without having to go through the step-by-step process each time. AutoRelist
The autorelist feature allows an auctioneer's listings to be automatically relisted for a certain number of times if they close unsuccessfully. The auctioneer can choose up to how many times they wish to autorelist an item. Bulk Relist
The bulk relisting feature allows your auctioneers to manually relist multiple auctions with a single click of a button. Multiple Currencies
You users can select a default currency so that all prices will be displayed both in your site's default currency as well as an approximate value in the user's selected currency. This allows international users to have a better idea of prices without having to go to another site to do the currency conversion. The Auctioneer's Marketplace
The Auctioneer's Marketplace is an area where power listers can be featured with a short profile and a link to their current auctions. This allows new bidders to see some of the most trustworthy auctioneers you have on your site. Or you can use it as a way to profile or reward only select auctioneers. Price Drop Option
An auctioneer can select the Price Drop feature for any of their listings. The Price Drop feature will decrease the starting bid in specified increments at certain intervals if no bids are placed. The auctioneer can decide the minimum threshold, and the starting bid will never drop beneath that point. This can be useful if the auctioneer isn't entirely sure of the market value of their item or has items where the prices may fluctuate. Highlight Option
Highlighting is one of several options users can choose to make their listings stand out. Users can even choose a color they want to use for highlighting, from amongst a list defined on your site. Withdraw Option
If for some reason an item is no longer available to be sold, it is easy to withdraw the auction. At the click of a button, the auction will be closed and the current high bidder, if there is one, will automatically receive an Email notifying them that the auction has been withdrawn. Flash Buy
Auctioneers can decide to set a price which they are willing to accept for an item if a bidder decides he must have that item immediately. The Flash Buy feature allows the bidder to pay a special price to end the auction early and to avoid competition from other bidders. Flash Buys can be used for both Standard and Multiple Item auctions. Reserve Prices
Not to be confused with a Reverse Auction, a Reserve Price is an optional feature of Standard Auctions. The Reserve Price allows an auctioneer to specify a minimum price the auction needs to meet to close successfully.
Although the Reserve Price is not shown to bidders while an auction is in progress, they are aware that a reserve price is in effect. The reserve price will be revealed at the successful close of the auction. Proxy Bidding
xcAuction automatically supports Proxy bidding on behalf of the auction bidders. Proxy bidding allows a user to specify the maximum (in the case of a Standard auction), or the minimum (in the case of a Reverse auction) amount they are willing to bid.
When a proxy bid has been placed, the current bid will be posted at the best bid price possible while the actual proxy amount will be hidden from other bidders. When another bidder attempts to place a bid, the previous bidder's proxy will go into effect in an attempt to foil the new bidder.
Whichever of these two bidders that has the higher proxy bid will end up as the current high bidder. Proxy bidding encourages more activity by bidders and typically drives up auction closing prices. As xcAuction has many useful configuration options, the proxy bidding feature can be disabled if it is not desired.
Other configuration options allow you to determine if proxy bids should immediately meet any Reserve price in effect at the time of bid placement or wait until the auction closing. User Ratings and Feedback
An auction site is the most successful when it can generate some feeling of community. To encourage users to feel more secure about who they might be dealing with, users can rate and leave feedback on each other.
This public commenting system encourages honesty and fair deals since problem users are quickly pointed out. To avoid artificially inflated ratings, users can leave a rating and comments only on other users with whom they have conducted a transaction. Automatic Activity Email
xcAuction is designed to help you keep your site users informed of auction activity in items they have either posted or bid on. xcAuction can automatically send out email notices to auction participants when an auction ends and when a bidder has been outbid on an item.
xcAuction can also send out status emails to keep auction participants reminded of what they have active on your site. xcAuction also has features for the power user to allow them to choose to not receive status information about individual listings. xcAuction works to help keep people coming back to your site by keeping them engaged!
Special List Views
xcAuction provides a number of list views, or ways your site users can look through all the items that have been posted on your auction site. By having a variety of views, even the busiest of sites can make it easy for site visitors to sort, view and find items of interest to them.
Admin Features:
Auction Statistics
As soon as you log into the auction administrator, you will see some statistics about your auction site. This allows you to always have a quick snapshot of how your auction site is doing. Default Auction Page Display Options
You can choose to highlight either Featured or Premiere auctions on the front auction page of your site. This allows you to optionally charge an additional fee for this added visibility for these auction listings.
You also have a number of options for displaying these auctions either as a list or in a thumbnail view (this option requires additional optional components to be installed on your web server. See the requirements section for complete details). A pseudo-randomized option allow for a fair distribution of Featured or Premiere listings. Item Image Display Options
You can choose from among several possible formats for the images displayed on the auction item view page. The first option is the traditional view where all images are displayed full size. Another option allows you to choose a view which would display thumbnails only and have the an end-user click on each thumbnail in order to display a pop up box of the full sized image.
And the final option is to display a one full size image along with all the other images as a series of thumbnails. Then when an end-user clicks on a thumbnail, the image is displayed full size in place of the default full size image.
Again, xcAuction is flexible and provides you with configurable options to let you choose which display format you prefer for your site. It is all up to you. (this option requires additional components to be installed on your web server in order to be enabled. See the requirements section for complete details). Gallery Options
The Gallery is where your users auctions can be viewed in a more visual context, organized into rows of thumbnails. You can decide to charge extra for auctions that are included in the Gallery.
Alternately, you can use the Gallery to showcase all auctions with thumbnails. Or, you can disable the Gallery view altogether. (this option requires additional components to be installed on your web server. See the requirements section for complete details). Category Options
xcAuction contains powerful category organizational options. You can decide on the order in which your categories will be displayed.
Also, you can define special Cat Sets which will allow related categories to share and display the same list of Featured auctions; this is a great option if you are just starting out or do not have a large number of active auctions and you don't want your site to look so bare. xcAuction allows you to define a virtually unlimited number of nested categories.
This allows you to completely define the hierarchy of your auction site. You can decide whether a category can itself hold posted auctions or whether it will instead act as an organizational placeholder for the subcategories beneath it. An unlimited number of categories and subcategories up to fifty levels deep allow you to create any layout that you would want. Easy Site Configuration
Configuration and auction system settings are controlled via plain text files. This makes it very simple to make setting changes. You can even make many of these changes using a browser, in real-time! No Programming Knowledge Necessary
xcAuction does not require you to have a computer science degree to get it working. In fact, you do not need any programming skills to use it on your site. To completely install xcAuction, you just need to be familiar with transferring files to and from your web server (typically using FTP).
If you have good HTML skills, then you will be able to completely customize the look and feel of xcAuction. If you are going to be using a SQL Server database, you may need the assistance of your SQL Server administrator (if your site is hosted at an ISP or web host, most likely your host will be able to completely set up your SQL Server database).HTML Templates
xcAuction uses HTML templates to generate much of it's user interface. This is what makes it simple and fast for you to customize the look and feel of xcAuction on your site.
If you can use an HTML layout tool; or write directly in HTML; then you can create a new HTML template to give your xcAuction site a distinctive look. This makes it very quick and easy for you to integrate xcAuction into an existing site. In fact, you can just take any ou can juHTML page from your site design, remove the existing content, and your template is ready to go. Customize Colors, Fonts and More
In addition to allowing you to customize the template that frames its content, xcAuction allows you to customize the look of the dynamically generated content itself.
You can customize the Fonts (colors and sizes), table widths and background colors. For more advanced users, xcAuction also supports cascading style sheets (CSS) for additional font and link color control. Moderated User Feedback
xcAuction can be configured so that your site's user feedback is moderated before being posted. This allows you to screen any user comments before they appear on the auction site. Multiple E-Mail Component Support
xcAuction, like any ASP based application, must utilize a server side component to send e-mail. But remember how we keep mentioning that xcAuction is flexible? Well, xcAuction supports a wide variety of the most common of these email components currently in use on ISP and web host servers.
So, you should never have to be concerned that your ISP or web host will have appropriate Email Component support for xcAuction. As a matter of fact, we will even add support for any publicly available Email Component that your ISP or web host has if they do not provide you with access to any of the components that we already have support for. (See the requirements section for complete details) Customizable Email Messages
One of the most important ways in which xcAuction interacts with your site's users is by sending out automated email messages for events that occur on your site.
This includes things like outbid notices and current auction status. You can easily edit and customize the text that appears in these messages to suit your own tastes.
This customization ability allows you to cater the messages to your audience or even to add advertising or other appropriate content to the email messages that are sent out. Mailing List
Through the XUD user management system that is built into xcAuction, you can define multiple Email lists for your site.
Users can sign-up and remove themselves from your auction mailing list themselves without requiring your intervention. Since you can send email to an entire list at once, it's easy to maintain a newsletter, a mailing list, special alerts or just to send out any related news about your auction site. Language File
xcAuction utilizes common language files which provides a centralized way for you to edit the language that xcAuction displays to your site users.
You can easily customize xcAuction for another language, for locale specific words, or for language specific to the niche or industry that your site serves. You can even just tweak the phrasing here and there to give the site your own personal touch. Listing Fees
You have complete control over what you want to charge your users to use your auction site. Of course, you have the option to not charge anything if you simply want to provide a free service.
A base listing fee can be dependent on the type of auction that the user selects to post. So you can charge a different listing fee for a Standard Auction listing from a Reverse Auction listing. Option Fees
At the time of posting an auction listing, you can also opt to charge a variety Option Fees. An Option Fee would be added to the base listing fee of a listing when the auctioneer is placing a new listing.
The Option Fees are for additional features that the auctioneer might want to choose in order to showcase their auction listing or bring more attention to a specific listing.
You can define the amount that you want to charge for any of the Option Fees. Just some of the Option Fees that your site user might select are features such as Image Uploads, Featured Items, Premiere Items, Bold Listings, Highlight Listings, and more. Closing Fees
You can also set up a variety of closing fees depending on the auction type as well as on the price range of the final winning bid.
Closing fees can be defined as a combination of a flat fee and/or a percentage of the winning bid. Again, xcAuction is flexible, so you can also choose to make any or all of these options free if you wish. Subscriptions
Through the XUD User Management and Billing System, you can define subscriptions that you might wish to offer on your site. You set the price and the time period covered by the subscription.
You can even set your site up so that different subscription options allow for different user capabilities or for percentage discounts on all of your site's fees. Billing and User Management System
xcAuction incorporates a built-in user billing and registration system called XUD. Because this system is shared with other XCENT web server applications, your auctions can be seamlessly integrated with these applications. If you want to charge for auctions on your site, xcAuction will automatically post these charges to the registered users' accounts. You can then bill them on a periodic (usually monthly) basis.
Billing information can be exported to any merchant processing software, such as the popular ICVerify. Any merchant processing software or online processors that can accept batch processing jobs in a CSV format will work with xcAuction. xcAuction also interfaces with a variety of credit card processing gateways for automated payment collection.
There is a constantly growing list of credit card gateways that are supported by xcAuction. To see a current list, please consult our FAQ database article #338 for the most up to date list of gateways supported. Just some of the gateways we support are: AuthorizeNet; Bank of America eStores; DirectOne; eProcessingNetwork; IonGate; LinkPoint; SecPay; Verisign PayProFlow; and YourPay. PayPal and NoChex Integration
It is easier than ever to bill your users through PayPal and NOCHEX. In addition to the extensive support xcAuction has for various credit card processing gateways, xcAuction also has direct support for PayPal and NoChex. When used with the PayPal IPN, or the NoChex APC feature, your users' accounts will be credited automatically when they pay. So, you can minimize the amount of manual payment processing when using PayPal or NoChex. Create a Sense of Community
xcAuction Pro Edition also comes with xcForum, which is a message board application that integrates seamlessly with all of our web server applications. This is a great way to build a feeling of community among your site's users. You can choose whether or not you want to install the xcForum module. Single or Multiple Auctioneers
xcAuction lets you configure it in a variety of ways. If you want to allow multiple users auction items on your site, you can leave it open to the public to allow anyone to auction items, like you see on sites like eBay or Yahoo Auctions.
Or, if you want to limit the ability to post auction listings to specific users, such as yourself or a limited group of users, then you can configure it to do that. Encourage New Users to Join Your Site Since xcAuction allows you to bill auctioneers for posting auctions, you can optionally encourage activity by defining a new user credit. This will allow you to issue a credit to new users so they can feel free to try your site out without risk. Interfaces to Specialty Auction Indexing Services
xcAuction provides interfaces to some special purpose search engines that specialize in indexing auction sites. These sites index a variety of auction sites and provide an additional method to help make new users aware of your auction site.
By making sure that your xcAuction site is registered with services such as these, you will make it easier for more people to find your auction listings and therefore increase traffic to your auction site. Requirements: · Web Server Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0 or later. Compatible with Windows NT 4.0 Server, Windows 2000 Server, and Windows 2003 Server. IIS is the default web server for Windows Servers. Note: Windows NT 4.0 servers need Option Pack 1 i · Database - xcAuction can use either a Microsoft JET database, or a Microsoft SQL Server database. A JET database is suitable for smaller sites and is available on every version of Windows Server. For larger sites, or when the highest in reliability, speed · JET Database - The Microsoft JET library, and the Microsoft Data Access Components and ADO are included in all versions of Windows Server. The most recent versions are highly recommended and are available as free downloads from the Microsoft web site. We · SQL Database - When used with a Microsoft SQL Server database, xcAuction supports Microsoft SQL Server 7.0, SQL Server 2000 or later. We recommend at least Microsoft MDAC version 2.5 or later. MDAC is available as a free download from the Microsoft web si · Email Component - Any one of the supported email components, currently Microsoft CDONTS, CDOSYS, ASPEmail, ASPMail, ASPQmail, BambooSMTP, JMail, SmtpMail, or SmartMail. Note: Some of these components are provided for free from their vendors, and some are · Upload Component - xcAuction can be configured to allow your site users to upload images and have the images hosted on your web server. To use this feature, the web server must have a supported upload component installed. You can use any one of the suppor · Imaging Component - xcAuction can be configured to automatically generate thumbnails of uploaded images and display them in special views on your site to visitors. It can also automatically constrain images to maximum dimensions to fit your site design. T · ASPImage from ServerObjects.com; ASPJpeg from Persits.com; AspSmartImage from AspSmart.com. See note below on optional components.
xcAuction 3.7.1 is a ASP.NET script for Auctions scripts design by XCENT.
It runs on following operating system: Windows.
xcAuction adds the power of real-time internet auctions to your web site.
Operating system:Windows
xcAuction 3.7.1 script details 
