MEDLAB: Mediterranean Living Lab for Territorial Innovation Deliverable D3.3.3 DEVELOPMENT OF INNO-SME NETWORKS PILOT ONLINE COLLABORATIVE PLATFORM Thessaloniki, March 2011
According to specifications of the tender, the Deliverable D3.3.3 concerns the development of an online platform and ICT services for the MEDLAB pilot application INNO-SME NETWORKS. The Deliverable D3.3.3 has to comply with following specifications: 1) A tool for the participation of end-users and SMEs for the development of new products and services in the sector of Green Building 2) A digital space for the promotion of Green Property in the Mediterranean based on Web 2.0. principles 3) A pilot use of the of the above digital space for the promotion of real estate from the Mediterranean region with the participation of MEDLAB partners 4) The definition and role of the contribution of the partners to this application. With respect to these specifications and the guidance received during the MEDLAB Technical Meeting at Larnaca (19-20 May 2010), INTELSPACE developed the Deliverable D3.3.3, which is presented here. The structure of report presenting D3.3.3 is the following: Contents 1. INTRODUCTION... 3 2. ARCHITECTURE AND TECHNOLOGIES USED FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PLATFORM.. 7 3. PLATFORM COMPONENT 1: LIVING LAB FOR GREEN BUILDING COLLABORATION SPACE. 15 4. PLATFORM COMPONENT 2: MEDITERRANEAN GREEN PROPERTY PROMOTION... 25 5. PILOT USE OF THE PLATFORM... 39 6. GUIDE FOR THE CONTRIBUTION OF MEDLAB PARTNERS... 41 Annex A: Articles presented in the Platform component 1: Living lab for green building collaboration space... 49 Annex B: Platform component 2: Mediterranean green property promotion... 59 The Introduction and section 2 describe the overall solution of the online platform. Section 3 corresponds to specifications point 1 (tool for SME participation). Section 4 corresponds to specifications point 2 (a digital space for green property promotion). Section 5 and annex A and B correspond to specifications point 3 (pilot use of the digital space). Section 6 correspond to specifications point 4 (role and contribution of partners). 2
1. INTRODUCTION The INNO-SME pilot action is part of the MEDLAB project and is hosted by the Managing Authority of the Region of Central Macedonia. It focuses on the development of a pilot application for innovative SMEs in the construction and real estate industry. The objective of the INNO-SME pilot action is to create: a Living Lab for innovative solutions in Green Building. a virtual marketplace supporting the promotion of green property in the Mediterranean regions of France, Italy, Greece and Cyprus to global markets, and The following diagram reflects the concept of the INNO-SME Pilot Action. At the centre of the Pilot Action is a Living Lab of Green Building Development and Promotion. The LL is composed of (1) Green property buyers, (2) Green property suppliers, and (3) Providers of products and technologies for Green Property. The LL focuses on the use of a series of green technologies (left side of the Diagram) which sustain the Green Property sector. The Green MED property virtual market promote properties having specific characteristics (right side of the Diagram). The Online Collaboration Platform that has been developed supports the operation of the above Living Lab: The green property buyers seek out opportunities to purchase houses in the Mediterranean that have at least one characteristic that describe them as a green property. The buyers 3
through the web platform can also be informed on products and services from various suppliers regarding green buildings. The green property suppliers can register there available for sale green properties to the platform and present them in detail. Each property is described by a set of photographs, a short description and its surface in square meters, its proposed selling price and other facilities (garage, number of bedrooms, baths). The green property suppliers can associate its property with a number of predefined green features such as the following: Adoption of green building standards, design for low energy, ecological location, ICT based energy saving, ICT based water saving, passive architecture design, Solar water heating, use of photovoltaic, use of recycled materials and water collection and / or reuse. The property can be placed on a google map, so that the potential buyer knows its position. Companies in the construction of green properties sector can be members of the platform as well. These companies can present their products and services aiming to meet buyer needs. The companies ensure that data and information about their products and are updated constantly. The thematic areas that companies can post there news are the following: passive architecture, green building materials, energy saving systems, renewable energy for housing, water saving and reuse, rating / certification, products and services. Thus the Platform of the INNO-SME pilot application of MEDLAB is focusing on Green Building in the Mediterranean region and includes two separate layers: 1. A virtual marketplace for Green Buildings the MED region, offering green property and quality real estate The virtual marketplace is based on a network of companies offering innovative real estate property in Mediterranean regions of Greece, Cyprus, Italy, France and Spain. Through the virtual market place 3 types of property will be promoted: Quality leisure property; Smart buildings; and Green buildings. 4
The characterization of property offered as Green is based on the following criteria: Passive architecture design Design for low energy Adoption of green building standards Ecological location In situ renewable energy Use of photovoltaic Solar water heating ICT based energy saving ICT based water saving Water collection and / or reuse Use of recycled materials 2. A Living Lab for Green Building This layer is based on a network of innovative companies and experts developing and offering products and services for the Green Building industry. Main fields of interest of the Living Lab are: 1. PASSIVE ARCHITECTURE 2. GREEN BUILDING MATERIALS 3. ENERGY SAVING SYSTEMS 4. RENEWABLE ENERGY FOR HOUSING 5. WATER SAVING AND REUSE 6. RATING / CERTIFICATION SYSTEMS 7. COMPANIES, OFFERING GREEN PRODUCTS AND SERVICES Members of the Living Lab have the opportunity to learn from each other about technologies, standards, solutions, products and services in the sector of Green Building, and develop further their expertise, know-how and solutions in green construction, renewable energy, and sustainable development. The combined operation of the above two layers is expected to sustain the construction industry of the MED regions, which rely heavily on the construction and real estate activities. In particular, it is expected to sustain the turn towards sustainable construction techniques and materials, renewable energy and energy saving solutions, CO 2 reduction, as well as the internationalization of the real estate market. In the current economic conditions of MED 5
countries with limited competitiveness, the access of the building and real estate industry in global markets with innovative products and services is a big challenge for most companies in the sector. The INNO-SME Pilot application development phase has been completed. The two layers of the Platform are fully operational at : http://www.intelspace.eu/greenmed/ http://www.intelspace.eu/greenmed/livinglab/ The activation phase of the Living Labs is taking place with the participation of members and activation in the various thematic areas of the Platform. A series of dissemination activities is under design from the Regional Authority of Central Macedonia to inform companies about the virtual marketplace and the learning potential of the Pilot action. 6
2. ARCHITECTURE AND TECHNOLOGIES USED FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PLATFORM A Web 2.0 approach The Collaborative Platform will be more successful if manage to ensure the active participation of the users in the creation and distribution of the site s content. In order to achieve that a Web 2.0 approach should be followed during the development of the platform. As Tim O Reilly defines it Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform: delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an architecture of participation, and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experiences. "Web 2.0" refers to a perceived second generation of web development and design, that facilitates communication, secure information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of webbased communities, hosted services, and applications such as social-networking sites, videosharing sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies. Web 2.0 is ultimately about harnessing network effects and the collective intelligence of users to build applications that literally get better the more people use them. Principles of Web 2.0 1. The web as a platform 2. The long tail 3. Data is the next Intel Inside 4. Users add value 5. Network effects by default 6. Some rights reserved 7. The perpetual beta 8. Cooperate, don t control 9. Software above the level of a single device
The following figure, created by Tim O'Reilly, provides some examples that can help us to formulated our sense of Web 2.0. Tim O'Reilly list of Web 1.0 versus Web 2.0 examples Service-oriented architecture The development of the Collaborative Platform will follow the guiding principles for development, maintenance, and usage of the service-oriented architecture (SOA): reuse, granularity, modularity, composability, componentization and interoperability. standards-compliance (both common and industry-specific). services identification and categorization, provisioning and delivery, and monitoring and tracking. SOA meta-model, The Linthicum Group, 2007 8
Three-tier architecture The Collaborative Platform will also follow a Three-tier architecture. Three-tier is a clientserver architecture in which the user interface, functional process logic ("business rules"), computer data storage and data access are developed and maintained as independent modules, most often on separate platforms. The three-tier model is considered to be a software architecture and a software design pattern. Apart from the usual advantages of modular software with well defined interfaces, the three-tier architecture is intended to allow any of the three tiers to be upgraded or replaced independently as requirements or technology change. For example, a change of operating system in the presentation tier would only affect the user interface code. Typically, the user interface runs on a desktop PC or workstation and uses a standard graphical user interface, functional process logic may consist of one or more separate modules running on a workstation or application server, and an RDBMS on a database server or mainframe contains the computer data storage logic. The middle tier may be multi-tiered itself (in which case the overall architecture is called an "n-tier architecture"). Visual overview of a Three-tiered application Three-tier architecture has the following three tiers: 9
Presentation tier: This is the topmost level of the application. The presentation tier displays information related to such services as browsing merchandise, purchasing, and shopping cart contents. It communicates with other tiers by outputting results to the browser/client tier and all other tiers in the network. Application tier (Business Logic/Logic Tier): The logic tier is pulled out from the presentation tier and, as its own layer, it controls an application s functionality by performing detailed processing. Data tier: This tier consists of Database Servers. Here information is stored and retrieved. This tier keeps data neutral and independent from application servers or business logic. Giving data its own tier also improves scalability and performance. Technical Specifications The INNO-SME Collaborative Platform was built using open source technologies. The LAMP solution is considered to be a perfect choice. The acronym LAMP refers to a solution stack of open-source software programs used together to run dynamic Web sites or servers. The original expansion is as follows: Linux, referring to the operating system; Apache, the Web server; MySQL, the database management system (or database server); PHP, the programming language. Though the originators of these open source programs did not design them all to work specifically with each other, the combination has become popular because of its low acquisition cost and because of the ubiquity of its components (which come bundled with most current Linux distributions particularly as deployed by ISPs). When used in combination they represent a solution stack of technologies that support application servers. The availability of the source code for the LAMP solution can also offer substantial benefits to users as compared with the closed (i.e., secret) source code for the Microsoft Windows operating systems. For example, corporations, government agencies and other organizations can monitor the code for security holes, including secret backdoors that allow others (e.g., government agencies) to access or change data. Having the source code also allows users to customize the applications to a far greater extent than can be done with closed source operating systems. 10
Linux Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system family, as well as one of the most prominent examples of free software and open source development; its underlying source code can be modified, used, and redistributed by anyone, freely. Predominantly known for its use in servers, Linux receives use as an operating system for a wider variety of computer hardware than any other operating system, including desktop computers, supercomputers, mainframes, and embedded devices such as mobile phones. Apache Web Server The Apache web server is an open-source HTTP server for modern operating systems including UNIX and Windows NT. It is a secure, efficient and extensible server that provides HTTP services in sync with the current HTTP standards. Apache has been the most popular web server on the Internet since April of 1996. The September 2009 Netcraft Web Server Survey (http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html) found that more than 46% of the web sites on the Internet are using Apache, thus making it more widely used than all other web servers combined. PHP PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. PHP can be used on all major operating systems, including Linux, many Unix variants (including HP-UX, Solaris and OpenBSD), Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, RISC OS, and probably others. PHP has also support for most of the web servers today. This includes Apache, Microsoft Internet Information Server, Personal Web Server, Netscape and iplanet servers, Oreilly Website Pro server, Caudium, Xitami, OmniHTTPd, and many others. For the majority of the servers PHP has a module, for the others supporting the CGI standard, PHP can work as a CGI processor. MySQL The MySQL database has become the world's most popular open source database because of its consistent fast performance, high reliability and ease of use. It's used in more than 11 million installations ranging from large corporations to specialized embedded applications. Not only is MySQL the world's most popular open source database, it's also become the database of choice for a new generation of applications built on the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP / Perl / Python.) MySQL runs on more than 20 platforms including Linux, Windows, OS/X, HP-UX, AIX, Netware, giving you the kind of flexibility that puts you in control. 11
WordPress Content Management System WordPress (http://www.wordpress.org/) is a state-of-the-art semantic publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is built on PHP and MySQL and is licensed under the GPL. WordPress is publishing software with a focus on ease of use, speed and a great user experience. It is also blessed with an active community, which is the heart of open source software. WordPress is a powerful publishing platform, and it comes with a great set of features designed to make the experience as a publisher on the Internet as easy, pleasant and appealing as possible. It is a freely distributed, standards-compliant, fast, light and free, with sensible default settings and features, and an extremely customizable core. The platform s main features regarding to management and administration of the website, publicizing, creating content, searching and archiving, and discussions and comments are presenting in the next pages. Key Features Full standards compliance WordPress generated code is in full compliance with the standards of the W3C. This is important not only for interoperability with today's browser but also for forward compatibility with the tools of the next generation. Your web site is a beautiful thing, and you should demand nothing less. No rebuilding Changes you make to your templates or entries are reflected immediately on your site, with no need for regenerating static pages. WordPress Pages Pages allow you to manage non-blog content easily, so for example you could have a static "About" page that you manage through WordPress. WordPress Links -- Links allows you to create, maintain, and update any number of blogrolls through your administration interface. This is much faster than calling an external blogroll manager. WordPress Themes WordPress comes with a full theme system which makes designing everything from the simplest blog to the most complicated webzine a piece of cake, and you can even have multiple themes with totally different looks that you switch with a single click. Cross-blog communication tools WordPress fully supports both the Trackback and Pingback standards. Comments Visitors to your site can leave comments on individual entries and through Trackback or Pingback can comment on their own site. You can enable or disable comments on a per-post basis. Spam protection Out of the box WordPress comes with very robust tools such as an integrated blacklist and open proxy checker to manage and eliminate comment 12
spam on your blog, and there is also a rich array of plugins that can take this functionality a step further. Full user registration WordPress has a built-in user registration system that (if you choose) can allow people to register and maintain profiles and leave authenticated comments on your blog. You can optionally close comments for nonregistered users. There are also plugins that hide posts from lower level users. Password Protected Posts You can give passwords to individual posts to hide them from the public. You can also have private posts which are viewable only by their author. Easy installation and upgrades Installing WordPress and upgrading from previous versions and other software is a piece of cake. Try it and you'll wonder why all web software isn't this easy. Easy Importing We currently have importers for Movable Type, Textpattern, Greymatter, Blogger, and b2. Work on importers for Nucleus and pmachine are under way. XML-RPC interface WordPress currently supports an extended version of the Blogger API, MetaWeblog API, and finally the MovableType API. You can even use clients designed for other platforms like Zempt. Workflow You can have types of users that can only post drafts, not publish to the front page. Typographical niceties WordPress uses the Texturize engine to intelligently convert plain ASCII into typographically correct XHTML entities. This includes quotes, apostrophes, ellipses, em and en dashes, multiplication symbols, and ampersands. Intelligent text formatting If you've dealt with systems that convert new lines to line breaks before you know why they have a bad name: if you have any sort of HTML they butcher it by putting tags after every new line indiscriminately, breaking your formatting and validation. Our function for this intelligently avoids places where you already have breaks and block-level HTML tags, so you can leave it on without worrying about it breaking your code. Multiple authors WordPress' highly advanced user system allows up to 10 levels of users, with different levels having different (and configurable) privileges with regard to publishing, editing, options, and other users. Bookmarklets Cross-browser bookmarklets make it easy to publish to your blog or add links to your blogroll with a minimum of effort. Ping away WordPress supports pinging Ping-O-Matic, which means maximum exposure for your blog to search engines. bbpress Forum Software bbpress is plain and simple forum software created from the creators of WordPress. It s easy to use, easy to administrate, fast and clean. bbpress main features are: 13
Fast and light The code is lean so that you get the best experience possible. Simple interface One of creators biggest goals is to keep things simple and make things intuitive. Highly extensible A lot of plugins extent bbpress functionality. Spam protection A bundled Akismet (http://akismet.com) plugin offers you an amazing weapon against spam. Easy integration with WordPress WordPress and bbpress are siblings, and they get along together. RSS Feeds Feeds are available for forums and topics. Customizable templates bbpress comes with a full theme system which allows you to stylize the forums however you like. 14
3. PLATFORM COMPONENT 1: LIVING LAB FOR GREEN BUILDING COLLABORATION SPACE http://www.intelspace.eu/greenmed/livinglab/ The following screenshot presents the components of the home page of the Living Lab for Green Building Collaboration Space. 1 3 2 5 6 7 4 8 9 10 11 12 15
1. Platform s logo. It always links to the Homepage 2. MED programme and MEDLAB project logos with links to the corresponding webpages 3. Navigation Menu provides access to all site s pages (drop down) 4. The ten latest posts with title, image and an excerpt from the article 5. Search 6. Thematic areas 7. A space where ads are displayed 8. Most popular posts during last month (title and total views) 9. Links to platform s pages on social networks (Facebook & Twitter) 10. Subscription for the RSS feed or the weekly e-mail newsletter 11. List of recent comments 12. Monthly archives The following screenshot explains the information displayed for each post in all available posts listings (latest, per thematic category, per member, search results, archives, etc.) to comm ents formd ate Image Title Time since Author Article s Excerpt Link to full post Thematic Area/s No of comments / link 16
Each post/article is presented separately in its own webpage. The user, besides reading the article s text and referring to the source, can read a short profile of the member that has submitted this article, view related posts, share the post to the most popular social networks or by email, read other users comments, and post his/her comment. He/she can also navigate to next / previous post in chronological order. 17
The following screenshot presents the way that the posts are presented per Thematic Area. Search results and monthly archives are presented in the same way. The following two screenshots present the Members listing webpage and an indicative Member s profile. 18
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The following two screenshots present the platform s support forum where users can post their questions related to green construction issues. Platform s members can answer these questions by providing their companies solutions. 20
The following screenshots present the administration area of the Living Lab for Green Building Collaboration Space. There is a simplify version for members so they can post and manage their articles very quickly and easily, and one more advanced for editors and administrators. Login page Member s simplified dashboard Administrator s dashboard provides a quick overview of platform s activity 21
Posts administration Add new post 22
Edit an existent post Ad Management 23
Visitors Statistics using WordPress built in system Visitors Statistics using Google Analytics 24
4. PLATFORM COMPONENT 2: MEDITERRANEAN GREEN PROPERTY PROMOTION http://www.intelspace.eu/greenmed/ The following screenshot presents the components of the home page of the Mediterranean Green Property Promotion Space. 1 3 2 4 5 7 8 6 9 10 25
1. Platform s logo. It always links to the Homepage 2. MED programme and MEDLAB project logos with links to the corresponding webpages 3. Navigation Menu provides access to all site s pages 4. Advanced search using keywords, property ID, price, size (sq. m), location, and features such as garages, bedrooms and bathrooms 5. Slideshow of the featured properties. Users can also use the arrows to go through these properties 6. The 4 latest properties with title, photo, price, address, excerpt from the description, size and features. 7. Most popular properties during last month (title and total views) 8. Locations list 9. Green features list 10. Subscription for the RSS feed or the weekly e-mail newsletter The following screenshot explains the information displayed for each property in all available properties listings (per location, per agent, per green feature and search results) Image Title Address Size Features Excerpt from the description Link to property s page 26
Each property is presented separately in its own webpage. The following information are provided for each property: title, address, web reference ID, price, features (garages, bedrooms, baths), description, agent s contact details, green features, image gallery, the property s position on a Google map. The user can print property s information, add this property to his/her browser favorites, email it to a friend, and post it to a number of popular social networks. He/she can also use a loan / mortgage calculator and view other properties in the same area. 27
The loan / mortgage calculator Image gallery slideshow 28
Google Streetview is also supported (when available) The following screenshot presents the way that the properties are presented per Green Feature, Location and Agent. Search results are presented also in the same way. 29
The user can also contact the agent through a web form. 30
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The following screenshots present the administration area of the Mediterranean Green Property Promotion Space. There is a simplify version for agents so they can post and manage their properties very quickly and easily, and one more advanced for administrators. Login page Agent s simplified dashboard 32
Administrator s dashboard provides a quick overview of platform s activity 33
Properties administration 34
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Add new property 36
Edit an existent property Add / edit locations 37
Add / edit green features Visitors Statistics using WordPress built in system Visitors Statistics using Google Analytics 38
5. PILOT USE OF THE PLATFORM The two components of the INNO-SME platform were tested with end-users uploading content. Three different groups of end-users and SMEs were contacted to contribute content and participate in the pilot application: (1) SMEs producing green construction materials and offering technologies for green buildings. They were asked to present their products and services, (2) SMEs and experts interested for technologies, standards and solutions for green buildings. They were asked to participate in the discussion and forum about green building solutions, (2) SMEs producing and marketing green buildings in MED regions. They were asked to offer property via the virtual marketplace. Todate, the results from SMEs participation in the pilot action are given below. Platform component 1: Living lab for green building collaboration space The pilot use of the first component of the platform had two dimensions. First the functionality of the platform has been tested and secondly the initial content has been collected so that the members of the living lab can add their own content. During the pilot testing phase twelve posts were presented in the Living lab for green building collaboration space. The posted articles covered all the areas of the platform so that discussion could start on all the areas. Areas Number of articles per category Passive Architecture 2 Green Building Materials 2 Energy Saving Systems 2 Renewable Energy for Housing 2 Water Saving and Reuse 1 Rating / Certification 1 Companies, Products and Services 4 Total number of posts 12 A number of companies have been identified via Internet and national newspapers. The most interesting ones have been informed via a common e-mail (in Greek) template followed by personal phone calls regarding the platform capabilities and the potential benefits if they present their green technologies and products in the platform. Most of the companies identify the platform as a very interesting and innovative way to collaboratively promote their products and services. Difficulty though has been identified to actually upload their promotion material. The published articles are presented in Annex A of this deliverable. 39
Platform component 2: Mediterranean green property promotion The first task accomplished regarding the pilot testing of the component 2 of the platform has been to identify property agents and other potential end users that can supply the platform with properties. As potential end users and members of the living lab real estate development companies and portals that promote properties in general where considered as well. After the identification of those potential users and members, the second task has been to write and sent a common introductory letter by email explaining the concept of the living lab and the benefits to the end users to promote their properties in the platform parallel to any other promotion action that are taking. Special attention was noted to make clear that the promotion of their green properties is completely free. The English version of the introductory email has been forwarded to the other partners of the MEDLAB project so that they can stimulate their local beneficiaries as well. All the emails, sent by the subcontractor, are included in the Annex B of this deliverable. In step 3 each email has been followed by a phone call trying to explain to the recipients what exactly the proposed platform is and explaining the benefits for the companies by promoting their green properties via the platform. Despite the fact that the concept of the platform has been recognized and considered as very interesting and nice presented, by most of the contacts, the pilot phase up to day couldn t stimulate a satisfactory number of beneficiaries to present their properties in the platform. The subcontractor is examining different ways to stimulate more beneficiaries to become members of the Living lab. It is highly proposed to the Managing Authority of Region of Central Macedonia to organize a local event with the property agents to present the platform component 1 and 2. 40
6. GUIDE FOR THE CONTRIBUTION OF MEDLAB PARTNERS The role of MEDLAB partners in the INNO-SME pilot application is diffuse the LL for Green Building and encourage SMEs and experts from their regions to be involved in the two components of the Platform, either providing with property offers or contributing with ideas, technologies, and discussions. The following guide provides analytical information - and step by step guidance- how users can access the INNO-SME Platform and upload content the Virtual Property Market and the Green Building Living Lab. Online guidance and training is available any time from Intelspace SA. This guide, is quite detailed and attempts to address all the capabilities of the web application, its scope is to be referenced while a green property supplier is registering green properties. STEP1: Send an email to <iapassas@urenio.org> The use of the virtual green property market place has been designed to be as simple as possible. It is recognized that the property suppliers do not have to be I.T. experts therefore there are only 5 steps that have to be taken so that available properties are presented in this platform. STEP2: Login To access the virtual green property market place you should enter the user data i.e. user name and password, that have been provided to you to this url: http://www.intelspace.eu/greenmed/w p-login.php If you forget your password you can click the Lost your password? link and reset your password. This is recommended to be done after you receive from the platform admin your first password. 41
STEP3: Profile creation There are only three required fields for the user profile. The user name which cannot be modified, the nickname which is the name that will appear under is property and on contact agent button, and a valid email that your potential clients can contact you. All other fields in the user profile are optional but are highly recommended to be filled in. It is considered that having a full and well presented user profile will assists you selling capabilities. STEP4: Fill property template This is the template that has to be filled in so your properties are presented in the virtual green property market place. Property main text description In this textbox you can write a detailed description of the property. By clicking the HTML tab you can edit directly the HTML code of the post / property presentation. The visual editor tab provides a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor and edit and format the text in a simple text editor 42
Upload / insert a media file You can add / upload a media file either from your computer, from a url, or the gallery of the existing and already uploaded media files. The files that you upload are presented inside the property description (post). Add an image, Add video, Add audio, Add media Format You can select a text section and apply any of the following formats: Bold, Italic, Create a bullet list, Create a numbered list, Place the select text in quotes, Align Left a paragraph or a selected text, Align Center a paragraph or a selected text, Align right a paragraph or a selected text, Select a text and add a url link to it, Break the link if it exists, Use embedded dictionary, Switch the text editor to full view., Click to see more formatting options, Estate Custom Settings Image This is the image that appears in the home page of the virtual market place. 43
To Upload an image you have to click Upload file here.... You can only upload an image or use an existing one. You can associate an image through a url in this field. You can Remove the image by just clicking Remove. Physical Address Enter the physical address of the property. This is the actual address of the property. It can be descriptive so that the potential buyer knows exactly where the property is located. Price in Enter the price of the property excluding the currency symbol. By entering a suggested price you are assisting the potential buyer to identify your property utilizing the search and filtering capabilities of the web application Size in sq m Enter the size of the property excluding the Unit of Measure. Number of Garages Enter the number of Garages of the property, if they exist. Number of Rooms Enter the number of (Bed)rooms of the property. Number of Bathrooms Enter the number of Bathrooms of the property. Sale Type The virtual green property market place currently supports only properties that are for sale. You don t have to set this option, by default is set to for sale Sold If you check the box the property will not appear in the list of available properties. The property description is not deleted. 44
Embed Code If you have a video presenting your property hosted in other web application like youtube you can and embed the video code here Estate Custom Maps The web application provides this plug-in so that you can present the location of the property in Google Maps. If in the area that the property is situated Google supports the Streetview function you can enabled it by checking this box This map will be in Streetview Plot Point To plot the property on a google map first you have can try to search the address. The address most probably will not be exactly the same as the physical address you have entered above. It is recommended to use the following address, City, Country. If google search engine is not able to identify the address you can manually plot it by just clicking on the map. All the other fields like the latitude, the longitude e.t.c. are field automatically by setting the different options in google map. Locations Each property should be related with one of the following locations Chalkidiki Cyprus France Greece o Italy Spain Thessaloniki Property Types The application is designed to present different property types. You can choose the appropriate property type from the existing ones or you can add a new one. If a property can be characterized by more than one tag than separate tags with commas 45
Additional Features Those features describe the ecological characteristics of the property. At least one feature from the list has to be chosen so that the property can be characterized as a green property. If a property has more than one additional feature than you should separate tags with commas. Features Adoption of green building standards Design for low energy Ecological location ICT based energy saving ICT based water saving Passive architecture design Solar water heating Use of photovoltaic Use of recycled materials Water collection and / or reuse Property post management Publish Click to publish the property description 46
Preview A new browser window tab will be opened with the description of the property, so that you can preview your post. Status The status of the property post can be either published or draft. When an agent creates a new property description post the default status is Draft and it can be published later. Published on When the agent clicks on the publish button this post is published immediately. An agent can schedule the date and time of publish by changing the date and time in this field and press ok Move to Trash When you click the Move to trash link the specific post is not permanently deleted but is move to trash. You can see and restore all the trashed posts by clicking Properties -> trash STEP5: List of registered properties You can filter and list your registered properties using the following capabilities and filters. Image 1 Additional features 47
Image 3 Property type Image 4 Bulk actions Image 2 Locations 48