Best add-on for a car dealer database / lead generation system - Showcase or Resource Manager?

[Coop1979]

I run a car site, and I'd like to add a section of the site that will act as a database of all friendly car dealerships and perform the following tasks:

1. "Dealer" page with overview information (Google Map showing their location, contact info, photo of dealership and dealer rep, etc), reviews section, and area to embed (or create within XF if anyone has any ideas) a lead generation form - currently using Google Forms.
2. Each dealer page should also be paired with a forum thread.
3. Main page with ability to use HTML, including embedding a Google Map showing locations of all dealerships (created using BatchGeo), recent reviews of dealerships, and recent updates (or "specials").

I'm thinking Showcase may be my best bet so that I don't have to hack the crap out of the Resource Manager. Any thoughts?

Also, any thoughts on how to make a custom form with a few text entries, and a few drop-down option entries within XF, or should I just stick with embedding Google Forms?

Thanks!

 

[Bob]

Both addons will provide you a decent base to start with, however, you'd need to do a fair amount of customization to either one in order to fully pull off what you are wanting to do, so I wouldn't say Showcase is necessarily your best bet from the "wont have to hack the crap out of it" perspective lol. You can inbox @ibenick and ask him about customizing showcase as he's done some high level customization's (to include mapping integration through custom fields) and could give you an end users perspective on it. @MattW has done some "Garage" type customization for his site and can give you some perspective as well. When weighing your options, you should probably also look into @Daniel Hood Review Manager and @tenants Articles addon or Directory addon. Also @Waindigo might have something that would work as base for you as well.

With that said, I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have regarding Showcase (both current and upcoming functionality), shoot me an inbox any time.

 

[Daniel Hood]

Thanks for mentioning me, @Bob B.

For more information on the add on by @Jeff Berry and I, go to http://xenreviews.com.

I run a car site, and I'd like to add a section of the site that will act as a database of all friendly car dealerships and perform the following tasks:

1. "Dealer" page with overview information (Google Map showing their location, contact info, photo of dealership and dealer rep, etc), reviews section, and area to embed (or create within XF if anyone has any ideas) a lead generation form - currently using Google Forms.
2. Each dealer page should also be paired with a forum thread.
3. Main page with ability to use HTML, including embedding a Google Map showing locations of all dealerships (created using BatchGeo), recent reviews of dealerships, and recent updates (or "specials").

1. Our system for adding 'items' which in your case would be 'dealers', relies on custom fields. You can choose all the fields that will require input, the type of input expected, etc.. Comparable to custom user fields. You can view more information here: http://xenreviews.com/threads/custom-fields.128/
2. Currently we don't create a thread for each item; each item has "Questions and Answers", the ability to review (which is basically a post), and the ability to comment on reviews we didn't see much need to add in thread creation. It is entirely possible though.
3. Our map functionality hasn't been built yet but we do plan on having map features. You cannot set html for each item individually but you can format custom field values with html, might be useful for you. We don't have any "recent updates/specials" functionality yet but that could be a custom field.