Question 1

Why do my Yelp reviews not have authors?

Accepted Answer

The DirectoryImport tool uses Outscraper to import its data. Their data feed does not have the author for Yelp reviews included like it does for Google reviews. While we have a Yelp API connection, this API key is used to acquire the Yelp business ID only to use with Outscraper to pinpoint and import the reviews in bulk. So while the author is available from the Yelp API directly, the import tool uses an extreme amount of requests in short bursts to allow bulk loading of data. Having the Yelp API involved with this pull would trigger an issue with the Yelp API so we can’t use the Yelp APIs on the import tool to grab the author during that bulk upload process. If the author is still desired/required for the Yelp Reviews, we have made a tweak so that the reviews are loaded from Yelp instead of Outscraper on the front end DirectoryPhotos portion. So if you also have DirectoryPhotos plugin portion and a new member loads the reviews from the front end on their Photos tab, the Yelp reviews will now come with an author. We are basically using a slow pull allowed by the manual front end process to avoid Yelp issues, and to overcome an Outscraper limitation for Yelp that we cannot do in bulk on the Import backend tool. You can also fix existing reviews, but the member itself must be opened and the "Reload data" button must be clicked on each profile.

Question 2

What are the configurations for DirectoryImport?

Accepted Answer

Configuration Overview

DirectoryImport has many configurations to preset items for import so you do not have to enter them for each listing and allows settings to reduce API calls if desired based on your specific needs. Read more to find out about each one.

As a quick reminder always be sure to click the save changes button after you make changes so you do not lose your settings updates. https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/RftB9KeMum/resources/wiXXVgSPsk/Save%20Changes.png (Save Changes)

Google API

The Google API will be pulled from the normal API setup within your BD account if previously configured. You can add an new alternate API code here to separate the two and this will not affect your default map API if a new item is saved here.https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/RftB9KeMum/resources/YAp6P17cDP/Config%20-%20Google%20API.png (Config - Google API (1).png)

Yelp API

The Yelp API is used for reviews only and is part of the DirectoryPhotos plugin if you have purchased that. If you do not own DirectoryPhotos or want to include Yelp Reviews you can leave this blank. You can find a guide about setting up a Yelp Fusion API key here.

Outscraper API

The Outscraper API key is used to download the listing data to your site. This is a required item to be able to use this tool. You can find a guide about setting up an Outscraper API key here.

Default Membership Level

This setting allows you to select the default membership level to use for the new listings created with the generator. A list of your membership levels will be in the drop down for you to select.

Enable Photo Listings / Reviews

These settings are used in conjunction with DirectoryPhotos which allows users to add Google Images and Reviews to their business listing. If you you have DirectoryPhotos installed these will appear as settings so you can also import the images and reviews during the initial import process instead of having to have the customer or yourself do it from the from end. If you do not have DirectoryPhotos these configurations will not be shown. The default phot and review count number is the amount of photos or reviews the API will download during import.

The "Current Listings Update" tab has several areas seen below that allow you to load Google/Yelp images and reviews for a given listing. These configurations allow you to turn on or off the images and reviews import when the "Load Pictures and Reviews" bulk action is chosen in the "Current Listings Update" tab.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/RftB9KeMum/resources/S3bQtIEUPf/Load%20Photos%201.png (Load Photos 1 (1).png)

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/RftB9KeMum/resources/Q0WvSfsFKj/Load%20Photos%202.png (Load Photos 2 (1).png)

This data pull process normally pulls these items together. However some directory owners may not want to pull both of these items, so these configuration options allow you to remove either item from the download/update process. As a result if either item is turned off the images or reviews will not import when the "Load Pictures and Reviews"action is chosen in the top bulk action or side individual download option.

In addition, this also controls whether these items are preselected for download in the new listings import tab. If the configuration is unchecked then these will not be present as a download option preselect.

Default Gallery Name

This is another configuration for the DirectoryPhotos integration. When photos are imported for a location DirectoryPhotos makes a Photo Album under each business that includes the images. This setting sets the default gallery name for that album when created during import.

The name will be what is presented on the front end. The name can be changed by the user or admin in the photos tab of each listing or in the title name of the associated photo album. The names will be updated in both locations if edited.

Verify Listings

BD has a verified badge capability that you can add to listings. The purpose of this feature is for the members to receive a badge on their listing that lets users know that the member was verified by the website administrator.

A default badge will show on the profile (checkmark) that can be altered to whatever image you want in the image settings. It will show a message telling the public that the listing is verified if users hover over the icon.

Normally this is a manual process that is done one by one for each listing, but since we are importing data directly from Google My Business, users may want to mark the listing as verified right away. This setting allows you to do that. If this option is selected then all listings will be automatically verified during import.

You also will have the option to override the setting for each listing in the import tab even though the Yes or No is preset based on your config setting.

Question 3

Is it legal to use Google & Yelp photos?

Accepted Answer

In general there are no federal laws against web scraping in the United States as long as the scraped data is publicly available and the scraping activity does not harm the website being scraped.

We do not use Yelp photos in our solution only for reviews. And we do not store any data from the Google API as it is against their Terms of Service for that provided data. We use he Google API for search and map display only to use for initial lookup and display of info only. The storing of the data comes from a third party API from Outscraper which is used to get the images.

We have configuration settings that can turn off the image download option for listing creation if that is a concern. If you are in a location or jurisdiction that only permits text and data mining you can turn off the photo download capability of DirectoryImport and DirectoryPhotos and simply have them upload their own images to display with DirectorySlider so all images are self added. So we allow you to turn on or off as your specific needs or requirements change.

Scraping publicly available information on the web in an automated way is legal as long as the scraped data is not used for any harmful purpose or directly attacking the scraped website’s business or operations. But you should avoid scraping personal data or intellectual property, or confidential data. Outscraper answers the legality issue for public data on their website here: https://outscraper.com/faq/ The regulations or limitations of course may vary by location, as this is a US only example and legal precedence may change over time, or vary based on your location. We are not in position to provide legal advice for you or your company and advise. For professional legal advice, please talk to a certified lawyer in your country.

Question 4

My site is highly customized will the DirectoryPhotos and DirectoryImport still work?

Accepted Answer

Our code uses dynamic queries which means that no matter how customized the system is the correct columns get filled, so you should be fine. It may require adding the images to a new location or if need be building a custom layout to show in your site, but both are possible and of course if there does end up being an issue where it will not work, we would offer a full refund if that were ever the case. So don't worry, purchase without and reservations on this issue.

Question 5

Does DirectoryImport come with the Google/Yelp image import?

Accepted Answer

No, this is a separate service called DirectoryPhotos that integrates with the listing creator but is a separate service.