News

We are launching a competition for the creation of a new banner/logo and favion as property-bee.com is planning to retire the existing banner / favicon.

See here for details on what is required and how the new logo will be choosen.

Firstly many thanks to Claremac, Dreaded_Estate, illumination, libitina, riad, rpp007, s-p, speakers and Squidward for their help in getting 2.0.6.0 out, without you guys I don't think property-bee (and I) would be back on our feet, thank you so much!

2.0.6.0 is mainly a fix to get the toolbar up and running again, however there is new functionality as it also supports primelocation.com too (as well as all the original sites).

For details of the changes in this version see here.

Finally if you like property bee, could you nominate us in the Mashable Open Web Awards please, see the banner/link at the top of this page.

Thanks BH and everyone who worked on this release.

As some of you maybe aware we have been hit with quite a lot of spam posts (ok halve a dozen but that half a dozen too many in my book) in the last couple of days :(

This evening I've been cleaning out various posts and spammer accounts, however this is only a temp solution, tomorrow night I plan a more radical solution;

• Upgrade the forum software to the latest version. Unfortunately this is not as straightforward as it should be due to the custom modifications I've done to the forum that intergrate the toolbar registration with the forum software.
• Once that is done, any posts by a new user will go onto a moderation queue before being visible to other users.

I know its a pain for all of us, but it seems the only way to combat the rising number of attempts to spam property-bee.com

So tomorrow evening/night the forum will be down whilst I work on it.

Sorry about the delay, but we are now back online after a catastrophic database failure and spam attack.

Unfortunately we have lost some user registrations that were made after 27th April. If you are experiencing errors "Error 400, Sorry, you dont appear to registered with property-bee.com" or "Error 401, Sorry, your toolbar does not appear to be registered correctly with property-bee.com" the please follow the instructions given here.

A minor update which includes support for rental properties is availabe, see the download page for futher information.

Rightmove. (FSTE: RMV) today announced that it has acquired property-bee.com.

The purchase of property-bee.com, is a key part of Rightmove's strategy to provide a range of new initiatives in the rapidly developing area of web based services to buyers. Following the acquisition, property-bee.com will continue to operate independently to preserve its successful and passionate community.

Commenting on the purchase Milles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove said: "I'm delighted that we have been able to secure this deal. property-bee.com has become a revealation that is difficult not to admire. Property bee's acknowledged strength in cutting edge development complements the comprehensive site provided by Rightmove. It also supplements the information and services we can deliver, in an exciting and revolutionary way.

The founder of property-bee.com, an unassuming man who goes by the username beerhunter, said: "property-bee.com has some tremendously loyal users and a high reputation. During the past year it has gone from strength to strength, and now it is time to expand and extend its coverage. I believe that by partnering with Rightmove we can provide the very best buyer experience. It's exciting to be taking property-bee.com forward within a group that is prepared to take some pioneering steps."

Further details of the acquistion and future services are expected to be announced in the following months.

For further information see the forum posts or check the date :)

We have just finished this weekends upgrade, which is a very significant change;

• The server has been optimised to cope with hopefully 100,000+ users, so the 10,000 users at the moment should find it a bit quicker
• The return of the 'man in the sidebar' indicating that the property details have changed since you last viewed the property

Apart from the above you should not notice any other major differences!

Many many thanks to wellandpower who has been a great help, fountain of knowledge, source of ideas, code reviewer and asked some difficult questsions whilst we re-wrote the entire backend!

The download page, accessed by selecting "more..." under download on the left contains details of all the bugs and enhancements for each release.

I've just added a new page to the website which shows the currently known bugs and enhancements.

This should allow you to make sure I'm aware of any bugs or new features requested.. and give me a prod if its not on the list!

This release contains 4 fixes;

• 0000108: [toolbar] Bee not showing on agent listing pages (beerhunter) - closed.
• 0000109: [toolbar] Change column not showing a % sign (beerhunter) - closed.
• 0000111: [toolbar] Rightmove changed the saved property style (beerhunter) - closed.
• 0000112: [toolbar] css style for H3 on rightmove defines a border-bottom (beerhunter) - closed.

Unfortunately bug 110, whether a property in the favourites is sold or not can't be fixed due to a rightmove bug!

In the last couple of days, you guys have raised more than £1,100 to help pay for property-bee to be hosted.

I find it astonishing that there is so much support for property-bee out there... and it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling especially knowing that we now have enough to cover the hosting for the next year!

Because of this I have removed the donate button for the time being (paypal was wondering if I was money-laundering!) however if you still want to donate something, please help Who Made Your Pants?, an even more worthwhile cause run my a friend of mine.

Thanks again, now I better get back to work! BH

As some of you know, I've been busy working on a new backend with wellandpower, this is can be a tedious task dealing with lots of database stuff and strings which are all encrypted by the toolbar, so difficult to workout whats happening sometimes!

So I've taken a break from the backend for a couple of days, and rewritten the website to satisfy my creative side (no I didnt know I had one either!).

Changes include

• What I think is a clearer layout, including a sidebar on the left for which lists the latest news, version and forum posts
• So you can keep up to date with what's happening with property bee, there is a RSS feed for the latest news and forum posts
• The help section is in the process of being rewritten, the basics are there including being able to search and make comments, however I still need to write a lot of waffle :), if anyone wants to help please PM me!
• I've added a 'My Bee' section, this is just a template for future ideas

For those techies, the backend is mysql for the content, smarty to generate content and php gluing it all together.

I haven't done much browser testing (mainly Firefox), however over the next few days I will be tweeking things, if you have any problems, please post them in the forum.

A minor update (2.0.3.10) is available to download from here or alternatively Firefox will prompt you that there is a new version available.

This fixes;

• the recent change to property-news.com
• marks properties which are "We are sorry but we could not find the property you have requested." on rightmove as 'Not listed'

In adition there is a minor change to how the toolbar registers with the server in preparation for the new backend which we hope to make available soon.

Version 2.0.3.7 is available. It contains a couple of bug fixes, and a new feature in the sidebar. See the forum for the details.

Rightmove updated its site yesterday, and I know you all keen to start 'bee-ing' again! So here it is, version 2.0.3.5 complete with (I hope!) an updating sidebar.

The property.com beta site went live on the 1st Oct. To cope with the redesign property-bee 2.0.3.3 has been released. See this thread for more information. Now thats out the way (and I hope propertynews don't change their site for awhile!) I can get back to working on 2.0.4.0 which will have the updating sidebar and deleting properties.

As propertynews.com changed their site design over the weekend, this morning I've released a new version (2.0.3.1) which addresses this. See this thread for more information.

Rightmove changed their website design slightly yesterday, and hence property-bee 2.0.3.0 has been released.

If you have not updated to 2.0.3.0, when you browse rightmove you will see the error;

Server reported the error 400

Please upgrade your property-bee toolbar to the latest version (2.0.3.0) as rightmove have changed their site design. Thanks.

If you are running property-bee 2.0.0.1 or earlier (you can check by selecting Tools > Add-ons in firefox and looking at the number next to 'Property Bee') please upgrade to the latest version by clicking on this link for property-bee 2.0.2.0

If you have property-bee 2.0.0.2 or later installed, auto-updates are working again and you will be automatically updated to the latest version (2.0.2.0)

A minor update to property-bee which includes;

• A workaround for 'Failed to insert sample because .... constraint failed' error when installing property-bee with Firefox 3.0.1.
• Support for emailed links from rightmove (with the format rightmove.co.uk/property/id123456)
• Better support for searching on gspc.co.uk

Please note you will need to manually update to property-bee 2.0.2.0 as we are still in the process of setting up the server to provide automatic updates of property-bee toolbar.

property-bee 2.0.1.0 is available. Thanks to riad who wrote and tested the code supports gspc.co.uk / espc.co.uk.

There are also a number of bug fixes and minor enhancements including;

• The ability to install property bee without giving your email address (however you will not be able to share information with other users in this mode).
• Support for Firefox 3.0.1 which is expected to be released in a couple of days.
• A new sidebar column indicating the time the property has been in the market.

Please note you will need to manually update to 2.0.1.0 as we are still in the process of setting up the server to provide automatic updates of property-bee toolbar.

If you use propertynews.com, then please update to property-bee 2.0.0.2. propertynews.com has made a minor change to their site, and this update means property-bee will work with the new search results page (if you don't use propertynews.com you do not need to update as there is no new functionality in this release).

Now the server is fully up and running, property-bee 2.0.0.1 is available to download again.

If you have sent us an email in the past couple of weeks, we will not of received it so please resend the email (and cc to property-bee@hotmail.com so we can make sure we don't drop any emails).

If you have registered within the past couple of weeks and not received the confirmation email, don't worry I will be resending the emails this evening.

property-bee has moved to a new dedicated server.

At the moment we are experiencing a number of technical issues which we are working on;

• If you try and register with the forum you can't see the captcha to register with.
• Our email may or may not be working! In the meantime I've set up property-bee@hotmail.com as a back up for any important messages... or use the PM system if you can.
• When I download property-bee I don't see the sidebar or shared information. Whats going on! Whilst we fixed the email/forum problems, anyone downloading property bee will get version 1.0.4.3 which doesn't contain these features. But once everything is working like a treat I'll make 2.0 with the sidebar and sharing available again, and you can update to the latest version without loosing your data.

Sorry its taken awhile to transfer everything... but its been a very mad week or two.

However unlike Dr Who, the bee has not gone :D

We are currently experiencing some server issues.

When browsing you will see 'server reported the error 500 Cannot find user', please go to the options menu and unselect 'work in bee'.

During this time you will still be able to use the toolbar, but any changes found will not be shared. However everything else will still work as normal.

I will post further updates here.

Property-bee 2.0 has finally arrived.

This new version adds many great features

• The ability for users to work in a bee and share information between each other.
• A new sidebar, which gives you an overview of all the properties you have viewed.
• Support for sspc.co.uk (some of the other related site will be added in dure course).
• For the more technical users the storage has changed to use an sqlite database, allowing you to run your own sql queries.

Many thanks to the beta testers; creditcrunch, Dreaded_Estate, Gazz, needle, propertyanalyser and qska for all their hard work and help - I owe you some beer!

You may have noticed that rightmove improved their site 8:00am yesterday and property-bee stopped working. This is by design, so that property-bee is less likely to pick up rogue data. There is a new version (1.0.4.3) which works with the new rightmove site.

Being St Patricks Day, it seems like the right time to announce that property-bee supports another site; propertynews.com which covers The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Many thanks to Paul65, sushiepie and parsley for testing property-bee with propertynews.com.. and Paul65 for hassling me!

Also there have been a few minor fixes for the following bugs;

• "Type error:diff is not a function" (reported by Azazel)
• "ns[ni]].row has no properties" (reported by Bertiebasher) - unfortunately we were unable to find the bug, so there is a work-around implemented instead.
• "Properties being marked as available when clearly they were not" (reported by Muskoka)

Property-bee 1.0.3.0 released which some new functions and bug fixes;

New functionality and general enhancements;

• Ability to export property-bee data to a CSV file by using the "Export CSV" wizard, so you can analyse the data in your favourite spreadsheet.
• By using the "Move Data Folder" wizard, you can tell the toolbar where it should store its data files. This means that file data files can be stored on a USB memory stick or network drive if you use property-bee on a number of computers.
• Firefox 3 (Beta 2) support
• All future updates of the toolbar will be via SSL.
• Online help (It's early days, and this section will be expanded over the coming months)
• Better error reporting for when/if things go wrong.

Some daft.ie enhancements;

• Works with "my daft" pages (including saved ads, recent ads and rentals).
• Can be used when browsing daft.ie, www.daft.ie and www5.daft.ie
• Tracks "sub premium" ads, mainly found for rentals and shares.
• Tracks the properties status (Sold, Let, Available etc).

Some rightmove.co.uk enhancements;

• (xx miles from station) doesn't trigger an change to the history.

Property-bee 1.0.2.0 was released which supports daft.ie, Ireland's number one property website.

Many thanks to Dreaded_Estate from irishpropertywatch.com and the admins from thepropertypin.com for testing this version out before it was released.

There has also been one or two other minor changes;

• A fix for the single rightmoves bug, overseas properties where they less than 10 properties in the country can now be tracked with property-bee.
• A few other minor changes (eg comparison of data is now case-insensitive)

Property-bee is now a toobar which can be configured to show as much or as little information you are interested in, plus some other fixes;

• The add-on is now officially a toolbar!
• Added saving of property status (New Property / Sold / STC etc)
• Ability to customise what history information is shown (via Style and Filter menus on the toolbar).
• New entries are highlighted with a background colour, and "decay" to black text on a white background after a week.
• Solved the problems with using multiple tabs (and the history not appearing or appearing multiple times).
• Added missing rule, so history is now shown for the first page of results after doing "Email Alerts" > "Run search".
• Works with most overseas properties (there is a bug where if the country has less than 10 properties listed you will not see any history, this will be fixed in 1.0.2.0).
• Fixed the compatibility problem between property-bee and switchproxy add-ons.
• Prefixed all global identifiers in the code with PB_ to avoid any future clashes with other add-ons.
• Prices are valid if in dollar and euro currencies as well as pounds.
• Fixed problem with title information changing when viewing a property via rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-xxxx and rightmove.co.uk/property/xxxx urls

Last night we upgraded the forum to the latest shiny version. Unfortunately as part of the upgrade, you can no longer log on with your old password. Instead please select Resend activation e-mail on the log on screen and enter your username and email address you registered with. An email will be sent to you with a link and a new password which you can log on with.

Thank you for your support and interest, today we passed 1,000 downloads. From your comments in our forum, we are planning an update early next week which includes a fix for the single bug reported (to date) and the ability to customise how the history information is displayed (so it uses less screen space), plus any other improvements we can squeeze in.

A momentous occasion, property-bee.com is born.

The first official release of the property-bee toolbar to a select group of members of globalhousepricecrash.com, for them to try out and for me to get some feedback before going public with it.

• All information is stored locally on the users hard disk in a sparse csv file format, rather than remotely on a server.
• The code to extract information from webpages has been rewritten to be generic and rule driven, so in the future other sites can be supported by the toolbar.
• A new mechanism to highlight changes in text.
• Support for automatic updates when future versions are released.

If it wasn't for the members of globalhousepricecrash.com being so enthusiastic about the toolbar and giving invaluable feedback, we may not be here today. Thanks guys!

A prototype of an idea inspired by a thread on globalhousepricecrash.com about the excellent site propertysnake.co.uk.

(Un)fortunately it became popular very quickly, and due to server/ADSL load plus the issues of centralised storage of information, I withdrew it on 9th Jan, to work on a new version with doesn't rely on centralised storage.