DaftMonkey - A cool Firefox extension for Daft.ie

shaneosullivan

I've written a cool little extension for FireFox and Daft.ie called DaftMonkey. See my blog posting at http://shaneosullivan.wordpress.com/2009/01/26/dojo-greasemonkey-daftmonkey/ and the YouTube video I posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPyFSMhV2Jk for a demo.

The official support page is at http://www.chofter.com/apps?n=daftmonkey

It makes navigating Daft.ie much quicker and simpler by
- Loading many more results on to the page
- Loading all the images for every property right into the search result page, no more going to another page, popping up a window etc.
- Tracking the price history of any property you've looked at (watch those numbers drop like a rock!)
- Showing you the high-resolution images when you click on a thumbnail
- Filtering out places you are not interested in
- Letting you hide properties from agents
- Loading the extra details for a property into the search results page.
- Lets you take notes about each property, e.g. if you have an appointment with the landlord
- Lets you hide a property so you never see it again

So, no more going from page to page to page, laboriously popping up windows and going through images one a time. Everything you need is on one page.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPyFSMhV2Jk

Owen

That's actually cool. My other half is addicted to Daft, I'll be installing it for her tonight

zAbbo

Propertybee is another great add on for Daft - http://www.property-bee.com/

Lets you see what changes were made to a listing, like pricing, description etc.

shaneosullivan

Yes, I saw PropertyBee after I wrote the initial version of DaftMonkey a month ago, which is why I added in the price and Description tracking.

DaftMonkey now does all that PropertyBee does (for Daft.ie at least) and a whole lot more.

But thanks to the PropertyBee author for coming up with the change-tracking idea, it's one of the coolest things about DaftMonkey

japjap

Do the two tools have any affect on each other?

Can both be used at the same time?

shaneosullivan

Both tools insert a property history into a search result, which might look a little messy. You should really disable PropertyBee if you want to use DaftMonkey.

However, like I said, DaftMonkey has all the functionality of PropertyBee, so this shouldn't be an issue really.

spockety

shaneosullivan wrote: »

Both tools insert a property history into a search result, which might look a little messy. You should really disable PropertyBee if you want to use DaftMonkey.

However, like I said, DaftMonkey has all the functionality of PropertyBee, so this shouldn't be an issue really.

Does daftmonkey do communal tracking like propertybee does?

i.e. the price drops that a user notices are uploaded to a central database so that everyone can benefit? Or do you only see price drops on properties you have looked at before yourself?

shaneosullivan

Ah, I didn't realise that PropertyBee did communal tracking. DaftMonkey tracks just the properties that you've looked at.

I might look into how to integrate with PropertyBee's server to do this.

Shane

tibor

Nice tool, not a propertybee replacement though.

DaftMonkey only stores price data locally(?), Propertybee can work off a remote database so you can see changes to listings you hadn't previously viewed. You can also browse your saved listings in a sidebar and sort by various filters offline.

[edit: Whoops didn't see spockety's post. I don't see why you don't team up with the property-bee guys to integrate the two tools, as was suggested on another forum, instead of competing and advocating uninstalling their tool without even knowing it's full feature-set.]

shaneosullivan

Hi,

Yes, DaftMonkey does store your data locally, rather than on a central server. However you will notice that when using it that it after the first time you see a property, it works pretty much identically, and you won't notice the difference.

DaftMonkey's main advantage is in all the features that Property-Bee doesn't offer, like the much faster browsing through loading more results on the page, and putting the photos directly in the search result page.

These are the primary goal of DaftMonkey, making it far faster to browse properties. All the features that overlap with Property-Bee are just the icing on the cake

shaneosullivan

I've updated DaftMonkey so that, if PropertyBee is installed, it doesn't show the property history.

So, by installing it you get all the other cool stuff, and don't clutter the search results with two sets of histories.

If you uninstall or disable PropertyBee, DaftMonkey will still show you all the histories, as it has recorded them all along locally on your machine.

Shane

markf909

Nice little add on!

I have it installed, I am not getting any of that photo magic though when I click load photos though

shaneosullivan

The photos aren't working? Are the other features working?

markf909

shaneosullivan wrote: »

The photos aren't working? Are the other features working?

I'm using Firefox 2.0 (and I ain't upgrading) so that may explain it.

shaneosullivan

Using Firefox 2 could be a reason for it alright - I haven't tested in that version as it reached end-of-life a while ago.

Why is it that you are resisting upgrading? FF3 is a far better browser, much faster, uses much less memory, and does everything FF2 does and more.

J-blk

Thanks for this Shane, very nice - I won't be moving for another couple of months and the "history" options that DaftMonkey displays on all my saved ads are great to have, since it can give me all the info I need about places to rent, at a glance.

shaneosullivan

I've updated DaftMonkey to account for the recent changes to Daft, where they changed the page layout quite a bit. It should now be working properly again - for a while there things like prices and the "View More Details" panel were broken.

If you install it again, it should work properly again.

dardoz

Daft just made some big changes and its broken again

shaneosullivan

dardoz wrote: »

Daft just made some big changes and its broken again

Yep, saw that. Almost have it working again. At least this time they're written it a bit better, not just nested a thousand tables.

Should be online tomorrow some time.

shaneosullivan

The fix is online now at http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/41105

Let me know if there are any problems, it was a pretty big rewrite

dardoz

Doesn't seem to be working for me. I see the Load photos checkbox and search at the top of my saved dafts, but nothing else and most importantly, for me at least, no price history at all

shaneosullivan

What page are you testing it on? Rental, sales, saved ads...? It was rental pages that I mostly tested it on.

Did you uninstall the old version first? What version of Firefox are you using?

dardoz

Hi Shane. I tested it on lettings and for sale and it works on both. It does not work when viewing my saved ads though.

Just out of curiosity, is the price history based only on properties I have looked at before myself, or does it use a beehive system like property bee.

shaneosullivan

Hi Dardoz,

The history only works on properties you have viewed yourself. If you install PropertyBee, then DaftMonkey will not put the history into the results, and instead defers to PropertyBee.

However, I prefer DaftMonkey's history, as PropertyBee shows far too much in my opinion, and clutters up the page. However, it does have the advantage of collating other people's viewing history.

shaneosullivan

I've updated the script again, and it works in Saved Ads now too.

dardoz

I have to agree with you. Property Bee shows way too much info, and shows how much the EA's abuse daft by simply changing a word in their description every day to stay on top of the listings. That being said, I do value being able to see any price changes that took place before I viewed a property for the first time.

Thanks for fixing it btw