How to determine which CB tools would be appropriate for a business directory

We are a non profit organization and would like to offer an online business directory through which vendors and suppliers can tell others about the services they offer. (The directory would show Name, company, contact info, areas of specialization, sub-category of the industry, etc.)

What tool or combination of tools would be most suitable for this kind of online service? What are the best ways to compare and contrast the alternatives?

Thank you,

Jake

Profiles can basically be a directory. Each profile being a business. You'd use userlists to search the users (the directory). Otherwise I suppose GJ could be used as a directory where each GJ category is a industry and groups are businesses. The alternative is an actual directory extension for Joomla.

Thanks Kyle. It sounds like the tools are up to the job, but we will need some background information. What is GJ? What directory extensions are available and what are their pros and cons? How can we as an organization become conversant in these issues?
Jake

See the below for details about GJ.

www.joomlapolis.com/addons/cb-groupjive

You can also demo GJ below.

demo.cbdemosites.com/addons/cb-groupjive/all-categories

You need to check the Joomla Extension Directory for directory extensions and compare them for your self. Most common one used when I used them was MosTree, but there's likely a lot more available now.

Hi Kyle,

Thanks for the pointers to GJ. It sounds good. Unfortunately I don't think I have enough experience with the tools to compare them for myself.

Can you recommend some experts or consultants who can help us make these kinds of choices? We are prepared to pay for the consulting time.

It's pretty important to be sure we are making the right choices at the early stage of a big project!

Thanks again,

Jake

Thanks for the pointers to GJ. It sounds good. Unfortunately I don't think I have enough experience with the tools to compare them for myself.

Feel free to use our demo as much as you like. It automatically resets and is mostly unrestricted so feel free to change whatever you like.

Can you recommend some experts or consultants who can help us make these kinds of choices? We are prepared to pay for the consulting time.

Sorry, I've no recommendations at this time. My guess is you'll need a true directory extension though if you intend to use profiles in addition to having a directory otherwise a profile based directory should work perfectly. GJ supports 1 level of categories with 1 level of groups in those categories so you won't be able to do Category > Sub-Category > Group with it as you mentioned needing sub-categories.