[Andy Castle]

Hi Steve,
On my site http://www.storrington.org.uk I’ve just updated to the latest Connections version v8.5.32 and then submitted a new cMap organisation entry. The Geocode is not working: I’m entering a West Sussex, UK address and it doesn’t complete the Latitude/Longtitude and generates a map in the suburbs of Riga, Latvia. Existing cMap entries are still showing correct map locations.

I’d appreciate your help,
Andy.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Andy

My best guess is that Google did not “understand” the address entered correctly. Make sure you have the Base Country set on the Connections : Settings admin page under the General tab.

If you do and it is still not correct, after you enter the address, click the geocode button for the address and then drag and drop the pin to the correct location.

Hope that helps! Let me know.

[Andy Castle]

Hi Steve,
My impression is that Geocode is not functioning at all.

The Base Country was already set correctly as United Kingdom. I enter the full address including postcode and click Geocode. In the past this has resulted in the latitude and longitude fields becoming populated and a pin being placed on the map. None of this happens: a map appears (near Riga, Latvia), but no pin and the latitude and longitude fields are not populated.

For my event calendar, I’m using the All-in-One Event Calendar by Time.ly plugin. This also uses an automatic Google map locator to show event locations. That’s still working fine. Please note I’ve been using this alongside Connections cMap for throughout the life of my site.

Andy.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Andy

If you can give me a temp admin login, I can take a look… though there have been no changes in the Google Maps code other than adding support for the now required Google Maps API keys. The login details can be posted here as a private reply.

[Andy Castle]

This reply has been marked as private.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Andy

The best I can tell it is working fine. Can you give examples of which are not working?

[Andy Castle]

Hi Steve,
The problem is occurring when I try to add a new cMap directory entry.

So in WordPress Admin, I select Add Entry from the Connections menu options. The Connections: Add Entry form opens. I enter the data for an organisation.

Whatever I enter for a local address, when I click Geocode, no latitude or longitude appears and this map location appears:
https://www.google.com/maps/@56.899819,24.099778,18z?hl=en-GB

There is no pin locator shown.

I have tried using both Chrome and Firefox browsers and with different PCs: the same thing happens.

I’ve attached a snip image of the completed Add Entry form address section. I’ve used this address successfully for other organisations before when Geocode was working.

I don’t know what else I can send you and I’m really surprised if it doesn’t happen for you.

Hope this helps,
Andy.

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[Steven Zahm]

@ Andy

It does work, remove “Trinity Center” from the address then Geocode, then add “Trinity Center” to the address. The issue is Google does not understand the address as entered. Why Google is returning the map in that location is odd ()but I have a guess).

Almost the same seems to be true when you try entering that address in All-in-One Event Calendar. It does not find the address and the map is not updated. But when you remove “Trinity Center” from the address, it finds the address and updates the map.

So, I would say this is working fine, the input data is not. That said, it seems I need to look at the Google Maps response to the geocode. My guess is that it is “saying” address not found and the map center is defaulting to the “center” of Europe.

[Andy Castle]

Well…..

Thanks for finding a way to make it workable.

I have added over 350 directory entries on the site since I started using Connections and I can guarantee that something has recently changed.

After your last reply, I have tried several ways to enter addresses and the only way I can get a reliable result from Geocode is to enter the Zipcode only, click Geocode, and then enter the rest of the address. If I enter streetname and zipcode, Geocode is coming up with inaccurate results (at least they are in the UK, not Latvia).

All-in-One Calendar map location has always worked differently than Connections in that it comes up with a prompted solution from a partial address which can be less than helpful. But with Trinity Centre (UK spelling of Center) entered as the Venue Name it works fine with the address I gave as the example.

So, at least you’ve given me a workable approach, now I know to start with the zipcode, but some detrimental change has happened recently which makes it less user friendly.

Thanks anyway for getting me back in business.

Andy.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Andy

re: I have added over 350 directory entries on the site since I started using Connections and I can guarantee that something has recently changed.

If something has changed, then it is the Google maps and the expected required address info. Nothing has changed in Connections in regards to the Maps since September and the only change was to pass the Google Maps API key if one was added in the settings. Per haps Google Maps give different results now that they require a API key.

That said, I will take a look, but if it is Google that changed there may not much I can do about it.

re: I have tried several ways to enter addresses and the only way I can get a reliable result from Geocode is to enter the Zipcode only, click Geocode, and then enter the rest of the address. If I enter streetname and zipcode, Geocode is coming up with inaccurate results

I did look at several of the most recently added entries of which only a few had addresses so my sample size was really small, but the address info does not seem to be correct. At least to my limited understanding of UK addresses. It appears you are entering a place name in the street address line one. You need to put the street address in line one because that is what is being sent to Google. I suspect if you do that, even with leaving the postcode blank you’ll get more accurate results.

re: All-in-One Calendar map location has always worked differently than Connections in that it comes up with a prompted solution from a partial address which can be less than helpful. But with Trinity Centre (UK spelling of Center) entered as the Venue Name it works fine with the address I gave as the example.

I did play with that too. It seems you can enter any unrelated text as the venue name and it will not affect the results. I’m assuming this is because that info is not sent to Google. Which is why it works but does not when you try to include it in the address field.

All-in-One Calendar and Connections does function differently as you describe. This is because we’re using two different Google APIs. All-in-One Calendar uses the Places API and Connections uses the Maps API for geocoding.

I expect both APIs pull from the same dataset but the data the APIs expect have different requirements. As for functions, basically, the Places API tries to guess the place with a precoded lat/lng from an entered address where as the Maps API tries to geocode a lat/lng based on a supplied address. Anyway, I hope that is helpful to know how they function and how they differ.

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