[Gary Jones]

We are having major issues with GeoDirectory and can’t get any support from them. Visitors to our site are being redirected to the business directory page. That’s bad enough but clicking on the homepage menu item just reloads the directory. We need another directory FAST!

This is our current GeoDirectory – https://ajijictoday.com.mx/business-directory/. We have invested a lot of time in creating all of our categories, custom map icons and we bought their total add-ons package this time last year. Now they want another $199 for support.

We have many questions about your plugin, but the first is we don’t see any maps on any sites in your showcase. This is fundamental to the directory homepage so is this available or not? Second, can we use our custom category icons? Third, can we offer ninety days free then bill annually? And GeoDirectory data can be exported to CSV files, but they are separate, like locations, categories and so on, so can these be imported inot your plugin?

Thanks for your help.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Gary

Sorry, but Connections would not be a good replacement for GeoDirectory as it does not have the clustermap feature (I’ve slowly been adding a robust mapping API so I can start adding such features to Connections) or built in billing.

In regards to billing, I always recommend to users that they instead look at membership plugins for this vs it integrated into the directory. The primary reason is monetization. With it built into the directory, the directory becomes the only way to monetize the site. Using a membership plugin like Restrict Content Pro you are more easily able to expand your site monetization options and opportunities where the directory can simply be one member benefit.

Probably not the answer you were hoping for, but I do hope it helps!

ps. I did take a quick look at your site and I did not seem to experience the redirection issue you mentioned.

[Gary Jones]

Quick follow-up. We downloaded the plugin to check it out. Although we followed the documentation, when we tried to add an entry we could not enter an address; we added a number of photos but they don’t show up anywhere; we could not find any map location and after spending a good hour trying to find out what an API Browser key was we could not find a word anywhere on what this means. We do have access keys for the site but there is no such key in the library.

This is what our current Business Directory listing looks like and this is what we need –
https://ajijictoday.com.mx/places/mexico/jalisco/ajijic/accommodation/casa-tres-leones/

Thank you.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Gary

RE: when we tried to add an entry we could not enter an address

I am assuming this means when you click the add address button, nothing happens? Correct?

This is rare and but does happen. The cause has always been another plugin (or theme) including its admin javascript on the Connections admin pages instead of limiting them to their own admin pages (which is poor design) causing a fatal error in their script which in turn prevents Connections from running its scripts.

To see if this is cause, open the page in Chrome, click the Add Address button, hit the F12 key and then click the Console tab.

Look for red lines which indicate fatal errors. Mouse hovering over the filename of the of the error will show you the entire path of the file. This usually gives a solid hint which plugin is the cause of the error.

RE: we added a number of photos but they don’t show up anywhere

Where did yo add the photos? The bio field, the notes field? Or, did you upload using the Logo or Photo field (each supports a single image).

RE: we could not find any map location and after spending a good hour trying to find out what an API Browser key was we could not find a word anywhere on what this means.

The Google Maps API keys:

• The Server key is used when adding an address to geocode it into latitude/longitude when the entry is added. If no key is added, OpenStreetMap (OSM) will be used byu default.
• The Browser key is used to display the Google Maps in the admin when the address geocode button is clicked. And on the frontend with all the premium templates which include map support. If no key is entered OSM will be used by default.

Hope this helps! let me know if you have any further questions.

[Gary]

Everything seems to be a struggle maybe because we just don’t understand enough yet.

The address issue was solved. The redirection is random.

So no maps are available anywhere? If so that pretty well destroys the idea of a business directory.

Because the photos we added did not show up in the listing we instead created a Layer Slider and then added that, but it didn’t show up either. Just a huge blank white space where the slider should be.

I gather that this plugin is just not going to be the solution for us.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Gary

RE: So no maps are available anywhere? If so that pretty well destroys the idea of a business directory.

The maps are included on everyone of the premium templates. Sorry if my answer to this question was not clear before.

RE: Because the photos we added did not show up in the listing we instead created a Layer Slider and then added that, but it didn’t show up either. Just a huge blank white space where the slider should be.

It is really still unclear to me where you are adding the images.

Connections has two “core” image fields. One for a logo and one for a photo. Which will be displayed will depend on the template an how it is configured. For example the Default Card template, it is configured with a single image which by default displays the photo image. It can be configured to show the logo instead.

Both the Bio and Notes fields support displaying as many images as you want. Be default the Default Entry Card template only display the Bio field.

So, add your images to the Bio field.

Both the Bio and Notes fields also support shortcodes. So, you can you an image gallery shortcode to display images too. The only caveat, not all plugins which offer shortcodes to display image galleries will work. Not a bug or limitation in Connections. In those cases the issue is generally those plugins expect to be run within the post/page body content and not within other plugins.

Hope this helps!

[Author]

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