Map view

@ josh901

re: Thanks for the detailed response. Are you familiar with http://mapbox.com? seems like this open source ecosystem could be a useful resource.

Yes, I looked at them and Leaflet. Basically Mapbox is built on top of Leaflet, at least that is my understanding…

I’m presently working on a server side PHP geocoding API for Connections largely based on Geocoder. A good portion of it has to be redone so it is compatible with PHP 5.2 (it requires at least PHP 5.4 presently) and some of it can be simplified using core WP functions. Why work on this?

Right now when an address as added to an entry, it is geocoded automatically. This is basically “hard coded” to use the Google Maps API. This new API for Connections will be multi-provider enabled. So in the future I can create an extension (planned to be free) to allow the user to chose the geocoding provider. This will be needed as users put Connections on sites powering larger and larger databases. Only commercial geocoders service provider will be able to accommodate the larger number of geocode requests. For example, Google Maps maxes out at 2500 per 24hr period anything after that, requests are denied until the request drops under 2500. So if you need more, You need their Business level. This new API will allow that and is easily extensible to add support for any provider.

Wile working on this, what I can tell you is the the OpenStreetMap provider is slow and provides results less accurate than Google and Bing. Not to mention that their API results are … how to put it… not as refined (in my opinion). Leaflet uses OpenStreetMap as it geocoding and map tile provider which likely means it’d be slower. Also, the autocomplete that I have now in the prototype is completely out of the question as OpenStreetMap does not support it.

Since I want fast and autocomplete … that pretty much excludes the use of Leaflet or Mapbox.

@ Karen

re: based on a certain number of miles from a location?
Yes.

re: And hopefully also filter by other categories at the same time?
Yes.

re: I’m interested in knowing if the mapping function is still far off
I’m hesitant to give exact ETA/s right now. What I can say it is my highest priority project after commissioned custom Connections projects and responding to support questions. In fact the one project I’m working on at this very moment is geolocational search with multi-category search and is working very, very, well. Code developed for that project is directly benefitting this add-on directly.

Hope that helps!

@ Michael

Still a work in progress which is coming along nicely…

When a user visits the page, it shows entries within the default radius of the user’s current location using HTML5 geolocation. If the user block this, then it’ll fall back to using the geolocation of the IP address. Much less accurate that the former but it’ll be at least within the right region. It also has autocomplete address/postal code radius search.

The extension can be found here:
http://sandbox.connections-pro.com/geo-prototype/

Because it is under active development… it may or may not be working when you visit.

Since you said you have urgent need. I do have custom development services available. Here’s a link to a site where I built a custom geo search.

@ Rebecca

Interestingly I just answered a very similar question just earlier this morning. Rather than repeat the answer, I’m going to link to it. I hope you do not mind!

https://connections-pro.com/support/topic/doctors-page-content-is-also-populating-on-doctors-individual-profiles/#post-481838