Questions From DNNStore Users: " Hi, I'm interested in the Location Listing w/ Google Maps Module to integrate it on a Restaurant Listing Website I'm creating. Does the module allows to integrate custom search parameters like "Type of Cuisine"? Please help, I really need this.. : ) "
Are you familiar with custom development using XMod Pro? If so, then you're able to build/do almost anything you can imagine in DNN. So the quick answer is YES, you could easily do that type of thing.
The module kit itself installs/sets up a demo set of listings/addresses so that you can see how it works by default. You can then take it an modify it to do many different things.
The search form that we have in the kit will do zip code proximity search so that the user can type in a zip code and set "within X miles" with choices like 10 mi, 50 mi, etc in the drop down. The search results then display ordered by proximity with lowest miles first out to farthest within that range.
You can easily customize it to also have other search parameters like if you wanted to add a Category field to the database/form/templates then you can have that in the search.
Depending on what you need to do, we may have code for something similar that we can share or could easily customize and show you how to work with it in a quick hour or two project.
I am working on an event solution whereby users can add Venues. These of course have addresses.
To date the form is totally manual input. I am considering using SmartyStreets as a solution to look up the address and autocomplete the form. But their geocoding is not nearly as good as Google Maps and of course provides no mapping capability.
Does this kit provide similar (lookup/form completion) functionality or is there reason to think that the two tools can be integrated in a single solution?
Thanks!
I like the way that you're thinking about the project! one or multiple variations of what you suggested might work out well. For example, yes you can use one part to modify/augment the other... we use XMod Pro all the time to help extend or replace certain parts of other modules that we want to adjust.
In this case, though, if you're thinking about having events that need calendar locations, I might recommend using one of our other module kits to get a calendar display of your event data and the tying it all together in this location module kit... remember, it's all XMod Pro code and is intended to be reworked, recoded and, in this case, blended togetehr with other things.
here's our calendar
http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/calendar-fullcalendar-for-xmod-pro
and some examples in use
http://dnndev.moorecreative.com/ModuleKits/XMPFree/CalendarjQueryFullCalendarMK.aspx
and then you can combine with the google maps / location forms and/or other parts of the map display too
http://modules.moorecreative.com/ForXModPro/XMPModuleKitGoogleMapsLocationFinder.aspx
(and we have other variations on the map work too... http://dnndev.moorecreative.com/ModuleKits/AttractionMap.aspx)
anyhow, YES, the form attempts to auto look up and geocode by the address entered. when typing, as soon as you leave the zip code field, it tries to geocode and if successful it will auto populate the lat/long field.
This doesn't work for all addresses, though, so there is a link and text on the side of the form that tells a user how to look it up and get the lat/long from a different geocoding service and then copy/paste.
If you think it's a good direction too, I'd say get the module kits and start working on it and if it doesn't work out for you, I'll be glad to pitch in and help or advise or assist develop, and/or refund if it's not the tool for you on this project.
Good luck with it!
- Ryan
