WP Adverts - Maps and Locations

Radius search only finds the ads that have coordinates

A visitor types "Valencia," picks a 30-kilometer radius and expects to see every ad in the area. A few appear, and the one he knows is missing. It is not misspelled or expired: it was simply never geolocated.

In a classifieds portal with distance search, every ad needs a latitude and longitude, and the way users pick a location when posting decides whether it will have them.

Maps and Locations is a WPAdverts extension that replaces the free-text location field with a hierarchical list, for example country, state and city. With that list it avoids misspelled names and allows searching by area, by radius or on a map. How the location is picked when posting is hard to reverse once the ad database has grown.

Chosen locations and maps on every ad

• Two ways to pick a location when posting: Google Places autocomplete or a dropdown that you fill in the admin area.
• Map on the ad page: it can show on load or appear when clicking "show on map."
• Radius search: adds a radius dropdown to the search form, in kilometers or miles.
• [adverts_mal_map] shortcode: plots active ads on a map with keyword and location filters.

The map can come from Google or from Open Street Maps. The switch is a single shortcode parameter, from "google" to "osm." In Open Street Maps, the integration with category icons does not work yet.

A regional portal with a hand-built location list

In a portal for a single county, you build the hierarchy once under Classifieds, Locations: country, province and towns. Each term is placed on the map by searching for it, dragging the pin or typing exact latitude and longitude. In the posting form you choose the dropdown. You can follow this outline or change it to fit your project.

Where radius search breaks

Radius search needs coordinates for the center of the search and for each ad. Ads without geolocation data are never returned in those results. The coordinates come from the Google Geocoding service, and only two combinations are accepted by the extension: a posting form with Google autocomplete and a search with autocomplete, or a form with a taxonomy dropdown and a search with a dropdown or autocomplete, with the location on the map set on each term. Any other mix leaves radius search not working.

Other decisions have a cost:

• With Google Places, users build the database as they post and the marker can point to a street number, but setup is more complex and only the places offered by the Places API exist.
• With the dropdown, you fill the database yourself and the marker usually points to a zip code or a city.
• Google requires a payment method tied to the key.

Getting the extension running

You need WPAdverts installed and, for Google maps or autocomplete, a Google API key created in Google Cloud Console.

1. Install and activate the extension from the WordPress plugins panel.
2. Open Classifieds, Options, Maps and Locations and paste the key in "Google API Key."
3. Choose the location field for [adverts_add]: Google autocomplete or dropdown.
4. Configure the search in [adverts_list], the radius and the distance unit, and decide whether the ad shows a map.
5. If you use the dropdown, load the locations under Classifieds, Locations and place them on the map.

Directories and locators with a map

If what you want is a directory portal rather than classified ads, look at Directorist. For a store locator on a map, there is Agile Store Locator. The base this extension needs is WPAdverts.

Three questions about the maps

Can I use free maps instead of Google?

Yes. With the js_engine parameter set to "osm," the map shortcode uses Open Street Maps, except for the integration with category icons, which is not available yet.

Do I need a Google key?

Yes for Google maps and autocomplete.

Can the map show only on request?

Yes. It can appear when clicking "show on map."