Near search without location page

Hi there

I have several problems atm.

1) I have a custom starting page, where I placed a link grid with pictures for categories.
These links will link to /places/chosencategorie (this is not a problem, but the setting I want to leave as it is)

2) First issue: I dont want geodirectory to redirect my customers to the gd-location page.
But I want them to be able to filter within /places/chosencategorie with the city name.
-> I can’t let the customized search filter for categories but only for distance and custom fields..? is this normal? this makes absolutely no sense at all, does it?

3) Is it possible to filter listing for cities and see the distance from my user to the listing without going to gd-location for location fix? it would be ok for me if the user has to type in his address manually.

4) I created a new custom post. but since I did this, my “add listing” page doesnt show up anymore. if I click on the menue link, the site seems to load something but stops and stays on the home page (the custom one).

If anyone could help me, would be awesome. I am really struggling with this and I think I maybe somehow destroyed my page during the process implementing stuff.

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Thanks a ton

Dominic