force choose location

This topic contains 15 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by  siparker 8 years, 8 months ago.

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  • July 23, 2015 at 3:48 pm #46657

    siparker
    Buyer
    Post count: 114

    is there a way to not allow people to enter a location as freetext and force them to choose a location from the dropdown list?

    the autocomplete is working and works well as it clears the featured listings widget at the top of my listing page when the featured listing is not from that area.

    When you do a straight search without choosing from the dropdown it just shows all featured listings regardless of search area.

    So can i force them to choose from the dropdown and not just accept freetext?

    July 23, 2015 at 9:28 pm #46702

    Paolo
    Site Admin
    Post count: 31206

    not really, it would remove the option to search by address or zip code and to keep searching in the “everywhere” location.

    Thanks

    July 23, 2015 at 9:43 pm #46706

    Guust
    Moderator
    Post count: 29970

    Edit : OOPS, Paolo got in first 🙂

    I think you are talking about the SEARCH FOR field.
    Do you mean an empty search when you say straight search?
    Forcing them to choose them from the suggestion would not be a search, it would only ever return one listing. With customization it might be possible, but not for the moment.
    See also https://wpgeodirectory.com/docs/core-general/#individual which might assist with limiting search results.

    Or maybe you are talking about the NEAR field.
    That field is not intended for cities only, but for landmarks etc. This might explain better: https://wpgeodirectory.com/docs/core-design/#how
    So people might want to search NEAR the Eiffel tower, and not NEAR the center of Paris.
    If they want to search IN Paris, then they can use the location switcher to filter down to Paris.

    July 24, 2015 at 7:52 am #46750

    siparker
    Buyer
    Post count: 114

    hi

    yes it was the Near field i wanted to force a known search for.

    the reason was more for the featured listings widget than anything.

    If i do a search for birmingham and choose the City option from the dropdown then it turns blue and returns the city location info.

    it also clears the one featured listing i currently have which is in walsall.

    if i just type in birmingham as free text and click search without choosing from the dropdown then the featured listing in walsall still shows. (seperate issue is that currently doing a free text search for birmingham doesnt actually return anything. it probably thinks im searching for birmingham AL)

    do you have an alternative to controllign the featured listings display. as the whole business plan currently is to sell featured listings where they will show for their areas.
    if people show for every search because people have not chosen the dropdown area then this wont work.

    July 24, 2015 at 2:07 pm #46781

    Guust
    Moderator
    Post count: 29970

    I see. Because the free text search goes to a search page, and not a location page that gets filtered by location, all featured listings will show in the popular post widget.

    ANother solution might be to link to the /location/me page with the Near Me widget.

    July 24, 2015 at 2:08 pm #46782

    Guust
    Moderator
    Post count: 29970
    This reply has been marked as private.
    July 28, 2015 at 12:59 pm #47240

    siparker
    Buyer
    Post count: 114

    sure.

    What i need to try and make sure i can do is sell featured listings.

    So when someone is on the site and does a search the best featured listings show.

    or the correct ones at least.

    I would hope most people will ahve sharing of location switched on but as i cant guarantee that i was instead going to try and force known locations.

    I would rathert not lose the search functionality. so i thought the best solution would be to have the searches forced. but the location/me page for sure works fine. as long as people are where they are searching.

    If i want to check who is in london i will get featured listings for everywhere unless i type out the search and choose from the dropdown box, use the change location thingy, which isnt the quickest, or am in london and i use the near me button / page.

    Can you think of any other solutions? perhaps geotargeting the featured widget every time thr free search is used to target the closest match? or set the location on searches as well as matched searches? Im sure that would be a sensible thing to do … to always have a location even if it is a free search. as the map obviously does find that location and hsows the results. but the page isnt aware oif it as it were. which is i think not quite right?

    Your thoughts pls.

    July 28, 2015 at 1:44 pm #47250

    Guust
    Moderator
    Post count: 29970

    Why not turn on the geolocation at GD > advance search > geolocation settings?
    Then add on your GD home page a popular post widget sorted and/or filtered by featured.
    NO need for the search: the visitor is asked whether they want to share their location and be served with the location page nearest to them.

    July 30, 2015 at 1:30 pm #47521

    siparker
    Buyer
    Post count: 114

    sure. this would work if the consumer only wanted to see listings near them. but if they want to look somewhere remote from them then i need to control the features listings there.

    I think the solution is for the widget to be aware of the map point on the page it is on. not just on location pages but anytime a search is done on the map or the marker etc is moved.

    lots of people search for tattoo artists a way away if they want a certain artist or a certain style which a studio specialises in. i need to amke surte i cater for this properly.

    July 30, 2015 at 9:45 pm #47587

    Guust
    Moderator
    Post count: 29970

    The only way to do that is for your users to use the location switcher, if they want to know the listings in london while they are in Paris, AND you want to be able to concentrate on featured listings. That allows you to add the popular post widget to the home/location page and to order the listings by featured first, and even to show only featured listings.

    Anything else would be a customization. You can add it to the request list here:
    https://wpgeodirectory.com/requests/
    or list a job at https://wpgeodirectory.com/support/forum/geodirectory-jobs/

    August 21, 2015 at 2:31 pm #50273

    siparker
    Buyer
    Post count: 114

    Hi

    I might have a solution here.

    in the popular posts widget you can specify the sort by order.

    What i need to do ideally is to have them show featured only. which can be done by tick box

    Which would leave the sort by field free in theory to be able to sort by distance

    So there would always be a featured listing showing even if it miles away but when i search on the site for london with a free text search it shows the featured listing for ererie ink which is in walsall but shows the distance under it as 108 miles away.

    which is fine so long as i could sort by distance nearest first for those listings and tick the only show featured box

    August 25, 2015 at 8:27 am #50764

    siparker
    Buyer
    Post count: 114

    any thoughts?

    August 25, 2015 at 7:20 pm #50838

    Paolo
    Site Admin
    Post count: 31206

    sort by disatance is not an option in widgets, only in search results.

    Thank you

    August 30, 2015 at 10:20 pm #51429

    siparker
    Buyer
    Post count: 114

    hi

    yes i know that. is there any way you could point me int he right direction to be able to find the code for that so i can see if i can do it myself. or if anyone has the time to help out it would be most appreciated so i can work on monetising my directory as its been quite a long trek to getting it working correctly with my choice of theme. this is one of the last hurdles

    August 31, 2015 at 4:51 pm #51481

    Paolo
    Site Admin
    Post count: 31206

    HI,
    this isn’t something we can point you out how to do, it requires hours of works of an expert developer.

    If you wish I can move this in the Job section of the forum.

    Let us know,

    Thanks

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