Location Doesn't Work Consistently

This topic contains 12 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by  Jeff Adams 6 years, 1 month ago.

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  • #461423

    Jeff Adams
    Free User
    Post count: 1780

    I changed themes from Elegant Theme’s Extra to the Directory Starter, then the Supreme Theme, then back to Directory Starter. I chose to try the Directory Starter for now while I learn V2.

    Right away the sidebar widget “Location” and “Location Switcher” where not working. When clicking on a Location in the sidebar widget it showed nothing in Shelby even though there is. I deleted the listing and added a completely different new listing in Shelby and it’s not showing either.

    I added another listing, this time to a different city, Kings Mountain. Kings Mountain didn’t show as a city option to search in either location widget or location switcher widget.

    When I removed listings and there’s none in a city the city appears still. Like now, there’s no listings for Light Oak, they’ve been deleted. But, I still see Light Oak.

    I switched back to Extra Theme and I placed the widgets in the sidebar area for this theme. They started working. I noticed they were now pointing to the right URL. Before it wasn’t showing “Location” in the URL. I suppose this may be due to the permalink issue that was resolved recently?

    I switched back to Directory Starter and now it’s working better. In both Extra and Directory the only thing that appeared resolved was the Shelby location working. The location widgets still didn’t show kings mountain. I edited the listing and saved it and that appeared to resolve it.

    Now the location Light Oak is still in the widgets when it shouldn’t be since there’s no listings. I know I can manually remove it. I suppose this may not matter as long as I can control it until the site has more listings at least.

    Then I went to add another listing somewhere else. I pasted into the social media importer: https://www.facebook.com/barleysinspindale/ and noticed an Adjax notice (see at end).

    I submitted the listing. This was in another city, Spindale. However, I noticed Spindale didn’t show in the Location widgets. I went to edit the listing and it’s showing Shelby instead of Spindale (I must have overlooked this, lol). So, it seems the importer was wrong but with just the city. It did capture the right street address though. I looked on the facebook page and I didn’t see where they even put their address. But somehow it got the street not the city.

    Then I added a listing manually. This time it worked perfect. The city shows in the location widgets. However, when I select “near me” in the location switcher it doesn’t appear to work when it’s in the sidebar (see image).

    Query Count Callers Components Potential Troublemakers
    SELECT ID, post_name, post_parent, post_type
    FROM wp4c_posts
    WHERE post_name IN (‘add-listing’)
    AND post_type IN (‘page’,’attachment’) 2 get_page_by_path()
    2 calls
    Core
    1 call
    Plugin: geodirectory
    1 call
    WP->parse_request()
    1 call
    geodir_is_page()
    1 call
    SELECT wp4c_posts.*
    FROM wp4c_posts
    WHERE 1=1
    AND wp4c_posts.ID IN (62,63,64,65,66)
    AND wp4c_posts.post_type = ‘nav_menu_item’
    AND ((wp4c_posts.post_status = ‘publish’))
    ORDER BY wp4c_posts.menu_order ASC 2 WP_Query->get_posts()
    2 calls
    Core
    2 calls
    get_header()
    1 call
    get_footer()
    1 call
    SELECT *
    FROM wp4c_posts
    WHERE ID = 270
    LIMIT 1 2 WP_Post::get_instance()
    2 calls
    Plugin: geodirectory
    2 calls
    get_post_field()
    1 call
    WP_Post::get_instance()
    1 call
    SELECT id
    FROM wp4c_geodir_price
    WHERE post_type = ‘gd_place’
    AND status = 1
    ORDER BY is_default DESC, display_order ASC, id ASC
    LIMIT 1 9 GeoDir_Pricing_Package::get_default_package_id()
    9 calls
    Plugin: geodir_payment_manager
    9 calls
    GeoDir_Pricing_Package::get_post_package()
    7 calls
    geodir_pricing_default_package_id()
    2 calls
    SELECT *
    FROM wp4c_geodir_custom_fields
    WHERE post_type=’gd_place’
    AND htmlvar_name=’featured’ 2 geodir_get_field_infoby()
    2 calls
    Plugin: geodirectory
    2 calls
    geodir_get_field_infoby()
    1 call
    geodir_pricing_is_featured()
    1 call
    SELECT package_id from wp4c_geodir_gd_place_detail where post_id = 270 2 geodir_get_post_meta()
    2 calls
    Plugin: geodirectory
    2 calls
    geodir_get_cf_value()
    1 call
    GeoDir_Pricing_Post::set_file_limit()
    1 call
    SELECT post_category from wp4c_geodir_gd_place_detail where post_id = 270 2 geodir_get_post_meta()
    2 calls
    Plugin: geodirectory
    2 calls
    geodir_get_post_meta()
    2 calls
    SELECT *
    FROM wp4c_countries
    WHERE 1=1
    ORDER BY name ASC 2 WP_Country_Database->get_countries()
    2 calls
    Plugin: geodirectory
    2 calls
    GeoDir_Location_Locations->validate_country_name()
    1 call
    geodir_get_countries()
    1 call
    SELECT alpha2Code
    FROM wp4c_countries
    WHERE name LIKE ‘United States’ 4 WP_Country_Database->get_country_iso2()
    4 calls
    Plugin: geodirectory
    4 calls
    GeoDir_Location->get_country_iso2()
    3 calls
    WP_Country_Database->get_country_iso2()
    1 call
    SELECT *
    FROM wp4c_geodir_cp_link_posts
    WHERE post_id = 270
    AND linked_post_type = ‘gd_event’ 2 GeoDir_CP_Link_Posts::get_items()
    2 calls
    Plugin: geodir_custom_posts
    2 calls
    GeoDir_CP_Link_Posts::get_meta_value()
    1 call
    GeoDir_CP_Link_Posts::link_posts_value()
    1 call

    #461428

    Jeff Adams
    Free User
    Post count: 1780

    this is when near me wasn’t working it does work on location page though. Maybe this is because location switcher is in sidebar with location widget?

    #461433

    Jeff Adams
    Free User
    Post count: 1780

    Location widget isn’t working on events page sidebar. When I click on Belmont it’s not adding “Location” to the URL and bringing up a bad page. I also tried removing location switcher and it still does this with just the location widget there.

    #461436

    Jeff Adams
    Free User
    Post count: 1780
    This reply has been marked as private.
    #461437

    Jeff Adams
    Free User
    Post count: 1780

    shoot, now it’s not working on Places or Events… I guess I’m just going to have to reinstall this?

    #461465

    Guust
    Moderator
    Post count: 29970

    You cannot use the Location page as the homepage: CHANGED
    I also changed your theme to the V2 version.
    Let us know.
    Thanks

    #461649

    Jeff Adams
    Free User
    Post count: 1780

    Awesome, thanks so much. i thought I downloaded the V2 directory starter. I must have inadvertently clicked the v1 link instead of the v2 link, the V1 and V2 in downloads are so close together I guess that’s an easy mistake to make… I’m not sure if there’s anything you guys can or want to do to prevent that or decrease the likelihood of it happening to others…

    So, all in all thus far everything is working really great now.

    The only thing, and this may not really be a problem to be concerned about, but just like in version 1 the location widget shows cities even if there is not listings in those cities.

    This could be frustrating for users so I wont use the location widget. Esp. when there’s events causing this to happen. There could be events creating city locations to populate the widget but those events are likely to be transient rendering the city to be empty unless other events or listings happen to be there. Again, no biggy, just something i noticed and causing me to not want to use that widget.

    #461652

    Guust
    Moderator
    Post count: 29970

    They are only links to location pages. If you want links to categories like events, then you need to use category widgets. Then empty categories will not be linked.

    #461664

    Jeff Adams
    Free User
    Post count: 1780

    I was only sharing with you what seems to be a problem with the location widget. It really makes no sense to show a city that has no content. Because it’s not showing all the locations it appears to be showing the city for a reason. So then a user clicks on the city and ends up on an empty page. This is a good reason to bounce away from the site and that’s the last thing I want happening. So I’m not going to use the location widget. I’m not trying to show events I’m just explaining another reason why the location widget is likely to have bad links because events create links to cities as well and events are transient. So when the location widget does not update to only show links to locations that actually have content (places or events) then they are pretty much bad links. I’m just sharing that this was a problem for me using the widget in version one and apparently it’s still the same. No biggie though because it’s not a significant thing. it’s not like I need this widget. Although I think it might be nice if it only had links to cities that actually have content… aside of that though everything is really nice so far!!! I can’t wait to test it all some more 🙂

    #461672

    Guust
    Moderator
    Post count: 29970

    Most people do not add cities without listings.
    I understand what you are saying, but there is no problem: They are only links to location pages.

    #461704

    Jeff Adams
    Free User
    Post count: 1780

    I never said anyone was adding cities without locations. I never said that.

    The location widget acquires dead links, meaning they render no results, when one of two things happens, and the longer you have a directory the more frequently these things happen:

    one: after a listing has been added when that listing expires or has been deleted and there are no other listings or events in that city

    two: after an event has been added when that event expires or has been deleted and there are no other listings or events in that city

    Like you said, most people don’t add cities without listing, because that would not make sense and confuse the front end user. But, that isn’t how dead listings are occurring. Sure, that could be a third way but then that would be a user causing it and not the widget.

    The two reasons I’m delineating are the fault of the widget not being updated when there are no other listings. I understand what I’m expecting isn’t at all easy or practical to resolve. I’m just sharing that this is definitely going to degrade the front end experience. My site VeganLinked.com started having this problem a lot because there was a lot of events expiring and no other listings or events in those cities. And it also happened when a lot of listings expired which happened because I need them expire if they are not renewed.

    A smaller directory may be able to get so populated that this is significantly less likely to happen.

    Maybe one way to resolve it is to have the widget county how many listings and events are in that city. It doesn’t have to show this but it could be a cool option to show. Then there can be an if then statement or something, “if zero don’t show city” or “if zero remove city” or something?

    The only other way to potentially use this would be a sort of workaround may be a notification that said “Sorry, there’s no listings or events in this city at this time. But you can always make this city happening by adding a listing or event” and then below that show the closest related listings… This way it could possibly be enticing and useful!

    Again, I’m just sharing what seems to be something that is very likely be a problem. Dead pages equal bounces, bounces are bad. They may also cause indexing/ranking issues with the search engines.

    #461720

    Alex Rollin
    Moderator
    Post count: 27815
    This reply has been marked as private.
    #461824

    Jeff Adams
    Free User
    Post count: 1780
    This reply has been marked as private.
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