I'm happy to announce that Hotspots 3.1 is available for download. This releases adds a custom tile layer feature that is going to be really useful to people who have a lot of markers.
Hotspots 3.0 was able to handle large volumes of marker data thanks to the server side boundary method. The server side boundary method is great at high zoom level, but when you have a lot of data it's a little confusing to the user where the markers are and where he has to zoom in to get more data.
Thanks to the custom tiles the user will have an idea where he needs to zoom to see more locations. To see the custom tiles in action go to our demo site: http://demo.compojoom.com/hotspots#!/catid=4 and have a look at the "Parks" category. It holds around 90 000 locations -> you can zoom out to see more marker and move around to see how the custom tiles are layered over the map. For those that are too lazy to check the demo out here is a screenshot:
The small dots are actually click-able markers. The color of the dots can be selected per category. The custom tiles method is good for 1000, 100 000 or 1 million markers!
And here is the complete changelog:
- removed the information view as we use overview module in the dashboard for this
# fixed - multiple KMLs were not loaded
+ added marker length parameter in the settings - controls how many markers are shown at once on the map
+ added custom tiles support
# fixed - hard-coded language strings "There are X hotspots in your current view"
# fixed - unable to save KML files
+ sticky marker option is saved as param - this way when one edits a hotspot and sticky is set to no - we won't replace address or lat & lng values
# search was not properly clearing the results in the menu
# description of categories was not visible in full-screen
~ continue to look for hotspots when we move around even if the infowindow is open
+ added - option to hide the categories
# fixed - hiding menu hides categories as well
# fixed - menu is now showing uploaded image
# fixed - menu is now respecting the selected settings for country, author, date, address, user_inferface
# fixed - form view was not loading map in IE8
# fixed - some files were missing defined('_JEXEC') ...
# fixed - changing the hotspots.xml file so that it won't install on joomla 1.5 anymore
# fixed - use JString::substr for UTF-8 compatibility when copying images
# fixed - KML view was missing title
# fixed - not showing edit form when SEF urls were on
# fixed - frontend input hotspots form had invalid html & display issues