TOPIC: Hotspot problems or user problem?

Hi,
I have just installed Hotspot and I have tried to understand how to optimize for my website. Here are some questions I hope you can answer:

1. On my website www.bmxsweden.se I have dropdown position below the menu where I before added some info modules. Is it possible to add Hotspot there as a module? I don't want to have it in a menu ... and now it opens in the narrow news area.
(Hotspot is right now placed in the BMX Racing menu to the right)

2. What is Sobi2 and why is it good to use it?

3. I have a problem with captcha image ...it does not show? (Google Chrome)

4. Can I add more fields? Can I mark fields as mandatory?

5. Is it possible to translate to swedish? Can I edit PHP to change to swedish?

Hey Michael,
1. Hotspots is a component, not a module - so the only way to show it is to make a menu leading to the component. We are also working on a module, but it will be available in the future. This module will be able to show the already published markers in a specific category, it won't have the option to publish a marker.

2. Sobi2 - www.sigsiu.net/sobi2.html - if it is good for you or not - you are the one to decide.

3. Make sure that the media/com_hotspots/ folder and the folders in it are writable. (have the appropriate permissions so the system can write to them)

4. There is no option to define new fields. And you can do this with some php/ js knowledge, but there is no option for this in the backend of the component.

5. You can translate it to swedish and I'll be happy if you share your translation with us. We use the standard joomla 1.5 way to handle translations.
Read this for more info:
ideal.fok.com.br/joomla-extensions/compo...oomla-component.html
All you need to do is to go to lanaguage/en-GB/en-GB.com_hotspots.ini - copy this file to your language folder.
Rename it to xx-XX.com_hotspots.ini where xx is the abreviation of your language and translate the strings in it.

Cheers,
Daniel

P.S. Btw - your site has just a login form

Hi again, thks for a quick reply... yes some visitors (Especially outside Sweden) har a problem accessing www.bmxsweden.se .... but if they google bmxsweden and click on the link it works fine. I had some problems with joomfish and there is something spooky to be solved? I'm not really sure what? But www.bmxsweden.se/index.php/sv/home
should work.

I look into folder rights to solve captcha problem ... too bad I coud not place Hotspots in the dropdown ... would have called the drop down "BMX World" ...when visitors click they get a huge map with all the nice spots to ride BMX. /Mike

Michael, I still think that a whole page for hotspots is better.
It is much nicer to click on a button and to get a big map with cool markers than to have to click in a small module position.
Cheers,
Daniel

P.S. Don't forget to write a review about the component here: extensions.joomla.org/extensions/maps-a-...-locations/maps/9468

Actually I tried to open Hotspot in separate window ...but I could not find out how to do it? It opens in the news-column on the front page?

/Mike

Hi again ... I have found some problems with Hotspots ... Pls. help!!! I have it online and have placed an article about the new functions on the page.

1. Critical problem ... When I place a marker on a BMX-track and saves ... the marker is moved to an incorrect location? And it also picks an address from a nearby road.
If I clear the address the marker still moves to another location ... if this cannot be solved then Hotspots is useless to me? Why can't the marker be saved at the koordinates I moved it to?

2. If I click on the marker I don't find the coordinates anywhere ... that is a very important if you dont have a road and wants to use a GPS.

3. When I add text into the infobox and press enter on the keyboard I go down one row ...but when I save, the text is all put together in a mess. I cannot expect the readers to manage html-code "</br>"
my map is found here: www.bmxsweden.se/index.php/sv/bmx-spots-a-tracks

/Mike

Hi again Daniel ... I have translated the file to swedish sv-SE.com_hotspots.ini
It was a bit tricky because swedish characters å Ä Ö turned into a strange square-box with a questionmark .... I changed these characters to html and it worked fine.
... it looked ok and everything was perfectly changed to swedish

I also want foreign visitors to be able to add spots so I need to fix my Joomfish so that both english and swedish can be an option... I Stick with the english for now.

Do you want me to email you the swedish version?

Michael you don't need to write the characters with html chars. All you need to do is make sure that you save the language file in UTF-8.
If you are on win7 and use notepad - you have an option while saving. From a dropdown menu you choose the encoding.

If you want a good text editor - use PSPad - with it you can edit php files, html etc and you also have the option to save the file in UTF-8.

Hey Michael,

1.can you give me an example of the coordinates that you want to save? What are they transformed to?

2. For this you will need to change components/com_comment/utils.php

after this code:it is on line 148 to 155 add this line:this will show the lat and lng coordinates for you.

3. It is not that easy. We are already thinking of ways to improve the interface for entering hotspots. I also hate the fact that you have to write the html manually, but improvements on this will be rolled first with hotspots 1.1

Cheers,
Daniel

Hi Daniel,
Thanks for quick reply ... the coordinates are:
Gmlat 59.6214158
Gmlng 17.8295621
If you look at the site (If you can get around the login screen?)...it's the only marker added to Hotspots. If you zoom in you can see that it has moved several hundred meters to the right. My son tried yesterday and he placed the marker a bit lower and then it jumped to another location? Spooky!
www.bmxsweden.se/index.php/sv/bmx-spots-a-tracks
Does the Marker save position on GPS-coordinates or the address?
If you place the marker on something away from the road ...then it suggests strange addresses ... something wrong or something nearby.... would be better if left blank when there's no exact hit!?

Looking at your coordinates I think that I know what is wrong:
dev.compojoom.com/issues/show/239

Do the following. Go to phpmyadmin, go to the sql tab and execute the following statement:
jos_hotspots_marker - this is the table that stores the marker. If you have another prefix then jos make sure to change it.

What does it do? Well the coordinate data was stored in float container and only 6 signs are allowed after the comma:
59.6214158 - there you have 7 and mysql is rounding the data - so yep this can result in several hundred meter difference.

Try the changes and let me know if everything works then.

Sorry for all my questions ... here comes another one.... If I choose to show the greetings box it has a fixed size? ...if I Write a lot of info ...then a lot of info does not show. Can I Resize that box?

btw ....PHPmyadmin was not installed .... they will hopefully install it tonight!

How accurate is the GPS position with 7 digits? Will it differ +- 100 meters (or Less/ more)?

Perhaps it is better to start a new thread for every question. This way if other users search for the same thing they can find it easily than reading the whole conversation here.
About the box. Go to
demo.compojoom.com/media/com_hotspots/css/hotspots.css on line 305 you have
Change the width and height values to something that suits you.

Hi Daniel,
I have run the SQL you sent but the problem remains.
When I place a marker on our BMX-track it saves with koordinates lat 59,6214573 and lng 17.8381569 ...when I zoom in after save it has the same coordinates but marker is 300 meters away from where I placed it.
I have tried to allocate the problem ... the bmx track has no address and when I Place the marker on the track I get road 263 (nearby road) in the address field ... if i follow the road 500-600 meters it does not change the coordinates at all?

I tried to verify the coordinates by using google maps and got the following: lat 59.623130 lng 17.829995 ... if I move the cursor a couple of meters the coordinates changes.

Does Hotspots take the coordinates from where I place the marker or from the nearest known address?

It takes the coordinates from the reply of the google geocoder. And if google doesn't know a place, it returns the nearest road - that can be several km away....

Do me a favor - try to post a marker in the backend, but before that go to
media/com_hotspots/backend/js/marker.js
line 60replace it with:
Now try to manipulate the marker in the backend - is it working?

Sorry Daniel... no difference, same problem.
If I move the marker in the backend from the wrong location to the correct ...it's still the same coordinates from the center of the nearby road.
I Can move the marker around on the open field (700-800 meters), and the coordinates does not change at all. Why not take the coordinates from where people place the marker? ... and if theres no address at that marker, leave fields blank ...more important with correct position?
Option 2: get the coordinates from the marker ... and suggest a suitable address that users can change if it's incorrect ... but pls leave marker on target!
If I maually enter the koordinates from google maps then the marker stays at the correct location.... but I cannot expect the readers to do it that way .... then it will be a lot of misplaced markers from reader who does not doublecheck the position.

Well, the above change does exactly what you say. It doesn't rely on the geocoder for the coordinates. Are you sure that you did everything properly in the marker,js? Also did clear the cache before trying to place the marker?

sorry ... I changed the rows ... but I did not clear cache ...where do you do that?

In Joomla - Global Config - System ... the Cache is set to 'No'

else {
document.getElementById('hotspots-geocoder-error').style.display = 'none';
place = response.Placemark[0];
placeDetails = place.AddressDetails;
accuracy = placeDetails.Accuracy;
latitude = latlng.y;
longitude = latlng.x;
point = new GLatLng(latitude,longitude);
addressfull = place.address;
addresssplit = addressfull.split(",");
streety = addresssplit[0];
plzsplit = addresssplit[1].split(" ");
plz = plzsplit[1];
town = plzsplit[2];
country = addresssplit[2];
}

I meant the browser cache - ctrl + f5.
The code above looks fine. This should work in the backend....