TOPIC: More control over fields

Hotspots is a great plugin for my website ( www.bmxsweden.se ) ... if some adjustments where made Hotspots would be my no1 favorite!

Here is my wishlist:

1.) I would like to present predefined fields for each category. Today visitors can write whatever they like and they can also skip all data.
If you have a category (Ex. BMX race tracks) you want the same type of info for all tracks. Different categories could have different fields.

2.) Possibility for mandatory fields and picture, some spots are not interesting without info and an image.

3.) Possibility to place the menu on the right side ... now the menu expands everytime I try to reach the scrollbar on my homepage.

4.) Welcome screen ... always pop up when Hotspots loads ... would like to have an infobox when you click "add spot" to show info about what data to fill in. Perhaps also info about <br> to help users add a new row. Of course I would prefer if html was not needed and the editor were a bit more developed and idiot-proof.

5.) When I scroll on my website the map zooms in and out ... annoying, I would like to be able disable mousewheel-zoom ... it's enough with the +- on the left side.

6.) When I click on a category I would like to see all spots sorted by name and grouped by country. Then you can with a few clicks find info about a spot. Otherwise you have to scroll around the map/world to search for the spot... and if you are not sure about the location...it's difficult to find.

7.) I would like the possibility to have some categorys open only for admin, for ex. I want BMX tracks to be filled in by myself and other spots to be open for all logged in users.

8.) Hotspots module ... so that I place hotspots where I prefer it to be! (With full functionality!)

I'm a newbie on Hotspots, perhaps some of my wishes already is possible?

Hey Michael,
The difficult task with creating a software for wide audience is to make the software easy to use. Everyone needs something a little bit different.

1). It sounds like a cool idea. We already have the wish to create more fields. Here I came with the idea that you will have a view, where you can create new fields and they will automatically pop in the marker. Now you want to tie to the category. Any ideas how it should function, how the interface should look?

2). Where should the user make the configuration for this?

3) I don't like the menu at all. I have the same problem as you, but placing it on the left side is not going to solve a lot. I just cannot think of a cool solution - actually I don't want to have that menu over the map - I want to have it somewhere else.

4) I didn't understand this - what has the welcome screen to do with the add hotspots view?

5) We'll add an option for this in the next release. Now you can just search the forum and I explain how you can turn it off.

6) Why not use the option to center the map by the marker bounds. So if you have 2 markers - one in europe and one in USA - then the map will be zoomed out and you will be able to see all markers - check our demo site.

7) This seems like a feature that a very low percent of users will need. Do you have an idea how to add the feature without making the component overly complex?

There will be a module! What do you mean with full functionality? I imagine it more with the option to show the markers from a category.

1.) and 2.)
Perhaps you can solve it like this (to make it flexible)
In the back end when you add a category you can choose/toggle between standard fields and own defined fields ... and you can also mark fields that is mandatory.
For ex. on my site I would like for BMX race track to include fields as:
Image, Length, Type of gate, Random gate (Yes/no), description, club, address, webpage, contact info, track description, future plans, GPS-coordinates... and for the category Other Spots just fields like address, description, image and GPS-coordinates.
Perhaps you could have option fields where you can have a yes/no toggle?

3.) I agree ... perhaps a small menu icon in the upper left corner... when clicked it expands..click again and it hides.

4.) I tried to add a lot of info in the welcome screen to explain to visitors what info they shall fill in for each category when adding a spot ... I had plans to add info about <br> for those who don't know html. ... But when I have opened hotspots a few times the welcome screen becomes anoying, just an extra click to remove it. Instead I would like a pop-up window when users klick on the tab "add spot".

5.) Great!!!

6.) If users add a lot of spots over the world ... you can click center map by marker to see all in that category. But if you are looking for a specific spot (track) and you don't know the location of it you will have to check a lot of spots to try to find it.
What I had in mind is ... the selected category could have a detail button to the left. If you click the category all spots in that category appears (As it is today), if you click detail button you get title, country, city info of all spots instead of the map.
Click the title to see spot info.
.Could be useful but maybee it´s too much programming?

7.) To bad for me... for my website it would have been useful. But I understand that maybe the majority does not need it.

8.) I would like to be able to place Hotspots in a Module-position ...drop downs or other suitable places. (Full functionality means like it works today)... not only show markers) I have a nice dropdown on my template 990 pixels wide where it would be cool to place it. Or perhaps open centered covering 60% of the screen and dim the webpage in the background. You mentioned before on the newbie section that I can open it in a separate window ... have not figured out how to do this yet?

Anyway ...it's a great component as it is and your support is super!
Thanks for a lovely tool, it wil activate my visitors a lot!

Love Hotspots thus far.

So I'm in the US and we don't have villages, but we do have states. I'd like to know if there's a way to alter the location fields so an address can be typed in in Yankee format. While I'm extremely impressed with the map marker locator, many of the users of this site will only be capable of typing an address the American way.

*If there's already a thread about this that I missed, I'll slap myself in the forehead.

Hey Ted,
we are aware of the fact that the address suggestions are working fine only for germany:
compojoom.com/forum/27-hotspots/54-bug-r...ss-parsing-incorrect
We are updating to google maps API3 and I hope that there we'll have a solution that will work for the bigger part of the world