Locations Map

Instructions

First install and activate the plugin. This will add the “Locations Map” menu item to the Participants Database admin menu. Click that item to open the Locations Map settings screen. The first step is to get your API key.

Getting Your API Keys

To use Google maps services, you must have an API key. It’s no big deal: they are free, you just have to have a Google account, and then set up the API access through Google Developers.

1. Visit https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/
2. Click on Get Started, you may be asked to log in to your Google account
3. Select Maps, click continue
4. Select or Create a Project: Just create a new project and give it the name of your website
5. The project will be created, it can take several seconds
6. Set up billing: Google requires that you have a billing account in case you start to run up charges (you probably won’t…see below)
7. The Maps API will be enabled
8. You will then be given your API key. Copy this and paste it into the “Maps JavaScript API Key” setting in the Locations Map settings.
9. Go to your Google Cloud APIs Dashboard, make sure you have the right project selected, then on the left, select “Credentials.”
10. To set up the Geocoding API key, add another API key by clicking on the “Create credentials” button. This will be used only for Geocoding, so give it a name that identifies it for that purpose. Paste it into the “Geocoding API Key” setting.

Static Maps require an additional Google Static Maps Signing Secret key. Instructions for setting that up can be found on this page: Generate a Digital Signature

Google Maps Services is Free—To a Point

For each service used, Google provides a limited number of free loads (every time someone loads a page with a map on it, that’s one load). Unless your site has very high volume, it won’t cost you anything to show maps. This plugin uses three Google services: Dynamic Maps, Static Maps and Geocoding.

Every time a page with a dynamic map is opened on your site, it will generate a Dynamic Map load. You can have up to 28,000 of those per month for free. You’d probably have to be getting several thousand visits a month (with them all seeing your map) to hit that.

Static Maps has higher limits: you’ll get 100,000 free map loads per month with those. Static maps lack the user interactivity of dynamic maps, but they are cheap, fast and really all you need for many applications.

Geocoding also has limits, but it’s not used very often. We only need to geocode when a record is created or updated. You’ll get 40,000 of those for free per month.  If you have a lot of records, you might get over that number when you geocode the entire batch, but after that you’re unlikely to hit charges for geocoding.

Get all the details in the Google Maps Pricing Table…

Once you have the API keys in place, you can show the map in your list and single record displays. A detailed explanation of the plugin’s settings is found under the “Settings” tabs here.

Dynamic Maps or Static Maps?

You should decide whether you need to use Dynamic Maps or Static Maps. They are used differently and result in a different display…here are the pros and cons:

Map Type	Pros	Cons
Dynamic	user interactivity like zoom, panning, street view, change map type location markers info popups on markers more appearance control	fewer free loads can take longer to load when viewed more complex display could be confusing or distracting
Static	loads instantly, no javascript simple display location markers lots of free loads	no user interactivity less responsive: you must define dimensions less control over appearance no marker info popups

Placing Dynamic Maps

Dynamic maps can be placed automatically, without the need for custom templates, by selecting a location in the list or single record displays using the Automatic Map Placement settings. In the list display, the map will show in the selected location (top or bottom) with markers for all the records shown in the list results. A search result will show a repopulated map with markers for the result set.

It is also possible to enable a map display on a specific list shortcode (instead of using the auto placement setting which will place the map on all list shortcodes) by adding the “listmap” attribute to the list shortcode: [pdb_list listmap=true]

The map for the single record shows a marker for the location of that record.

Dynamic Map Shortcodes

If you want to just show a Dynamic map with it’s markers, they can also be shown with a shortcode. Don’t use these shortcodes to add a map to the list display, they are for showing a map on it’s own.

[pdb_listmap] shows a map with all your located records as markers. You can use the “filter” attribute in the shortcode to determine which records are included or excluded.

[pdb_single_map] shows a map for a single record with a marker for its location. You will need to access it’s page using a ?pdb=id type of URL (typically, by using the “single record link” in the list display), so that the shortcode knows which record to show. Or, if you are a coder, you can use it in a custom template and set the record id in the shortcode, using the ‘record_id’ attribute.

Dynamic Map Templates

Dynamic maps can also be displayed using a custom template. The add-on comes with two example templates for showing a dynamic map: pdb-list-dynamicmap-default.php and pdb-single-dynamicmap-default.php You can use them as-is or use them as a starting point for your own custom templates.

If you are already using a custom template, take a look at these examples, you’ll see it’s very simple to add a map to a template.

Placing Static Maps

Static Maps are used in three ways: as a custom form element, the [pdb_list_static_map] shortcode or using a special template.

The Static Map Form Element

Setting up the map as a Participants Database field is convenient if you want to show a small map in a list display or you want the map to be part of the single record display.

Static maps must have their width and height set beforehand. If you don’t define the width and height in the field definition, it will use the global map height setting for the width and the height (resulting in a square map).

You can set several parameters in the field definition to set up your map:

• ‘width’ sets the width, in pixels for your map display
• ‘height’ sets the height in pixels
• ‘located_only’ when set to true will only show a map if the record has been located (i.e., has latitude and longitude data)
• ‘zoom’ sets the zoom level of the map; if omitted, the zoom level is determined by the global zoom setting. Values here range from 1 to 20.
• ‘maptype” can take one of 4 values: roadmap, satellite, terrain, hybrid and determines the type of map display to use
• ‘center’ allows you to set a default center for the map: if there is a marker present, it will center on that marker. You must use the | (pipe) character instead of a comma to separate the latitude and longitude values. 

For example: this field is configured to show a map of width 650 pixels wide by 500 pixels in height, showing a hybrid map centered on San Francisco.

Zoom levels range from 1 to 20, this is from the Google Maps documentation to give you an idea what to set it to:

• 1: World
• 5: Landmass/continent
• 10: City
• 15: Streets
• 20: Buildings

Note: map sizes are limited by your Google API plan type. Normally, this is 650 pixels, but if you upgrade your plan, you can get up to 2048 pixels. Details here…

You can manage the appearance like any other Participants Database field. If you want the map to show up in your list display, make sure the map field is configured to do so. For single displays, it will appear like any other field.

Map fields do not display in signup forms or record edit forms.

The [pdb_list_static_map] Shortcode

This works much the same as the [pdb_listmap] shortcode, only it shows a static map. The shortcode uses the ‘width’ and ‘height’ attributes to set up the dimensions of the map display. You can use these attributes in the shortcode:

• width – in pixels
• height – in pixels
• zoom – sets the base zoom level of the map, 1 to 20 as explained above.
• center – longitude | latitude for the center of the map, defaults to auto-centering the map on the markers
• maptype – can be roadmap, satellite, terrain, or hybrid

For example, to show a map that is for someone’s address, you could use a setting like this:

[pdb_list_static_map zoom=15]

The the map display here is static, that means that the user won’t be able to zoom it themselves.

The Static Map Template

This add-on includes a special template for showing all your record markers in a static map. If you need to set up a custom list template using a static map, you can use the included pdb-list-static-map-default.php template as your starting point or as an example of how to include the map.

To use the static map template in your list shortcode, use a shortcode like this: [pdb_list template="static-map-default"].

Configuring the Appearance of the Dynamic Map

There are several preferences for determining how the dynamic map will look. First, you can select the Map Style, which is the color scheme of the map. There are several available, and it is possible to create your own color scheme if you want.

The Map Height setting sets the size of the map display. The map will always try to be as wide as possible, filling the available horizontal space. It is necessary to give the map a specific height to determine how much vertical space it will take. The usual size is around 300 pixels, this will look good on most handheld devices. You don’t want to try to show a map that is larger than the screen size of the device since the user can scroll within the map window.

Map Controls determine what the user can do with the map. You have several controls that you can enable or disable depending on your needs. It is probably a good idea to have as few of these enabled as possible to avoid unneeded clutter in the display.

Each location is marked on the map with a Marker Icon, you can select the type of icon and color.

Marker Info Pop-Ups show information from the record when the marker is clicked on or hovered over. You can configure the content of the info box: it’s possible to put pretty much anything you want to show in there, the template gives you a way to determine which fields are shown and how they are laid out in the box.

Geocoding

Most of the time, your records will have an address that defines its location. Geocoding takes this address information (from anywhere in the world!) and converts it to the latitude and longitude values needed to place the marker on the right spot on the map.

You’ll need to tell the plugin which fields are your Address Fields, it uses the data in those fields to determine the location. It’s possible to locate markers with partial information, such as a state or city, but it will be more accurate with a complete address.

If your records already have latitude and longitude data, you don’t need to use geocoding, just make sure the Latitude and Longitude Field settings tell the plugin where to find that info.

Mass Geocoding

If you already have a records when you set up the map plugin, you’ll want to geocode those so that their markers will be placed. The Geocode All Records button does this for all the records in the database. The operation takes place in the background, so once you start it, you can do other things. You’ll need to refresh the page after a few minutes to see the results of the operation.

API Key Restrictions

API keys should be restricted to prevent their use by others. Key restrictions will only allow the website that is authorized to use them to gain access to the API and its services.

For our purposes, there are only two kinds of restrictions we are concerned with: “HTTP referrers” and “IP addresses.” HTTP referrer restrictions are for requests from the client side, and so this includes Dynamic Maps and Static Maps. IP address restrictions are for requests directly from the web server to Google: this is what the Geocoding API needs. Here is a handy chart:

Plugin Feature	Google API	Restriction to use
Dynamic or Static Maps	Maps JavaScript API	HTTP Referrer
Geocoding (Location Markers)	Geocoding API	IP Addresses

Setting Up Restrictions

HTTP Referrer restrictions should contain the domain name of your website. If you want to use the same key on multiple sites, you can add more domains. It’s a good idea to use wildcards in the setting…for instance, for this site, I would use: https://*.xnau.com/* so it will cover all subdomains and paths in the site.

IP Address restrictions require that you know the IP address of your web server. You can usually find this on your hosting control panel, or you can just ask your web host. In some cases, there are multiple possible IPs that your server could use, so you should add all of them to the restrictions setting for the API key.