BETA VERSION: Map Locator Hack
 

Welcome to my first BETA Release of


This is my first try to get help from you guys. I tried to develop this on my own but i failed. I need help from all of you.

Before i start to describe what this hack does please take a look at the live demo. It makes my life much easier. Live demo can be viewed here.

Please move your mouse over the marks. You will see userinformations.

So this hack provides a map for VBulletin to show where your members are living. But i do not have the data for the US. I just have the data for germany and due to this i can only provide the german map. I have added the US map and a map of india but without the data i will not be able to finish this hack for other countries.

Please read my installation instructions completly BEFORE you start installing this hack. This hack is not easy to install and it will take you at least 30 min to get it running with the german map.

I would like to add: This is not an official release. This is a BETA version which is currently in production. I would not post this in this BETA section when i would not need your help. So what i need from you ? Please read my install instructions and read the part about the US data. If someone can provide this kind of data, i will be able to publish this hack.

If no one can provide this data, i will not continue with this hack because it works for me and due to the help of an indian VB member i will finalize this hack for him for india. So it is up to you.

UPDATE BETA 1.01:
After having done the base work, i focused now on the performance. If you have many members in your domain and many people open this map, your server will struggle. The heavy SQL part of this hack will bring down your server. Due to this i implemented a performance improvement.

I created the following logic around the hack:
- check if the number of ZIP code entries of the members has changed.
- if yes, then redraw the map with all queries ( a lot of queries which are required )
- if no, then take the already drawn map and take the userinfo which has been saved into a file rather then redo all queries again

Improvement:
- Up to 800% because people do not change their ZIP code so often
- if new ZIP codes are added only 1 person will issue the heavy SQL load to your server and this just ONCE
- every other person will get the cached version of the map with a really nice performance ( 5 queries in total )

And on top of that i added the Locator template to the cached templates. So this hack should be performing very well now. You can check it on my live demo site.

I have updated the ZIP file with the new locator.php file. For upgraders, just replace the locator.php file in your forum root folder. Then please do a "chmod 777 data" in your forum root folder. All set all done.

Cheers,

Wow that is very cool idea... props to you (not useful for usa folks yet but still promising)

I can't help with the USA info but I really hope someone can. I'd love to add this to my site.

I know from the indian guys, that they are going to buy a CD with the data on it. Then export the data into a SQL format and provide it to me. The data is freely available. Only the maps and the software on the CD is not freeware.

So if something similar is available for US then please go for it. As soon as someone can provide me the data, i will release the US version of this hack.

Cheers,

Great hack but I saw it was using 71 queries... I dont know if that can be reduced but if not, you may want to limit how often the page can be refreshed (like the search feature) in case someone gets pissed at you and decides to reload that page until your site crashes.

Hi Reeve,

you are right. 71 queries are a lot and this is the reason why this is a BETA release. There is no performance tuning done, there is no optimization done yet. This is on the to-do list.

But regardless of this we can discuss this here because i see a problem how to reduce the number of queries. I need the ZIP code for each member. Then i need to draw the point into the map where this member lives and then i have to gather the information about this member like habition and link to his profile.

So in total there are 2 x times the number of members queries for this page. I reduced it already from 4 x times the number of members by using arrays but keep in mind that i have to draw a point into the map for each member.

But i am very open for suggestions to reduce the number of queries because i always try to keep my queries very low. Any ideas ?

Cheers,

completely understand that its a beta, I didn't mean to sound condesending in any way. I can only imagine the amout of work it took to integrate this and the results are great!

I'm not the greatest coder but perhaps this could be a static html page thats updated with new users via cron at a set interval?

What US info do you need?

Download the hack and open the install.html file. In the file you will find an example of what i need in detail.

Cheers,

This is a good point. What i could do:

- Implement at the beginning a query which counts the number of ZIP codes entered by the members.

- If the number is the same, then don't redraw the map

- If the number is not the same then draw the map and instead of echo the userinfo and data like mouseover, write this info into a file.

- open the map and load the data from the file

So this would reduce the number of queries to 1 or x. And only if a new ZIP code has been entered, the load of queries will run.

How does this sound ? Good or bad idea ? Any other possibilities ?

Cheers,

just clicked install
working on it

;)
thnx a lot for map of india m8

this is awesome, been looking for something like this, although my users are all over the world :(

I also have been wondering about the feasibility of this - great work and I'd love to see this worked on by all of us (I'm an Aussie so we should be easy enuff to do ;))

If you have worldwide access then i would suggest you use "globetrotter". This is a world wide map, where users can drag and drop their location and can add personal information about themselves.

Just a suggestion. :nervous:

Cheers,

Certainly looks very interesting. Would be good when it's complete and has a UK map :D.

Then please provide me the map details i need for this hack for UK.

Cheers,

Hi @LL,

please read my update on the first post of this hack. I just did a massive performance improvement for this hack.

Cheers,

for world entire?

thanks

If you can provide the data i need for the hack, then yes. Please download the hack and read my description of the needed data. If you can provide the data for spain, then it is not a problem.

Cheers,

Great one - flash involved? If you need IP codes, I've got a large MySQL table of them...

No Flash at all. It is pure Javascript for the mouse over.

What do you mean with IP codes ? And for which country ?

Cheers,

Great Hack, thanks!

The nearest I can find for the UK is this...Very similar format except the name of town is replaced with UK Post code...
Example:

areacode,x,y,latitude,longitude
AB10,392900,804900,57.135,-2.117
AB11,394500,805300,57.138,-2.092
AB12,393300,801100,57.101,-2.111
AB13,385600,801900,57.108,-2.237
AB14,383600,801100,57.101,-2.27
AB15,390000,805300,57.138,-2.164
AB16,390600,807800,57.161,-2.156
- etc -


The link is here http://www.jibble.org/ukpostcodes/

I've also attached the full list as a zip..Hope this helps...

Hi DaveLogic,

sorry for not knowing the UK very well, but are Post codes = ZIP codes ? But i am missing the city names like London, Altrinham, etc.

Cheers,

Yeah, the UK's Post codes are equivelant to ZIP codes..........I've searched high and low for the city names as well but with no luck except for the Airport codes..Entering just the postcode however would still work as well IMO...

Hi DaveLogic,

the current Hack provides userinformation with mouseover effect where the city name is highlighted. You information is great. It is 75% of the data i need.

I have already downloaded the GEO data for the UK and i will be able to draw a map of the UK in the near term.

But i need the city names. Without the city names i will not be able to use the current hack and i do not want to start a new version only for the UK or for any other country. I want to keep it simple which will make my life easier supporting this hack. I hope you understand this.

Regardless of this you are the second guy with really usefull information about a country.

Could you please check if you can get a list of city names and post codes ? I can write a script to combine the 2 sources to one big sql file. This would solve all our problems.

Cheers,

Here's the full list of UK postcodes with city names
http://www.brainstorm.co.uk/post-codes2.txt

Because both files are in CSV format it should be possible to merge the data with the location data???

Hey DaveLogic ? You are really quick. That's all i need. I will now try to merge these files to get one DB for the UK. Now please lay back and relax and be patient. The rest is now my work.

Cheers,

I'd be very interested when you get this operational for the UK :cool:.

All the thanks is to you............

The last script i created for the US ( with the wrong data i had ) took about 4 hours on a 2Ghz machine doing nothing else then sorting out and recombining the data into a sql format. Let's see how long it will take for the UK data assuming i can remod my old script quick enough.

Give me some time. I will get this running for you. Please be patient.

Cheers,

Ok guys,

i need some guidance here.

I can sort out the data to be in one file to be exported into a sql file ... BUT now i have a problem.

In germany we have one big city name like Berlin which has multiple suburbs and multiple ZIP codes. This hack does the following:

Before starting to confuse you ... i need the following information:

If i take e.g. post code AB23 then i have 15 city names. So i have one geographical location, one ZIP code and 15 city names. The german map has in comparison to that 1 geo location, 20 zip codes but one city name.

What should i take then as a city name ? Please advise.

Cheers,

If you have a UK map it couldn't be that precise / detailed really so for example codes:

"Altens",Aberdeen City,AB1
"Auchlunies",Aberdeenshire,AB1
"Banchory-Devenick",Aberdeenshire,AB1
"Benthoul",Aberdeen City,AB1
"Bieldside",Aberdeen City,AB1
"Blacktop",Aberdeen City,AB1
"Charlestown",Aberdeen City,AB1
"Contlaw",Aberdeen City,AB1
"Cove Bay",Aberdeen City,AB1
"Craigton",Aberdeen City,AB1
"Cults",Aberdeen City,AB1
"Downies",Aberdeenshire,AB1
"Fairley",Aberdeen City,AB1
"Findon",Aberdeenshire,AB1
"Hazelhead",Aberdeen City,AB1
"Heathcot",Aberdeenshire,AB1
"Hillside",Aberdeenshire,AB1
"Kincorth",Aberdeen City,AB1
"Kingsford",Aberdeen City,AB1
"Kingswells",Aberdeen City,AB1

would simply be AB1 = Aberdeenshire. The first part of the list is just a very small area within Aberdeenshire...One post code would equal an entire area therefore you wouldn't need dupicate postcodes...The postcodes begining with A would then filter down to:

Aberdeen City AB1
Aberdeen City AB2
Aberdeen City AB22
Aberdeenshire AB23
Aberdeenshire AB3
Aberdeenshire AB30
Aberdeenshire AB31
Aberdeenshire AB32
Aberdeenshire AB33
Aberdeenshire AB34
Aberdeenshire AB35
Aberdeenshire AB36
Moray AB37
Moray AB38
Aberdeenshire AB41
Aberdeenshire AB42
Aberdeenshire AB45
Aberdeenshire AB51
Aberdeenshire AB53
Moray AB55
Moray AB56
Hertfordshire AL1
Hertfordshire AL10
Hertfordshire AL2
Hertfordshire AL3
Hertfordshire AL4
Hertfordshire AL5
Hertfordshire AL6
Hertfordshire AL7
Hertfordshire AL8
Hertfordshire AL9

Please let me know if I am on the right track....

Hi UK guys,

i have done my best now and i think i have taken the most out of it.

First of all the data you provided does not match each other... e.g. the one data set start with post code A10 and the other one starts with A1,A2,A3,etc. So i am missing this data completly because i have no GEO data for these post codes.

In addition i am missing an area called channel islands completly. I have just the name and no information at all about this area.

Regardless of these problems i took me some time to make the data unique and to bring them into the right format. I took the area names and the post codes. I disregard the city names completly. And if i had double names for areas i took the first ones as the actual name for the post codes. Please keep in mind that i am not living in UK and as a foreigner it is hard to find the best way.

The easiest way for you would be to crosscheck the source data from me and if you want to correct them, then feel free to proceed BUT please share your changes with us. This will improve this hack for all of us.

Unfortunately i had to redraw the complete map and i found out that your UK map is totally incompatible with the german map. As a result out of this i have to create a new zip file for the UK version of this hack. I have to point this out to every person that the files for each map are not compatible. But this is still a BETA version. This is something for the future.

Now let's show you what i got so far. Please have a look at the following test site and provide some feedback. What kind of feedback ? Are the locations correct ? I just took 3 examples. Let's see what you think of this ... it was a long night for me :-) .

Testlink

Cheers,

Hello US guys,

what are you doing ? Germany is finished, UK is 90% finished, India, Austria and Switzerland are 50% finished.

US is still 0%. Come on guys. Please help me to create a US version of this hack. It can't be so difficult. If every other country can find this data ... you should be able as well.

Cheers,

The UK map appears to be working correctly...You work very fast!!

Hi Dave,

i do my best and if i start something i want to get it done.

Question: Did you make the appropriate installations already on your server for this hack ? In detail: Image_GIS, etc ? If yes, i would like to post the UK data you need to get this up and running. What do you think ?

Cheers,

No but I can do it right now........I have checked and I have Pear etc.....

Ok Dave. Here we go. Take this ZIP file and check it out.

Cheers,

Any feedback so far about the UK map ? Does it work ?

Cheers,