Locator program

[Doug Nelson]

Looking for a script that integrates with vb (style and userbase) that will allow locating members by distance (if they elect to allow it). So you'd put in your zipcode and it would show a map with marks on it for members within X miles.

Not for social networking, for locating businesses.

Anyone know of anything like this?

Thanks in advance.

[calorie]

Perhaps try this modification with the ideas from this post. There is also this ZIP Code and Distance Calculation Class that you may find useful.

[Doug Nelson]

I'm looking for something where my users could enter their location and contact info, check a few boxes and enter some descriptive text. Then a non-member that needed their services could enter a zipcode or click on a map to find the users closest to them that offered the services they specified.

[calorie]

One way would be to use custom profile fields (www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/main/profile) and create something using this to calculate distances.

[mhackl]

A finished product that could accomplish this would be great. I say finished because I'm codedumb. I think this could be useful in most commercial applications of vb.

[Doug Nelson]

Yes, I'm looking for something they could input different info from their profile if they wanted (company name instead of forum nick, etc.). And opt into (since 99.9% of my users would not want to be listed).

Since this would be for commercial sites, it wouldn't need to be freeware.

I'd need to be able to specify some default fields, plus the member could add additional info.
Need to be able to locate worldwide, not just US (ie: not only via zip, a clickable map would be great for the initial narrowing).
Then the person searching could click on the fields important to them, provide a maximum distance, etc., and get a ranked result.
A "map this" link for each result would be great.

Imagine you run a site for any professional field (programmers, accountants, repair, etc.). Interested participants could enter their info, click on their areas of expertise, maybe add some marketing text. Then anyone looking to find a programmer, accountant, repair person, etc., near them could specify the expertise they need, how far they're willing to travel, where they're originating from, etc. Then they'd get a ranked list of the best matches and contact info (including an email link, homepage link, map, etc.)

I'd also like to be able to limit who could post on this (perhaps senior members only, perhaps paid subscribers, both, some other combo, etc.). And moderation would be a good option, as well (with notification that there are listings waiting for moderation). These would all allow the list to be kept on-target and high-quality.

I guess while I'm dreaming, I might as well add customizable metatags such as description and keywords, so we can have some degree of control over how these listings are googled.

Further thought: even better than a checkable list of interest areas, if they could be required to rank them (with zero being no interest or experience) it would help provide even more meaningful ranking results.

And ideally (for me anyway) the whole thing would run via a separate database (taking user info from vb db, but not making any changes to it).

[Doug Nelson]

How much would something like I have described cost to have custom-built?

I have since found several requests here for this same thing, searching for "business directory". Odd that so many people are looking for something like this, but no one has taken advantage of this opportunity.

[Doug Nelson]

This is something like what I have in mind. They have a rudimentary vb integration available, but it's very poorly implemented. But the product looks good. I'd like something like this, only fully integrated with vb (templates, users, etc.).

http://www.phpmydirectory.com

[Itworx4me]

This might be something worth looking at:

http://www.vbadvanced.com/products.p...roductinfo&p=2


Itworx4me

[Doug Nelson]

Thank you, but I already use the vbadvanced directory, it is not the same thing.