Using WPML, user-added markers and pulling specific data from OSM

shanecoughlan
(@shanecoughlan)

13 years, 5 months ago

Hi Robert

The first and most important question I have relates to the WPML plug-in. I’m based in Japan and all services need to appear in English and Japanese at a minimum. While I am aware that you have many translations (excellent work!), I can’t find any information on whether your plug-in works in multi-language sites using WPML. This is a very important consideration for me as we move towards deploying a new local service.

The second question relates to a site with many users contributing data. We are looking at building custom taxonomies, structuring their display and allowing registered users to add data via the Types, Views and CRED toolset. Is this something that plays nice with Maps Marker, or is there another way that users can add geo data without having to log-into the WordPress admin panel. This is an important consideration when you have something like a place listing. People might add some data about its address and perhaps services, and also want to be able to include a map marker.

Finally, while I understand that your plug-in can export data in various formats, it mainly seems to be focuses on allowing people to add markers. However, we are very interested in displaying segments of geo-data from OpenStreetMap en-masse for when people need it. For example, showing all the places of worship in a city, or viewing all the McDonalds. This data appears to be available in the OSM planet, but I would deeply appreciate if you could help us understand how it would be best connected with your plug-in.

I think what you have created looks great, and as long as we can accomplish the above, I believe it will be adopted on our end. I’m very interested in the pro-version and any expanded support options that you put out.

Regards

Shane

http://ww.wp.xz.cn/extend/plugins/leaflet-maps-marker/

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

Plugin Author Robert Seyfriedsberger
(@harmr)

13 years, 4 months ago

Hi Shane,

I dont know the WPML plugin in detail but as far as I can read from their website, I dont see a direct conex with my plugin. WPML focuses on translating content right? I might be wrong – to bad that there is no free version to test.

Ad contributing data: an API or hook for adding markers is a great idea, will think about this more in detail.

Ad OSM planet: I plan to add the feature to add external geojson files/url to display on your maps. Perhaps this could be an option. Nethertheless I would have to now more about in which formats or through which APIs your desired data is available.

regards,

Robert

Thread Starter shanecoughlan
(@shanecoughlan)

13 years, 4 months ago

Hi Robert

Regarding WPML, they have a program that gives free access to their plug-in and support to theme and plug-in authors to ensure compatibility. They use only standard WordPress API hooks. I believe multi-language is a very important feature moving forward, and it is quite distinct from translation. It means that one website can appear to users in different languages simultaneously. In Japan that’s not an optional feature. 🙂
http://wpml.org/purchase/theme-and-plugin-developers/

In my use case, and the reason I am writing to you, I have noticed that city guides often run into a critical error in multi-language. Basically, if the mapping plug-in does not support multi-language, we run into problems with default versus currently used language. Example is a site with English as a default and Japanese as a translation. When a user viewing the Japanese site clicks a marker, that marker might display English and redirect to the English listing page for the referenced item. It would be a critical error.

Regarding user-added data (front-end added data), there is probably no need to add additional functionality to your plug-in per se. Any site using custom post/page taxonomies and user-data can probably handle your custom post data for geo-referencing as well. My suggestion would be to ensure compatibility with WP-Types CRED or the more commonly used Gravity Forms. That way people can have a plug-in to build the user-added data forms that works nice with your plug-in, but it also works with the rest of the site. Less code, less bloat, less trouble.

Regarding external geojson data, I notice that both the OSM website and the MapQuest Open website have a way to dig into map data for their front-end users. MapQuest Open has a lovely category tab setup that you can see here (middle of top bar):
http://wpml.org/purchase/theme-and-plugin-developers/
Given that they are already delivering that POI data through their normal mapping tiles and associated data, whatever format they use would be the format I would want to adapt. Basically, we would not want to reinvest the wheel, but instead find a great way to show specific data.

I think what they are doing is creating layers using Nominatim. It is documented here:
http://developer.mapquest.com/web/products/open/nominatim

In short, I think your plug-in is great. I’m very close to investment, and I am willing to put time and money into this (not just one 50 USD license or something). However, my use case really needs to ensure multi-language, it needs to have user-added data, and it needs a quick way to zip through POI from OSM or MapQuest Open data.

It looks like you are very close to all these items, and I think all these items will also be high on the list for other developers/users around the world. It’s all about making it easier to have maps in any language that users can interact with, and which can display the open data we are getting as flexibly as possible. 🙂

Shane

Plugin Author Robert Seyfriedsberger
(@harmr)

13 years, 4 months ago

Hi Shane,
Thanks for the additional infos which are very valuable to me for planning the future architecture and functionality of my plugin.
I think I know understand your need about multilingual vs translations – currently all popup info for markers are stored in one db field, so switching language their would take lots of custom development. Anyway I will take a look at the wpml program for developers.
Advancing my plugin further to be able to provide hooks or apis like gravity forms or wp types seems to be a very good way for me which I will definitely take a closer look.
My current challenge is to find enough time to work my plugin as I started this project in my spare time & now try to provide a pro version which generates a growing revenue stream for me so that I can focus more closely on developing the more features and enhancing my plugin based on feedback like yours.
Best,
Robert

Thread Starter shanecoughlan
(@shanecoughlan)

13 years, 4 months ago

Understood and appreciated. I want to thank you for taking the time to address my questions and for your engagement with the lengthy replies. I know that this is a lot of work. However, I think you are doing fantastic stuff, and I look forward to seeing your pro option appear soon.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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