lcollong
FabriKant d'applications web
Hi,
The new Gmap viz feature "Ajax load" enhance the user experience while waiting the markers to be displayed.
However :
A/ It breaks the sidebar feature allowing to show group heading while using the "group by" feature (see screenshots).
B/ the spinner is almost invisible. It's hard to catch the css to modify it. Not sure it uses the custom.css override of the viz template ? At least I did not succeed. I'd like to increase the size of the div container and assign a colored background to it (rgba(188, 45, 45, 0.5)) for ex). Where can I change the spinner itself (the animated image) ? I'd like it bigger.
C/ We have to use the "Maximum number of markers" in order to limit the loading time and avoid the server to "go away" (it has to be less than 200 in our configuration. 75 is a good choice for a reasonable waiting time). But the user never know if we display all possible locations or not (list is truncated or not). How could I catch the fact that the limitation has been applied ? I'd like to display a message saying something like "Your filtering setup is too large. All the markers are not shown". Ideally, it would be better to have a more precise indication : "Due to loading time limit, we show only 75 markers among the 234 your filter setup should display".
D/ How about breaking the number of markers to fetch in "group" of 10 and refresh every time a group is ready to display in the ajax process ? Or to show a progress message as we do for the CSV export showing the progression and giving the user an idea of the time he has to expect before the final drawing ?
The setup I use is visible in "mySites", site "NB" on the front (no login neeeded) : menu "BASES".
Finally, I'd have to think about alternative ways to deal with our over 1200 markers.
We already have a nice and efficient JS "drag and show" feature (menu BASES >> CARTE INTERACTIVE : index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=180). It's a wrapper to a standalone application initially built for smartphones. It's a fast and convenient way to implement a kind of radius search. The user is automatically aware of the markers number limit through the circle boundary. But it's a wrapper and hard to change to follow the evolution we have to make to the Fabrik's app itself. It uses a web service to load directly from the DB.
I've also installed the compojoom HotSpots tool (Menu HOTSPOT : index.php?option=com_hotspots&view=hotspots&Itemid=244). It's nice. The markers are dynamically loaded while you move the map and change the zoom level with the mouse wheel. I've loaded their table with our 1200 spots. And it manages that fluently. This is the free version. Their "pro" version has an even more interesting way to deal with a lot of markers as they explain here : https://compojoom.com/documentation/hotspots/ch05#id428912
The list/marker synchro window is a nice way to display things. It gives a more actual look'n feel and a better UX. It's Open Source.
I'd be nice to have a way to dynamically load and show markers a more friendly way ...
Meanwhile, I'll probably write a cron script to regularly update the hotspot component with the data from Fabrik (or form plugin each time a record is created or modified).
Laurent
The new Gmap viz feature "Ajax load" enhance the user experience while waiting the markers to be displayed.
However :
A/ It breaks the sidebar feature allowing to show group heading while using the "group by" feature (see screenshots).
B/ the spinner is almost invisible. It's hard to catch the css to modify it. Not sure it uses the custom.css override of the viz template ? At least I did not succeed. I'd like to increase the size of the div container and assign a colored background to it (rgba(188, 45, 45, 0.5)) for ex). Where can I change the spinner itself (the animated image) ? I'd like it bigger.
C/ We have to use the "Maximum number of markers" in order to limit the loading time and avoid the server to "go away" (it has to be less than 200 in our configuration. 75 is a good choice for a reasonable waiting time). But the user never know if we display all possible locations or not (list is truncated or not). How could I catch the fact that the limitation has been applied ? I'd like to display a message saying something like "Your filtering setup is too large. All the markers are not shown". Ideally, it would be better to have a more precise indication : "Due to loading time limit, we show only 75 markers among the 234 your filter setup should display".
D/ How about breaking the number of markers to fetch in "group" of 10 and refresh every time a group is ready to display in the ajax process ? Or to show a progress message as we do for the CSV export showing the progression and giving the user an idea of the time he has to expect before the final drawing ?
The setup I use is visible in "mySites", site "NB" on the front (no login neeeded) : menu "BASES".
Finally, I'd have to think about alternative ways to deal with our over 1200 markers.
We already have a nice and efficient JS "drag and show" feature (menu BASES >> CARTE INTERACTIVE : index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=180). It's a wrapper to a standalone application initially built for smartphones. It's a fast and convenient way to implement a kind of radius search. The user is automatically aware of the markers number limit through the circle boundary. But it's a wrapper and hard to change to follow the evolution we have to make to the Fabrik's app itself. It uses a web service to load directly from the DB.
I've also installed the compojoom HotSpots tool (Menu HOTSPOT : index.php?option=com_hotspots&view=hotspots&Itemid=244). It's nice. The markers are dynamically loaded while you move the map and change the zoom level with the mouse wheel. I've loaded their table with our 1200 spots. And it manages that fluently. This is the free version. Their "pro" version has an even more interesting way to deal with a lot of markers as they explain here : https://compojoom.com/documentation/hotspots/ch05#id428912
The list/marker synchro window is a nice way to display things. It gives a more actual look'n feel and a better UX. It's Open Source.
I'd be nice to have a way to dynamically load and show markers a more friendly way ...
Meanwhile, I'll probably write a cron script to regularly update the hotspot component with the data from Fabrik (or form plugin each time a record is created or modified).
Laurent
