Updated: 23 October 2013
By: Gavin Smith
Email: support@teeplates.com
Thank you for purchasing my Wordpress Plugin. If you have any questions that are beyond the scope of this help file, please feel free to email via my user page contact form here. Thanks so much!
Poi Auto Map combines the power of Google's Maps and Places APIs to give you a simple way to add highly interactive Point of Interest maps to your website. All you need to do is define a starting address and a list of point of interest categories and POI Auto Map does the rest. Move the map and watch the points update. You can also define a database connection from which to source your POI points.
This Wordpress Plugin makes it easy to add full featured POI Maps to your Wordpress site with a simple shortcode.
Version 5.0 has been rewritten to use Google Maps API V3 with Google Places API.
The following new features have been included in version 5.0:
The following new features have been included in version 4.0:
The following new features have been included in version 3.0:
With the release of version 2.0, users can also:
POI Auto Map For Wordpress is a Wordpress Plugin designed for Wordpress 3.0+. It has only been tested in LAMP environments, however it may be possible to use in other environments as long as PHP / cURL is available.
All options are managed / edited via the Wordpress Admin Dashboard
2.1) Google Places API - top
In order to utilize Google Places Data, you will need to sign up for a Google Places API Key by following the instructions here: http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/places/#Authentication
Your API Key needs to be added to the POI Auto Map Settings page in the Wordpress Dashboard
You will need to provide an indivudual png icon for each category. You can make your own, purchase one from envato such as this - http://graphicriver.net/item/map-marker-mega-pack-66-icons/86505 , or download a free icon library such as the one used in the demo from here: http://mapicons.nicolasmollet.com
Copy the contents of the zip file to the plugins directory of your Wordpress installation:
Once everything is uploaded, go to the plugins menu of you Admin Dashboar (/wp-admin/plugins.php) and activate the POI Auto Map plugin. You will then see a POI Auto Map menu item for you to click on.
POI Auto Map For Wordpress is configured from within the POI Auto Map menu within the Wordpress Admin Dashboard. All settings are commented within the Admin pages.
You can display a POI Map based on your defaults as configured in the settings pages by adding the following to you post / page:
[poiautomap]
You can display a POI Map based on your defaults as configured in the settings pages by adding the following to you post / page. This allows you to specify an address for an individual page or post, not the default:
[poiautomap address="Main Rd, Smithville, USA" zoom="15"] Your text that is to be shown in the popup infowindow goes here. [/poiautomap]
The POI categories displayed on your maps are determined by the li items in the POI Category List options page. The settings page contains full instructions for the category setup and syntax used.
The following can be used as an example / demo
bank|Banks|bank|||hidden|
pizza|Pizza|food|pizza|hidden|
bread|Bakeries|bakery||hidden|
doctor|Doctors|doctor||hidden|
university|Universities|university||hidden|
police|Police Stations|police||hidden|
computers|Computer Stores|establishment|computer|hidden|
gym|Fitness|gym||hidden|
church|Catholic Churches|establishment|catholic|hidden|
photo|Photos|photo||hidden|db|
playground|Playgrounds|playground||hidden|db|
parking|Parking|parking||hidden|db|
Each POI category requires its own png format icon to use as a marker on the map. Each png file must be named the same as the UID tag for each category.
You need to define the size and anchor of the icons used. All marker icons must be the same size.
You can provide a png file to use as the main marker that is used to mark the initial address. This file must be named pin.png. You can also provide a pin-shadow.png file to use as the markers shadow. If you do not provide a pin.png, no marker will be added to the map.
You need to define the size and anchor of the main icon used. This can be a different size to the POI category marker icons..
If you decide to use the folowing features, you will need to provide additional icon images:
When viewing the driving directions popup, the visitor can now click the print icon at the top left to print a map and directions list.
POI Auto Maps now includes a database connector so that you can add POI markers from your own database, as well as Google Search results.The database used can be an existing mySQL database that you are using or it can be one that you create solely for this purpose. There is no tool included in this package for adding / editing database data. You can create a demo database by using the demo/poi.sql file to create it.
You must be running PHP 5.1 or better and be using mySQL. You also must have PHP PDO installed on your server.
In order to use the database connector, you will need to add your database settings to the Admin Dashboard.
You will also need to define the fields in the database to be used withing the Admin Dashboard.
You can use an existing database / table or can create a new one just for POI's. Either way, the table that you use must contain the following fields:
| Field | Type | Length | Decimal | Information |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| latitude | float | 15 | 10 | The latitude of your Point of Interest - required for the point to be shown |
| longitude | float | 15 | 10 | The longitude of your Point of Interest - required for the point to be shown |
| title | text | The text shown as the title in the marker's popup - may be left blank. | ||
| address | text | The Location's address - may be left blank | ||
| url | text | The url that the title links to - may be left blank or '#' | ||
| html | text | The html to be shown in the popup window - may be left blank | ||
| category | text | The category that this point belongs to. Also used as the default icon for the group - required for the point to be shown | ||
| icon | text | The filename (minus the png extensions) in the icons directory to be used for this marker only - leave blank to use the category marker |
POI Auto List provides an aditional tool to retrive the latitude and longitude of all database records that do not currently have one set. Without a latitide and longitude, the point will not be shown.
Once you have completed you database configuration, you can use the link at the bottom of the Database Setting Admin Dashboard page. This will search for all records without a latitude set and update it accordingly. There may be some cases where the batch geocoder cannot resolve the address. In this case, you will be shown which records fail and you should check the addresses and either simplify them, or enter manually.
The Batch geocoder uses the Google geocoding service. This service allows you to geocode somewhere between 2500 and 15000 addresses per day. If you need to do more than that, you will need to continue over a number of days or use some other method.
Once again, thank you so much for purchasing this wordpress plugin. As I said at the beginning, I'd be glad to help you if you have any questions relating to this plugin. No guarantees, but I'll do my best to assist. If you have a more general question relating to the scripts on CodeCanyon, you might consider visiting the forums and asking your question in the "Item Discussion" section.
Gavin Smith - Teeplates.com