Google Maps Update

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Google Maps have been integrated into the platform for a while and it kinda needed a retouch. Previously, to put Google Maps to work you had to take several steps: you needed to set up an account with Google, generate the API key for your site and then go to Settings and paste it. Not that it took much efforts, but now you don't need to bother at all - Google Maps are ready to use right after you have created your site.

Does the update only concern the API key, which you have probably already submitted some time ago? Of course not, there's much more fun and use to this. First, the locations can be pinpointed on the map and the users can be forwarded to correct location based on their IP. For more details see Geotargeting. Second, if the vendor has several addresses and the deal is active in all of them at a time, they all will be marked on the map.

Finally, map on the vendor editing screen looks really fancy right now, allowing you to enter both: exact coordinates and plain address and have the coordinates auto-detected from the address. In case the coords were not detected correctly you can just drag the pointer.

Though if you don't need the map at all, you can simply uncheck the "Map it" box and the vendor address will show up on the deal as the plain text. Now you can go to the Vendors page of Admin section to test it all out.

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