CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Hi - in some cases the Google Map via CiviCRM is not returning the same result as putting the same address directly in to Google Maps.

One workaround seems to be providing a checkbox next to the Lat Long fields in the Edit screen, so that when checked the GMap look up does not run, meaning that manually entered Lat Longs will not be overwritten.

Sound like a good plan?

I don't understand how the proposed fix addresses the problem (or exactly what is causing the difference between what you're seeing inside CiviCRM vs. entering an address directly). If the difference relates to what happens when the map display is based on a geocoding lookup via GMap api vs. map displayed based solely on address - then seems like the "checkbox" should do something different (i.e. Don't get or submit lat / long)

Peter - Is this the rationale? And if so, how does user get the more accurate lat/long to enter "manually" in the contact edit form?

I'd also be interested in a fix for this (see http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,14830.0.html) as even the latest Google Maps isn't always correct!  I won't be any help at coding a solution but I'm happy to test anything that someone else comes up with.

Cheers,
Erica.

As kurund mentioned earlier, if u'd like to see this happen please submit a patch and/or sponsor a developer to write the needed code

lobo

As I understand scope of this project is to add checkbox for Contact Edit form next to lat/long and handle processing / skip google auto calculation of geocode. Right? IMO this should be around 20 hours.

Kurund

Given that there seem to be alternate web-service solutions that provide more accuracy (at least for specific locales), I'm wondering if it makes sense to include the ability to specify an alternate geocode lookup method as part of this project (via hook, config file or admin ui)??

Peter, my apologies for not understanding what you meant in the previous forum.  I'm pretty new to all this and didn't quite know what you were referring to with going halves.  Unfortunately my organisation are not really in a position to donate to this project, as we have a very limited IT budget and the lat/long override functionality is not a crucial issue.  We may be able to contribute a few hundred dollars, but I'm pretty sure that's not going to cover anywhere near half of a 20 hour project.  I suspect a developer's hourly rate is a little more substantial than my community sector one!

I've been thinking a bit more about the issue, and wondering if a better strategy would be trying to improve the accuracy of the Google geocodes.  The only issue I've found in so far is to do with corner addresses in Australia, so if the Google geocoder were able to recognise those kinds of addresses I wouldn't have much of an issue.  I have no idea how to do this, however, as I don't know anything about how Google or its geocoding operates.  I'm probably getting very out of my depth here!

Also, I just switched my provider over to Yahoo (after a lengthy and confusing sign-up process) and the accuracy for corner addresses isn't any better than Google.