MapAgenda's Widget

Do you want a list of events or your website or blog for a given geographic area? With MapAgenda's Widget it is vey easy.

The widget, which you can see in action on the right menu, is a miniature MapAgenda. It has three tabs corresponding to the main sections in the web:

• the events list
• the map
• the search filters or criteria

 ¿How does it work?

If you play around with the widget for a while you will notice it is very easy.

When loading the page, the widget shows automatically the events for the area and activity chosen by the webmaster.

If you change tabs, any change you do on the map, the activity or date, will be automatically reflected on the list or on the map itself.

If you are on the map, positioning the mouse over an icon, a description of the event will be shown on the top so you don't need to go to the list.

Intelligent link to MapAgenda

If you find the widget small, at any moment you can click on the MapAgenda logo and you will be carried to the main MapAgenda website on another page.

¿Why intelligent? because MapAgenda will show you exactly the area and activity presently chosen on the widget. You can try it by changing some parameters and clicking on the logo.

¿How do I install the widget?

On the MapAgenda map page you will find a link that will enable you to create it, configure it and edit it.

In order to do that you have to log in with your user credentials ¿Why?

Because the widget operation is fully controlled by you. You can edit it and change its size, the map area or the activity as many times as you like. And to achieve that, the system needs to recognize that the widget is associated to your account.

In the widget edition page you will also find the html code you must insert on your website.

¿What if the map on the widget is too small?

If you have a very small widget, probably the map on the second tab will not fit the area you want to cover.

Don't panic. When configuring the widget you can choose "another" map that  can effectively be adjusted to the area you want. This area is used for the initial loading of the widget events. This would be, let's say, the default behavior.

But, be aware that if the user changes to the map tab and moves or zooms the map, then the displayed events will be only those that are covered by this map, even if it is small, because doing otherwise would be counterintuitive for the user. He would not understand seeing events that are ouside the limits of the map.


I hope you find the widget useful. If you have any doubt about its operation, please, write it in a comment and I will update the post.

Initial Map Location and Activity

What location and activity are displayed when you connect to www.mapagenda.com?

It depends on two things:

• The parameters in the url behind www.mapagenda.com
• And the (default) paremeters that are stored in the browser

Let’s see the possible situations:

1.- First connection to http://www.mapagenda.com

MapAgenda has no way to know what area of the map to display, and instead of trying to guess it from the IP address, it presents this welcome page that lets you decide your location. It also lets you decide what activity to choose.

The entered place becomes the center of the map and is stored in the browser for future visits as default location.

2. Next visits to http://www.mapagenda.com

After the first visit, the browser already knows where to start and it goes directly there without asking again in the welcome page. The location and activities are the default values stored in the browser.

Note: If you delete the browser cookies, you will get the welcome screen again.

3. When the url contains both, the latitude and longitude parameters of the map center point, something like http://www.mapagenda.com/#!events;la=40.8267306;lo=0.2555989

Since your are providing the location in the url parameters, mapagenda goes directly to that point. In this case, it does not care if the default location parameters exist or not since it is not using them.

To sum up, if you want to show someone a specific area of the map, always include the latitude (la) and longitude (lo) parameters in the address. Otherwise, either mapagenda will ask the user for an initial location or it will use the default values that have been stored previously by him.

It is also a good idea to include the zoom parameter (z) that establishes the detail of the map.

How to change the initial location and activity?

As mentioned above, the location and activity entered in the welcome screen  are stored as default values in the browser itself and will be used as the starting point for future visits.

But once inside, mapAgenda allows you to change these values from the main screen. Go to “Search Options” and select  “Save the present search as default for future visits”.

Hope this helps. You can also give a look to the "Help" menu in www.mapagenda.com which contains an explanation of the different parameters.

Welcome

This blog will contain news and posts about mapAgenda, the agenda on the map.
And you will also find more detail of some messages sent to social networks and other media.