Dedicated Locations Search

sorry, big backlog over the holidays so can’t help atm…

however, the latest update should already search locations too. there’s also the shortcode/PHP attribute ‘search’ which should work for locations too if that helps

Hi Marcus,

How do I activate the locations search feature?

hi,

you can use search attribute ‘search’ on shortcode [locations_list search=”test location”] or using template file templates/templates/locations-list.php like $args[‘pagination’] = ‘test location’;

https://wp-events-plugin.com/documentation/event-search-attributes/

locations are automatically searched in the text box for event searches on the default search form.

What’s missing is a search that returns locations, not events. The exact equivalent of the same that already exists for events but so that it wouldn’t have to be aware of anything else than locations.

For me it’s odd that this form isn’t sitting in the top of the locations list by default, since this would be very useful and I’d imagine adding the feature in core wouldn’t take many hours by reusing the code of event search.

we’re working on some search alternatives for locations (which will also optionally include geocoding)

that said, creating a form/search function isn’t terribly hard already, e.g. you can feed the search string like this:

echo EM_Locations::output(array('search'=>$search));

Hi Daedsalon, what you are saying is right, but I am just gratefull the plugin has all the features it currently has, so Im going to be patient.

Below is what i used for my dedicated locations search page

<?php
$counties = $_GET['country'];
$region = $_GET['region'];
$town = $_GET['town'];
$state = $_GET['state'];
$search = $_GET['em_search'];

$args['page'] = (!empty($_REQUEST['pno']) && is_numeric($_REQUEST['pno']) )? $_REQUEST['pno'] : 1;
$args['offset'] = ($args['page']-1)*$args['limit'];
$args['pagination'] = true;
$args['scope'] = 'future';
$args['country'] = $counties;
$args['state'] = $state;
$args['town'] = $town;
$args['region'] = $region;
$args['search'] = $search;

	$args['format'] = '<div> your format </div>

and then echo EM_Locations::output(apply_filters('em_content_locations_args', $args));

Btw Marcus, as you are currently making a search form with add geozipping. Can your team please be active on the following thread

https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/plugin-events-manager-add-simple-placeholder-for-zip-code-distance?

It will be really helpful.

Thanks a ton, Adzay. Based on your code I made a complete 2-step copy-paste patch to add location search to Events Manager. I mixed several typos and other errors, added JavaScript to make the search form not send the default value and removed unnecessary code, such as events-only code (scope, categories), and combined the variable operations from the above patch (eg. $args['search'] = $_GET['em_search'];).

Hopefully this one gets added into core soon. I have been surprised that this feature hasn’t been in core since the early days of the plugin, so it’s a great time to add it there. If this wasn’t so easy to do in the end I’d say it’s time to increase the version number to 5.4 ??

@adzay, just answered it a few mins ago ??

as you can see, it’s not so straightforward as it seemed, but we have some cool ideas to get this working.

@daedalon , Glad to see my minimal php knowledge helped someone out. ??

Funny enough, i worked that out but I just cant figure out a way to have one universal search form with a check box to choose whether it is a “event search” or “Location search” to decide whether to redirect the user to Locations List or Events list… If I find it I will also post.

will take that into consideration when making our one.

Adzay, that’s rather simple. Can’t give a proper example right now, but the way to do it would be roughly:

1. Add a new field to the form, perhaps a dropdown or a radio button (checkbox only if you want user to be able to check both; or to have one option only, eg. “search for locations, not events”)

2. Check for that value in PHP, and based on that, go for either EM_Events or EM_Locations::output(apply_filters('em_content_locations_args', $args));

I myself have been considering having the main search form search for both at the same time, and it would display both. The main question now is the UI, what to display. Eg. up to 5 locations first, then up to 20 upcoming events? Luckily EM will handle the paging, but not the UI decisions ??

Having a universal Events OR Locations search form on EM front page might be good, though. I’ll keep this in consideration. If we decide to try this, I’ll create one and share the code.