Geolocation Widget: loads slowly after modifying the form

  • Aaardvaark
    Asked on December 27, 2014 at 12:26 AM

    This form uses a geolocation widget that has previously worked ok.

     

    I just updated the form by changing the drop down list to three fields.  Since then the (unrelated) geolocate widget:

     

    a) takes a long time to load,

    b) defaults to New York instead of around Canberra as it used to.  This is unacceptable for a Canberra birding group.

     

    Can someone tell me how to get this working as it did before please?

     

    Cheers,

    Julian

  • Welvin Support Team Lead
    Replied on December 27, 2014 at 8:10 AM

    Hi Julian,

    It seems you're right, so allow me to forward this thread to our widget team. They should be able to check further if there's anything from our backend that affects the speed of the widget.

    You will be updated here.

    Thanks

    PS, your second question related to the default location of the widget has been moved here: http://www.jotform.com/answers/482651. Will attend to it shortly.

  • Aaardvaark
    Replied on January 27, 2015 at 11:10 PM

    Hello

    I realise I have been asked to be patient about this, but it was raised more than a month ago and is causing me big headaches and loss of confidence in JOtform by my comittee and website users.  I have provided successive information to Jotform as things appear to have changed but have received no progress info or even indication that the issue is being actively addressed.

     

    Now my group and website has one ongoing form that doesn't work (resulting in much criticism not to mention loss of data), and one special form for a survey we will be carrying out starting 19th Feb that is set up for testing by committees but doesn't work.  I receive heavy criticsim from the committees involved (one is the same committee that quizzed me about why we needed to spend $99 pa for Jotform in the first place) and I have nothing to reassure them with.

    What do you suggest I do?  How long will it take to fix?  If it's not fixed in a month, what chance is there it will ever be fixed?  Why are there no progress reports to people affected by issues? If fixing it is causing problems, why doesn't someone ask for more info about symptoms and circumstances?  It seems that additional functionlality has been added to the widget recently - is this responsible for the problem? Why aren't users informed of new/changed functionality?

     

    Come on guys, Jotform is a market leader and many businesses and people rely on it.  We need better response from development than nothing at all.

  • Welvin Support Team Lead
    Replied on January 28, 2015 at 8:01 AM

    Please accept our sincere apologies. We can assure you that tickets are not set aside and our developers are working very hard to accommodate reports and requests.

     

    What do you suggest I do?  

    -I know you're waiting for the fix, but we don't have any other widget that works exactly the same so I'm afraid the only thing I can suggest is to let users manually input the complete details of the location instead of the map while we are into the process of fixing the reported bug.

     

    How long will it take to fix?  

    -I'm sorry, but the support team don't know of a possible timeframe as to when the issue or problem will be fixed. Rest assured that every ticket will be taken care of.

     

    If it's not fixed in a month, what chances is there it will ever be fixed?  

    -For as long as the problems are replicated, our developers would look into it and will give a fix. That is important for us to satisfy our users.

     

    Why are there no progress reports to people affected by issues?

    -Our developers are probably into the process of fixing the top priorities, yes, tickets are addressed based on their priorities. This ticket has been marked as "important" so I think our widget team is on it already.

     

    If fixing it is causing problems, why doesn't someone ask for more info about symptoms and circumstances?  

    -We already know the problem and I'm sure our developers know it already. If we need more information about it, we will let you know through this thread.

     

    It seems that additional functionality has been added to the widget recently - is this responsible for the problem?

    -I don't think so. Updates shouldn't cause the problem.

     

    Why aren't users informed of new/changed functionality?

    -I'm sure everyone will be updated about it. Maybe they are still working on some other properties of the widget and will publish it when everything is done.

     

    Thank you and again, our apologies for taking it a month to give you an update. I have also sent a reminder about this to our widget team. Still, your patience and understanding are highly appreciated.

    Regards

     

  • devgbk
    Replied on January 28, 2015 at 8:43 AM

    Hello Julian,

    I apologize for the delay. I'd like to inform you that the issue has been fixed. I've checked your form and it works fine for me now. Please recheck and let us know if you have other questions.

    Thank you!

  • Aaardvaark
    Replied on January 29, 2015 at 12:55 AM

    Hi again,

    Thank you for responding.  The widget does now display a map, but as mentioned before, someone has added functionality to this widget recently so that it reports street address as well as geolocation.  I have not seen this change documented anywhere.

    This function works fine if you DRAG the teardrop marker, but not if you DOUBLE CLICK to move it.  (win7; firefox 34)

    To explain...  unless your computer/device has gps, the reported location is approximate based on wifi (I think).  The map opens at an approximate location which can be 10 or 30 km from your actual location in my experience. So you move the marker to your actual address in one of two ways:

    a) by dragging the marker to the new location.

    b) by dragging and zooming the map to show your actual location (when the marker might not be visible) and then double clicking at your location to set the new location.

    In case b) I find that the street address in incorrectly reported to be the orignal marker location before you double clicked, not the final location of the marker.

    Thanks

  • widgets Jotform Support
    Replied on January 29, 2015 at 7:43 AM

    Hi, I just wanted to tell you that we made improvements on the widget. The map will now loads faster than before. Please try it out yourself and let us know your experience with it.

    We also fixed the proper data you should get once you dragged the marker. Of course all of the data are based from google map API data, specially the formatted address. So its still depends on your user to increase the accuracy of their location by just dragging the marker.

    Regards,
    Widget Team

  • Aaardvaark
    Replied on January 29, 2015 at 8:42 AM

    Hi - you've removed the abillity to double click to place the marker!!!   If the marker is a long way from your actual location, usually people pan and zoom the map, then double click to bring up the marker.  Otherwise you have to zoom out, drag the marker, zoom in, drag it a bit more etc.

    All my instructions to users talk about double clicking to set marker location, PLEASE put back this functionality.

    (I admit that I don't notice the maps are faster, but that might be related to what systems we each are using).

     

    Thanks

  • widgets Jotform Support
    Replied on January 29, 2015 at 9:10 AM

    Hi, @Aaardvaark, yeah you are right. Thank you for reporting. Its already been fixed. Can you please to try it again one more time?

    About the loading of map. It is actually depends on your internet speed connection. But it shouldn't be a problem because google optimized there maps to load faster. Right now we just made some improvements because the old version of widget will randomly show the map.

    Thanks
    Widget Team

  • Aaardvaark
    Replied on January 29, 2015 at 6:11 PM

    I thought you had it all right at the beginning, apart from the recent 'no map' problem. 

    But again, you've just changed the scale of the map when it first opens which is significantly worse than it was.

    Now, my map opens up at near street level, 20km from my house, and the same for other users.  Two problems: a) there is no context, you can't tell where you are until you zoom out to take a look, b) you can't straight away drag to somewhere closer to home on the default screen, c) more unnecessary zooming or dragging required.

    Your method is fine if people have GPS in the machine they are using, but many people use desktops, laptops and tablets without GPS so your actual location can be way off screen from the marker.  Remember too that some people use this on mobiles when they are bushwalking, so no streets, no features other than far-away roads.  The map should start at a level at which some features are visible even in the bush. Being presented with a plain green screen (featureless map) is very confusing and not useful.

    If you go back to the default zoom you had before, it's very easy for GPS fitted people to do a simple zoom in if they need to, and usually they don't need to because they know the location is within 5m.

    1) Can you put it back, at least 4 zoom levels more out than it is now please?

     

    2)

    The one change that would be very useful is to give form designers access to the geolocation box, so we can clear it programmatically if the map is not being used.  My users have a choice of how to enter their location, but if they choose another method, the map still returns a location that is wrong.  I want to be able to say "if user does not choose to use map, clear the widget fields".

     

    Thanks

  • David JotForm Support Manager
    Replied on January 29, 2015 at 11:29 PM

    I have forwarded this to our widgets team, so they can follow this up, Thanks.

  • widgets Jotform Support
    Replied on January 30, 2015 at 1:47 AM

    Hi, @Aaardvaark. The zoom level is now adjusted, let us know if you need anything further.

    About the other request, we'll move it to another thread whether we will implement that feature or not. I suggest to tell us your thoughts about it  or just elaborate your request further. It will be good if you can give us a simple use case. Please reply to this thread

    Thanks,
    Widget Team

  • Ashwin JotForm Support
    Replied on January 31, 2015 at 2:29 PM

    Hello Aaardvaark,

    Did you try to post a message to this thread? Unfortunately we have received an empty response from you. Please click on the following URL to reply again:  http://www.jotform.com/answers/482596 

    Thank you!