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Near Me Improvements

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07-25-2023 06:34 AM
Status: Open
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JeffreyThompson2
by MVP Regular Contributor
MVP Regular Contributor

I am working for a city government on an application designed to help citizens choose which park to visit and I was very excited about adding Near Me to it and then very disappointed that the actual implementation of Near Me made it unusable for this purpose. Here are my suggestions for Near Me improvements or maybe a new proximity based widget.

  1. The output of the widget should be available to other widgets. I want Near Me to sort and/or filter my existing list. I don't want my users to look through a separate list.
  2. Each of the map selection options should be individually removable in the builder mode. I could see putting in the pin and the distance chooser in my application, but I don't want the line or polygon options.JeffreyThompson2_0-1690291443324.png

     

  3. Why doesn't Near Me have a near me button? There should be a single button that gets the user's current location and does a near me search on it.

For my application, the ideal Near Me widget would just be a search bar with a current location button next to it. The user could enter an address or press the button and see the results in the list widget.

2 Comments
AzizaParveen1
by Esri Contributor
‎08-03-2023 02:21 PM

Hi Jeffrey,

Thank you for your feedback. Few of the items you mentioned in your message are already available 

1) I want Near Me to sort and/or filter my existing list. I don't want my users to look through a separate list.

Sort functionality is available in the configuration of Proximity analysis, it sorts results by distance as default but you can use field for sorting.

Please use filter widget in your app to filter your data, Near Me will honor those filters. If you turn on any filter and then run Near Me, it should honor the filter. Here is a blog on how to recreate Web Appbuilder Near Me workflow in Experience Builder  , the blog will guide you through the steps to set up filter widget.

3) You can configure search widget to use current location and set up message action (explained in the blog) to use it as an input for Near Me.

AzizaParveen1_0-1691097129415.png

We are currently working on sending the output results to other widgets.

We will consider your request to make sketch tools configurable.

Thanks,

Aziza

 

 

 

 

 

JeffreyThompson2
by MVP Regular Contributor
‎08-04-2023 05:37 AM

@AzizaParveen1 Thank you for your response. I am aware that Near Me can be used in these ways. They are not a replacement for my requests. As for request #3, adding a single button press Near Me search is just better UX than requiring the user to know to go to the search bar and use current location. As for request #1, please take a look at a screenshot of my app.

JeffreyThompson2_0-1691151937157.png

  1. There really isn't physical space in my layout for another separate widget and space is even more of a premium on mobile view.
  2. This is designed to be used by members of the general public who have never seen this site before. Asking them to figure out the Near Me interface is too much work and many users will get frustrated.
  3. I have spent a lot of time making these nice cards in my list. I want the users to see them as previews of what can be found in the park. Yes, I know I can configure the popupTemplate and Near Me will show that. It's still not the same thing and popups are being used for a slightly different purpose than the cards.
  4. Filtering the list also filters the map. Near Me doesn't do that.
  5. After running Near Me, if the user changes their filters, Near Me will not respect the changes.