Lenny Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 I'm looking to implement a more functional 'where to buy' component of our website - basically a liquor store and bar locator. Anyone have recommendations for a free or reasonably priced embeddable solution that allows the upload (or copy/paste) of excel data, which is then rendered into some sort of list and map component? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnBatch Posted October 4, 2015 Share Posted October 4, 2015 What code is your web site written in now? If it's .NET C#, I would simply use Google Maps API coupled with SQL Server for data storage. You can simply insert the location (stores and bars) addresses into your SQL server database and use the Google Maps API to render on a searchable map. You could take it one step further by providing a searchable details list of the addresses in addition to the map. If none of this makes sense then I would suggest hiring a developer to provide a solution that's within your budget. Just make sure to hire someone who is familiar with your current web site or the code that it uses and the Google API. Take care, Shawn Patrick Insert Distillery Name Here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CountySeat Posted October 4, 2015 Share Posted October 4, 2015 For bars, we've made a Google Map and then just embedded it into our Squarespace page. Its not great but does the trick - you can see it on our site. I added each bar in manually (its pretty fast) but there is probably a way to do it with excel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lenny Posted October 5, 2015 Author Share Posted October 5, 2015 I follow what you guys are suggesting. There seem to be a number of off-the-shelf solutions out there though, which allow for fairly easy implementation, content management that any non-developer can use, and a pretty display of listings and map location input'able via excel. Just putting out feelers to see if anyone has already put one into use that is the bomb. I've messed with a few options and ran into some annoying shortcomings - either in high annual cost or not enough functionality. Gotta be something out there off-the-shelf that does the trick... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnBatch Posted October 6, 2015 Share Posted October 6, 2015 You can try mapbuildr.com. If you have wordpress for your web site you can try https://wordpress.org/plugins/google-maps-builder Take care, Shawn Patrick Insert Distillery Name Here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salishseaorganicliqueurs Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 We are using Blipstar. It's incredibly useful and allows us to provide detailed descriptions of each locations. Costs some money, but so do most good things in life. I have provided a link to the map set up on our website so you can see it in action. http://www.salishseaorganicliqueurs.com/findus/ http://www.blipstar.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbagnulo Posted October 29, 2015 Share Posted October 29, 2015 Hey guys. Just jumping in here. Does anyone know of an add-on or app for Facebook, that generates and "where to buy" function? Thanks all, TB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lenny Posted November 8, 2015 Author Share Posted November 8, 2015 TB, I looked at a bunch of solutions, and while I wasn't looking for Facebook functionality, it seems that Bullseye allows for it. I ended up going with Prolo for a website bar and liquor store locator. I'm really happy with it so far. Their pricing structure makes the most sense for our size ($9/month), adding and managing locations is super fast and easy, customer support is awesome, and implementation into a website is a piece of cake. I'd totally recommend this solution for anyone working towards something like this. Here's how ours came together: http://www.deerhammer.com/liquor-store-locator.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3d0g Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 Heads up Lenny, your site is throwing tons of errors and the positions shown for some of the locations are wildly inaccurate - many miles off in some cases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lenny Posted November 8, 2015 Author Share Posted November 8, 2015 Hmm. I don't get any errors in chrome or safari. What platform are you on so that I can communicate the issue to their tech support? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3d0g Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 Chrome on OSX. Looked again and it's triggering my uBlock Origin malware blocker because it's using Quantcast. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/apr/23/quantcast-tracking-trackers-cookies-web-monitoring Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbagnulo Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 Lenny, Thanks for the tip. I was able to try Bullseye as a FB app add-on and it works great. Very easy and intuitive. I'm in the "free trial" phase and there is no telling what the actual cost will be, but so far, so good. Thanks again! TB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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