UK location map

Hi,

Here is what I'm trying to do.

First and foremost is set up a successful online store for equestrian supplies in the UK.

Second is to offer a free to advertise section for the private sale and loan of horses here in the UK nationally.

On the first all is going as to plan and Zen Cart has been excellent for this.

The second is were I'm starting to bang my head against the wall, it's a massive part of my master plan (evil laugh). There's only a few local sites offering a free to advertise sale and loan service in the whole country and I'm sure if a national site is up there with the correct marketing will provide lots of hits and new visitors to my site.

Has anyone tried to add a UK map that you can roll over to direct the customer to there relevant county, are there any free downloads of anything like this out there? I would prefer to have a map than a drop down menu.

Is it possible to integrate a way of advertisers to enter details through zencart, like a email form, for me to review and accept or reject there advert with an automated yes or no email. without jeopardizing security to the whole site.

Any help or a pointer in the right direction will be greatly appreciated.

Andy

You mean something like THIS?

... With the added function of people being able to PLACE AN ADVERT?

PS: I knocked this up quite quickly just to test the idea... This is a DEMO website I use for testing.

WOW!!!

"I knocked this up quite quickly just to test the idea"

I just have no idea were to start. but that's pretty much what I'm looking to do.

Any pointers on were to start?

And will the changes to the product information making them work as a remote input have any effect the products i wish to sell in my store, if so I'll just add another data base and separate the site.

Very impressed!

Thanks

Andy

Hi fairestcape,

was so excited that i forgot to mention that with a nudge from you post i have remembered about image maps, i think i was thinking to hard and forgetting the obvious solution..

But as for setting up the form for entering details i am still at a loss.

Again thanks for the advice

Thanks

Andy

As you can see from my example, there are TWO main components:-

1. The ability to ORDER a classified Ad...

achieved by setting up a PRODUCT in its own CATEGORY (like any other product), making that product FREE and VIRTUAL (no shipping address required, no payment module required, if it's the only product in the cart.) The product has the model number "classifieds", and depending on your stock settings, set the quantity available accordingly. It has zero weight.

The input fields are normal, standard TEXT attributes for the product info and a **FILE attribute **for the image upload. Set these up in your OPTION NAMES MANAGER.

APPLY the attributes to your product "Classified Ads" making all text fields REQUIRED. The image upload is best left OPTIONAL.

2. The ability to VIEW classified ads...

These are EZPages, taking advantage of the CHAPTER function.

The image MAP is done as follows:

a) Find a suitable image (mine just came off a google image search)

b) You now need to compile the <map> HTML protocols. Of course, the easiest way is to use a good HTML editor (dreamweaver if you have it, but FrontPage will do - or any freeware wysiwyg html editor that can create image maps / hotspots).

c. Once you have created the image map (I used FrontPage), grab the underlying html code. Mine looks like this:

<p style="text-align: center;"><map name="FPMap0">
<area coords="180, 12, 122, 92, 145, 181, 160, 169, 171, 181, 190, 165, 208, 184, 232, 162, 250, 152, 278, 165" shape="polygon" href="index.php?main_page=page&id=3&chapter=1" />
<area coords="240, 163, 230, 177, 242, 227, 241, 244, 252, 244, 253, 255, 245, 296, 254, 313, 270, 308, 295, 322, 317, 314, 345, 275, 353, 227, 333, 215, 276, 175, 259, 163" shape="polygon" href="index.php?main_page=page&id=4&chapter=1" />
<area coords="224, 185, 203, 190, 186, 179, 184, 198, 167, 219, 172, 252, 162, 265, 169, 284, 197, 278, 202, 283, 215, 271, 221, 283, 250, 257, 242, 247, 233, 237, 236, 227" shape="polygon" href="index.php?main_page=page&id=5&chapter=1" />
<area coords="179, 187, 156, 180, 134, 191, 147, 215, 132, 222, 127, 253, 139, 262, 128, 280, 148, 301, 152, 319, 130, 344, 86, 342, 6, 425, 31, 432, 62, 408, 107, 421, 132, 383, 165, 394, 187, 389, 188, 381, 179, 364, 180, 351, 193, 357, 192, 341, 198, 335, 191, 312, 194, 294, 172, 289, 161, 289, 159, 272, 151, 267, 165, 249, 164, 229, 161, 217, 170, 201, 180, 196" shape="polygon" href="index.php?main_page=page&id=6&chapter=1" />
<area coords="340, 331, 309, 332, 285, 326, 272, 313, 253, 318, 239, 299, 242, 274, 222, 289, 212, 284, 202, 290, 200, 323, 206, 345, 199, 345, 201, 363, 187, 363, 194, 381, 219, 394, 288, 379, 341, 346" shape="polygon" href="index.php?main_page=page&id=7&chapter=1" /> <br /></map></p><p style="text-align: center;"><img height="437" border="0" width="360" usemap="#FPMap0" src="/shop/images/england.jpg" /></p>

Then, you EDIT the HREF paths in the code to point to associated EZPAGES. In my example, the path to "North England" EZpage is:-
href="index.php?main_page=page&id=3&chapter=1"

... and to "East of England" EZPage:-
href="index.php?main_page=page&id=4&chapter=1"

... etc.

FTP the image that the map relies on to its folder designated in the PATH you chose (mine is shop/images/england.jpg)

d) Create as many EZPages as are necessary - in my example ther are 5 regions so I have 5 EZpages, plus a "chapter starter" page. When editing the EZPage "toggle" to html mode so you can insert the MAP HTML CODE. Add other bits of text as necessary and create a table (or some other style) in which to hold your classifieds.

Customers will now "order" an advert as they would a product.

You will receive this order as you would any normal product.

You then need to manually add the advert data to its relevant EZPAGE (region or county).

Once the ad is placed in its EZPage, it becomes visible!

QED

fairestcape.

Again many thanks for you help, my concept for the regional navigation is here and seems to be working well.

http://saddlesandtack.co.uk/catalog/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=9_17

I'm then going to break this down in to counties.

Going to try and set up the classified adds up now, I'll let you know how i get on if that's OK.

Thanks again, another A+ for the Zen community.

Cheers

Andy