-
In testing out Pure Maps with the Photon search engine, I typed in "YMCA" in the search bar, I get results from Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Tennessee, etc.. With OpenCage, the first result is in London, the second is in Kentucky, and the third is in Kenya.
I know for a fact that there is a YMCA down the road from where I'm at in TN. I also know that there are at least 4 within a 20 km radius of my current location. If I search "YMCA [my city]" with Photon, I get some of the local results but not all.
Is this just a limitation of the search engine or am I missing something?
-
@kadoat
That is probably a limitation of the search engine.Depending on the search engine you have different methods to sort and retrieve information.
Then there could also be cache set for each engine leading to delays or obsolete data.
Most of them use OSM database but depending on your local situation thos data might be incomplete or obsolete too.You can check on OSM if the correct data is existing and if not update it. If there is then it's the way the search engine is working that has to be fixed...
-
I can't use the search as everything I enter only gives me US results. To the point where I wonder if the database (wherever, whatever) simply does not have Canadian data...
Searching google maps, and manually locating the address in PM is the only way I find an address.
-
Man, that's a real bummer. Navigation is a key component to phones these days. We'll see how these web apps do.... If anybody knows a better search engine and how to add it, please chime in.
-
Did you even try uNav?
uNav is the historical uTouch GPS app (started back in canonical time), is way older (mature?) than PureMap, still under dev (=not deprecated), and always worked good to me, untill i got GPS in my car.
-
My limited experience after just three days is that PureMaps finds absolutely nothing unless I have stored it as a bookmark, whereas the Unav search function is excellent.
-
On a general notice be more specific about your use case.
It works for me means nothing if we cannot compare to others situation.Depending the country and what is search: a restaurant name, an address, an city, a POI the results may vary a lot.
And for better result I suggest to contribute to OSM which is the source of most open source geocode engines. -
For support, please file issues in Pure Maps or OSM Scout Server github repos. It's by chance I looked here and discovered this thread.
As Pure Maps works with online and offline providers, please be specific. Which search engine did you use and was it online/offline?
Online geocoders (search engines) have location-aware support. Thus, in request, Pure Maps uses API with location awareness if possible (supported by Photon, Opencage). Offline geocoder does not support it yet (https://github.com/rinigus/osmscout-server/issues/312) and I haven't had a chance to work on it.
When using offline, please make sure that the maps are downloaded. Otherwise, it is hard to understand how it doesn't find anything.
As for online mode, as uNav uses, the results should be similar. I would expect Photon to work well throughout. If not, try OpenCage.
To fix the bugs, report them and please provide specific info.
-
@rinigus I have similar results using photon and opencage; search results shown are usually always in different states or country's. I usually get the coordinances of where i want to go and use that which works
-
@dieharddan, it actually should work just fine with the search as well. Depends on OSM coverage, but if it is covered, you should be fine.
Please be specific. Can you provide an example of the search? Also, please let me know whether Pure Maps had access to your location at the time of search (aka whether GPS was locked)
-
@rinigus I had a gps lock on my location, i did a test search for walmart which should have multiple locations within 30 miles, but the 1st result was 1400 miles away, this was with opencage
-
In my case Pure Maps doesn't find any POI, it finds only adresses. The results are not sorted by distance as they should.
-
When you use "Search", it is searching from all possible addresses with bias (but not strictly around that location). It is made to search for addresses and for names of POIs. Not by type ('cafe' will not show up unless it is in it's name).
To search by type, use Nearby venue. This is a different API and allows you to specify distance and how to sort (depending on provider). In that search, you could (for several providers) specify name instead of type. That's until I make it explicit: https://github.com/rinigus/pure-maps/issues/402
In future, search by type will be accessible via general search as well. Issue https://github.com/rinigus/pure-maps/issues/261
@dieharddan : in case of Walmart, specify locality after it. As in "Walmart, City". If you want to search sorted by distance, use Nearby venues. I would recommend Photon as they support search as you type, but I don't know how good they are in US.
@herr-b: for POIs (search cafe), please use Nearby venues. you haven't specified your search engine. If you use offline (OSM Scout Server) then that one does not have location bias yet and sorts by hierarchy of search results (so cafe London will come up after the city with the same name).
-
Yes I used Photon, as I didn't change any settings, furthermore I used online search. I was a bit surprised, that I did not get any result for POI search and I did not use the nearby function for POI search.
Also the search shows only 10 results, although there must be a lot more results.
The nearby function is not clear for me, I can't get useful results. I search for the food store with the POI name "Coop" which is closed to me (I checked the OSM POI, if it has the correct name), but in the nearby function I can't enter a search string. The food or shopping mall categories do not show any results. I think there should be the function to enter a search string and search all categories?
-
@herr-b If you search for "Coop" by name, then the best is to have "Coop, city" in search. Coop is rather frequent, you may have to specify a bit more. But try the city version first.
10 results could be Photon limit for calls.
Nearby function allows you to search by type (cafe, shop, ...). As mentioned above by me and in the referred issues, that part will have to be refined in the application to allow you to enter Coop as a name in that search as well.
-
If I enter "Coop, city" I get the result for the city only, but not the POI "Coop" in the city.
For me a typical use is to search for the nearest shopping center if I am travelling, regardless in which city. If I can't get any result by category, then I enter known names of shopping malls. Entering the name in the nearby search is ok, the best would be to have it in one search function.
-
@herr-b, that sounds like a bug of the search engine - Photon (assuming that you use online profile and default settings). If you could provide me an example with some city, I will try to reproduce it. If you wish, feel free to send it by email (my email is in the authors file of pure maps repo)
-
Yes I use Photon and online Profile and the Search (not the nearby venues). I entered "Coop, Grimentz". I tested with some different cities and it could be possible that it only works, if the city tag of the POI inOSM is filled out. Yesterday I added the opening hours to this POI in OSM and noticed, that the adress is empty. I suppose the missing city tag is the problem for this specific search result.
But I found the POI now with the nearby venues function, choosing the type Shop & Service gives the correct result!
I think the "Nearby Venues" function is not intuitive enough:
- Is it possible to make the preselection of the type with "All Types" as standard? Now I see just the word "Type" and not even a pulldown field, only a white area. Just by tapping accidently the white area shows the pulldown.
- The "Near" field is standard "current position", I would prefere here the actual map position, because without GPS reception it is not possible to start the search. I often search indoors and then it is difficult to start the search. I also often search on different positions then the current position, then you could center the map on the desired position and search nearby the map position?
- It is not so clear to start the search with the little grey icon in the upper right corner. It is also not always clear, if it is grey or black. There would be enough space for a big green button "Start Search" or similar? And in case it is waiting for GPS reception the colour red and a comment "Waiting for GPS reception ..." or similar?
-
Thank you for specific example!
In the Coop case, we have "Coop, Route de Moiry, Avoin, Anniviers, Sierre, Valais/Wallis, 3961, Switzerland". As you could see, there is no Grimentz in hierarchy and that's why it is not found.
Although, search at OSM is more clever and finds it nicely: https://www.openstreetmap.org/search?query=Coop%2C Grimentz#map=19/46.17513/7.57365
Why Avoin is used, no idea. Both Grimentz and Avoin are both nodes, Grimentz closer though. In general, you don't have to tag city or other address components. But that requires that villages are given with the borders, not just nodes. Search engines try to guess, as in the case of this Coop, but sometimes guess wrong.
I have added your suggestions at https://github.com/rinigus/pure-maps/issues/402
Some notes:
-
reference location can be set to any address or bookmarked POI. Just click on it.
-
tiny grey icons on top right. I don't have UT experience and, on the basis of API, it sounded like that is where you folks look for actions. In SFOS, we have pulley menu. In Kirigami (Plasma Mobile), those buttons are also right top and, if space allows, have text next to it. Would be great to know what is expected at UT and which API I should use for it. If it is done wrong as it is now, I'll be happy to correct.
Bonus feature that I wrote for longer trips: if you use Pure Maps offline with OSM Scout Server and have a route calculated, you could search for POIs in Nearby search along the route. It may take longer time, but would be still faster than doing it manually by moving a map and trying to hit the shops/cafes.
-
-
PS: While testing with OSM Scout Server: "coop anniviers" finds the correct one. And that makes sense as it is region defined by polygons: https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/1685266
Edit:
alternatively, you could use Grimentz, Anniviers as a reference point in Nearby search, set type to Any and set name to Coop.
