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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.
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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.
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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.
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@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
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@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)
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@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
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In my case Pure Maps doesn't find any POI, it finds only adresses. The results are not sorted by distance as they should.
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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).
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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?
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@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.
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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.
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@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)
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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?
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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:
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reference location can be set to any address or bookmarked POI. Just click on it.
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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.
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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.
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Thanks for your hints! Slowly I learn all the features!
I was wondering, why the Bookmarks do not show in the "Nearby venues" ... would be nice to have them together with the selection of the recent searches when selecting "Near location" instead of the other way selecting first the Bookmark and then select "Nearby Venues".
Here some Examples from UT. First: search is not possible, icon in the upper right corner is grey, no GPS position acquired (circle turning).
Second: Search is not possible, icon is still grey, GPS position o.k. but no type selected (no pulldown beside Type, you have to tap the white area):
Third: You can start the search, icon is black now. You have to tap the icon to start the search (try and error, no comment also on the tablet):
What is also not clear for me is the difference between "Prefer Closest" and "Prefer Best", the wording "Best" is not defining anything, best for whom or what?
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It's not very obvious on UT, but you can tap on "Near Current position". That will open search dialogue with bookmarks being part of it. On SFOS, we have special color coding of elements that can be tapped. This makes it clear where you could interact, not sure whether there is something similar for UT.
So, from screenshots:
- That's correct, as we don't know location. If you tap Near, you will be able to enter location that will be used as a reference
- Same as Near, have to tap on it.
- Yeah, I can see that it is not super intuitive. Re Best - old formulation, most popular would be the correct one.
From comments, it's clear that some visual feedback is missing for selectable elements. Combobox is probably wrong - but I am not sure what should it be.
Also triggering of the action seems to be rather obscure. Any good design for UT? Same probably goes for routing.
Hopefully replied to your suggestions. If not, please let me know.
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@rinigus many thanks for your explanations! Step by step I learn the program know. It was not clear for me, that bookmarks appear, if I enter text into the search field for "Near location".
So it seams to be:
- depending on offline or online I get different input fields
- Using offline OSM Scout I can enter a search string and search "Any" Type
- Using online Maps I can't enter a search string and the Type "Any" does not exist.
The text Best is still confusing for me, same as most popular. I don't see what algorithm is behind and according to which criteria I should use "Closest" or "Best". Is there some counter somewhere counting how many people enter this keyword?
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Search field (the one you see when starting entering text into Near location, same in routing) links bookmarks and addresses. They both are searched while you type (assuming that provider supports it).
In many of my replies I mention provider. From the beginning, Pure Maps (with its earlier names Poor Maps and WhoGo Maps) was designed to be modular. It is easy to add new providers for search, nearby venues, and routing.
Each provider can have it's own settings that alter the action. For routing, some search only routes for cars, some do more. For nearby venues, default online provider is https://foursquare.com/. That "Best" or Most Popular comes from them.
Over offline provider - OSM Scout Server - I have some control as I am the author of it. But note that even there, routing is provided via one of the libraries - Valhalla - and the server can be considered as just an extra layer for that. For search (global and nearby), though, control is larger as it is using geocoder-nlp that I wrote. Although, it becomes question of my time and priorities among projects that I contribute to.
