AC7 developer needed

AbleMods · Post by **AbleMods** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 1:12 pm

Anyone know an AC7 developer familiar with Google Maps? It seems the one I had lined up has decided to go AWOL.

All I need is one customized product page. Any direction to go would be greatly appreciated. I went through 7 of the "AC7 Partners" list with only 2 returning my call. One only does Cold Fusion, the other is AWOL

jmestep · Post by **jmestep** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 4:51 pm

Are you talking about the xml site map? I've got a page to generate one in 5.5 and you could probably adapt it. If you want it, I can email it to you if you send your email address.

Post by **Shopping Cart Admin** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 4:58 pm

Hello Judy,

No he needs to lauch google maps, click on the map and populate the product template to be purchased with lat/long position.

AbleMods · Post by **AbleMods** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 7:13 pm

Appreciate the offer Judy but Mike is correct. My whole AC7 project is dependent on this one customization, so I'm in a bit of a panic now.

I'll have to start cranking through phone calls on Monday I guess. Tons of people can do it in the Google Map forums, but they aren't going to be familiar with AC7.

I spent some time today studying the cartItem object through debugger. But everything is written in C-Sharp and I only know VB.

Post by **Shopping Cart Admin** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 7:17 pm

Hello Joe,

Doesn't matter if they are familiar with AC, they are just going to be populating a couple of input fields. NO AC7 knowledge required.

Will · Post by **Will** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 7:44 pm

Mike's right. A developer who has experience w/Google Maps integration could probably just do it with Javascript.

I worked with a research group for two years doing this kind of thing. I was the front-end UI guy, but getting lat/long from a Google Map was not a big issue.

If I'm understanding your problem correctly, it seems like you could set up product template fields for lat and long in AC7 and create a product page that can pull in a Google map (Google has excellent documentation for this -- usually involves an iframe).

Whenever you click on an embedded Google map, you can grab the lat/long using Javascript. So from there you would use Javascript to tell the browser to put the lat/long values in the proper text field. No C# would be required for this.

If you pmail me, I can put you in touch with some of the developers I used to work with. Don't know if any of them do freelance on the side, but it can't hurt to ask.

AbleMods · Post by **AbleMods** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 8:41 am

I found several examples on the Google Maps API forum that do precisely what I want. In those examples, the map is pushing the values into standard form input tag fields.

But how do I determine what the proper input tags are on an AC7 product page? If knew that, I could probably just change the map code to push the values into those fields instead of the example fields.

I tried looking for it in debugger mode, but I couldn't really lock onto how product option fields are rendered to the page. It's kinda tough digging through this stuff when you're not familiar with the underlying design structure.

jmestep · Post by **jmestep** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 10:24 am

What product data in Able are you trying to use in Google maps?

AbleMods · Post by **AbleMods** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 10:34 am

To fill a product order, I have to collect the following information:
Latitude
Longitude
Time Zone (drop down)
Starting Month (drop down)
Starting Year (drop down)
Starting Day (drop down)
Location Description (50-char text field)
Format (drop down)

I created a product template for all these fields. The fields display just fine on the product page. The last step is displaying a google map with a marker - when the user moves the marker, the lat/long of the marker position (supplied by the google map api) populates the template fields latitude and longitude. The javascript for the google map is really simple, like 20 lines of code.

I can't use product options because they don't support a freeform text field, which I need for the user to specify the location description.

I've been digging through the AC7 code all day today. I don't think I'm gonna figure this out - there's just too many layers for me to wrap my head around it due to my lack of experience.

My head hurts

afm · Post by **afm** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 10:44 am

Joe,

I think I would use a different approach. Instead of looking at the the *.aspx files, etc., use your browser's View Source feature to examine the HTML that is generated.

You will find all of the input fields with strange ID's, but they should be consistent every time the product page loads. For example one of the fields may look like this:

input id="blah_blah_blah_lat"

Just use whatever ID it has in your javascript.

Will · Post by **Will** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 11:00 am

I agree with afm. You should be able to view source to get the ids of the text fields you want to populate.

Are you able to get the google map to display on the product page?