Type in zip code only = correct locations, type in city & state = wrong results

[Rooster Creatives]

Hello Tech Support:

Use store locator and isn't showing the right information when searching by city and state only.

For example, when I type in San Rafael, CA...results are San Diego, CA. BUT if I type in San Rafael zip code of 9490, then it will show the correct results.

So is your system only work with zip code and NOT city and state? Or how does it work on backend for something I can correct myself?

Unsure how to contact Lite Radius about this but it makes the store locator unreliable. Please advise, thank you!

[Support]

Hello,
When you enter a point of origin in the search text box, LiteRadius sends whatever you typed in, to the Google server to get the latitude and longitude coordinates of that point. Those coordinates are then cross-referenced with the latitude and longitude coordinates for each location in the LiteRadius database to produce the result set. So to answer your question, it does not matter if you type in a city or postal code, Google will do its best job to get the coordinates for the point you entered. For example, entering 9490 may not be enough information for Google to determine your point of origin, however you did say something was returned in the result set.

Perhaps you could elaborate on what you mean by "correct results". If you are expecting certian results to be returned, you should check those locations in the LiteRadius database to see if they indeed have been properly geocoded. If you see location latitude and longitude coordinates with zeros after the decimal point like 39.00000, -112.000, then this may point to a geocoding problem.

[Rooster Creatives]

Hello,

You must have mis read my concern, I type in the zip code, and it gives me the RIGHT location. But when I type in only the city and state, it gives me the WRONG location. Way off...not even neighboring city. Please help.

Thanks!

-May

[Support]

It appears the Google geocoder is not encoding the point of origin correctly. This may be because the text string being sent to Google is incomplete or truncated in some form.

Can you please provide a reference point to identify the problem by testing LiteRadius with the default golf_locator.htm webpage, and the supplied data set us_filter.txt. You will need to:
1 - Add the Google API key to the default golf_locator.htm webpage and place it, and the golf_graphics folder, the root directory of the LiteRadius installation.
2 - Upload the us_filter.txt data file and geocode the data set.
3 - Access the golf_locator.htm webpage with your browser and enter San Rafael, CA as your point of origin.

The user origin marker should appear on the map near San Rafael with several locations plotted nearby. Your results should be the same as entering San Rafael, CA on our demo page: http://demo.escaperadius.com/literadius/golf_locator.htm