Online search

[Andrew Heard]

@Andrew Heard - offline points and their functionality is not affected at all by this new online search. If it is somehow broken in this version, that is another matter :-(

@radim - thanks, but I'm confused between LoPoints(offline) & new search Offline places - a better example maybe - LoPoints search for cafe & 1st two are within 1km of me (both have "cafe" in the name by the way), whereas from Offline places the 1st is 8km away?

And as @freischneider has written, sometimes a "category" is in the list of search results, but sometimes not, and not in the"cafe" example.

[Tapio]

Map is on Dortmund, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. GPS off, device located in the area.

I search for "Halde", those are artificial hills, results of former coal mining. There are quite a few in this federal state, they have "Halde" in their osm name, usually.

Now after pressing enter it shows some inappropriate results. In the south of Germany.

https://youtube.com/shorts/fhv1RJWkurw?feature=share

[balloni55]

i perform a search and open a poi, go back with the harware back button then repeat searche and open the same poi
locus closes
> second 35 in the screencast

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x92guo3dgw54k1t/search.mp4?dl=0

[Jan Čapek]

Thanks for the feedbacks guys. Some comments:

@Radim & Jan: did I miss a statement re. my proposal to include Google API search again?

Well there are lot of reasons to not have our default online search based on Google Search API. Not only because this API is not that great as the search available in actual Google Maps. One of the other reason is also that we need better integrations to data what we work with even outside of search functions (for now and even more for our future plans). Can you send some specific examples of results which you are not happy with?

They plan to highlight certain ones more. I think that's great, because some are quite important. Best something like that should also be in preset. But if one has the selection already I would offer there the possibility: 1. do not show at all 2.normal show 3. highlight show.

I didn't understand that part well I guess. Who you mean by They? What do you mean by difference between "normal show" and "highlight show" for POI categories?

- cursor in search input: I have the keyboard, but the 3 basic android control-buttons are missing

Can you please post image of your problem?

- if I search by category, eg. health, also results of other categories are additionally shown on map

That is by design, but we are considering further steps here. POIs are already to some extend content not separable from the background map. The map is designed in mind with POIs presented on top of them. So the question is, do you have issue to distinguish between highligted POIs and normal ones on the map when searching for some particular of selected category?

- if I input letters the shown results are located somewhere else, not nearby current map cursor, and also no distance is shown in the list.  As I don't see the results in context of a map (location) it is of limited value

It's because you don't always search only in the area shown on the screen and app can't know your use-case on the start. Even if there are some results on the visible map, they might be subordinate compared the one 2km away. If you want to filter results only for visible area, there is immediately available button on the map for this purpose. Distance marker from gps position will be later added to the list. To get some context of text results with the map, slide with the list up/down.

if the results are shown around the map as icons and I click the map for 1-2 seconds the results are gone. Might be by design, don't know. If I reenter search there is a bin icon next to category though nothing is actively shown

What is the reason to hold-click on the map during search for you? That bin is for deleting such search from your personal history.

the result list seems to be a mixture (as noted in #1) with missing visible structure. So I am first busy to get the clou, structure or filter the results, then I can profit of them..this should already be given by a proper design & layout

What do you suggest, please? It is expected, that 80% of search will be covered by suggestion module which by design search differently (tries to predict what you really want to search, and so tries to get to desired content with as little efford as possible) than when you fire up search of some particular text string (when you didn't get what you want in suggestions or want to find something with the name you remember but not sure what exactly and want to look it up on the map with others).

thanks, but I'm confused between LoPoints(offline) & new search Offline places - a better example maybe - LoPoints search for cafe & 1st two are within 1km of me (both have "cafe" in the name by the way), whereas from Offline places the 1st is 8km away?

This is really about new online search. With its launch the offline POI search become evem more obsolete and we have already plans to work on this.   

And as @freischneider has written, sometimes a "category" is in the list of search results, but sometimes not, and not in the"cafe" example.

Hmm, would be useful to at least know translated category of some actual POI to be able to know what to input in case you want to highlight similar. Will discuss it.

 

Map is on Dortmund, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. GPS off, device located in the area.

Hmmm, Radim will look into this. New search is language dependant (which is also one of its known weakness), and I got good results around Dormund for "halde" when searching in czech. Something suspicius there!

locus closes

Seems like some performance issue because of number of content you have enabled on map. Marek will look into this, thanks. 

[freischneider]

Currently, all online POIs are displayed on the map.
1. I want certain POI category not to be displayed.
2. I would like to highlight certain POI category (stronger or bigger).
I would like to link the whole thing with Preset.

[Radim V]

Map is on Dortmund, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. GPS off, device located in the area.

I search for "Halde", those are artificial hills, results of former coal mining. There are quite a few in this federal state, they have "Halde" in their osm name, usually.

Now after pressing enter it shows some inappropriate results. In the south of Germany.

https://youtube.com/shorts/fhv1RJWkurw?feature=share

There is something wrong going on. I am looking into it.

[Radim V]

@Andrew Heard - regarding the "cafe" example - for German language -- and actually all languages except EN, CS, SK -- this all depends entirely on quality of our custom dictionaries (done by a few kind volunteers). Again, some community insight will probably be needed. If a german user types "cafe", no cafe is suggested. Type "Kaffe" or "Bistro", and Cafe (category) is there.
@Tapio - "halde" example: german search (not the "hint" or "suggest" part) has been virtually not working  due to some config error. This has been fixed and "halde" should give you a plenty of results.   

[Jan Čapek]

In other words, we suggest to all German speaking testers to test again as search results may or may not behave quite a lot of differently for you now. Thanks for pointing us to the problem and we hope you will get better results now.

[T-mo]

@Jan:
sure: screencast video

I really like the smart approach of the search, based on last results, quantity of choosen categories, and whatever, daytime, popular choices, ..
Generally something that needs a lot of testing and adjustments.

If I explicitely search for health, then I explicitly search for health. Sure, there might be a pet shop nearby. Honestly I currently have no idea of an usecase of such extended results without any differentiation.

Relevant area, sure. If I search by category, then around map center.
If different scenarios are necessary, then maybe icons might help to focus search, mapcenter, gps-position (if different), ..

Clicking somewhere else was intuitively to get more map screen space, no bottom point detail, and also by mistake, sometimes i don't hit a POI precisely.

You have choosen small icons to indicate types.
I would also use different spaces and mabe dividers or collapsable areas/categories inside the list. Sure, different opinions, different layouts..
Google search and Google map and some other webservices might be a good source of inspiration for appearance of results and interfaces, often used and strongly optimised.

[Tapio]

In other words, we suggest to all German speaking testers to test again as search results may or may not behave quite a lot of differently for you now.

First tests give good results now, great.
I noticed it zooms to the first result. This should not be done by Locus. As a user I lose the big picture, I don't know the place of zoom and want to decide, what's having my interest. So maybe first result should not initially be selected?

[freischneider]

POI on the map do not open.
1. I search for source
2. category source is offered to me
3. i select C. Source and all POI with source are highlighted and below is a listing of all.
4. i want to open a POI on the map but it does not work.
It only works when I select the POI in the listing. But there I do not know which is the one I want. All have the same name.

It would also be helpful if a small popup appears when I go with the cursor over the POI. This behavior is also active without searching on the map.

[freischneider]

Is there a file, table where we can specify which category is offered for a given search word.
I would like to have the search word: Water. I would also like to be offered the C. source. At the moment it is only C. Drinking water.

Also with search: Fountain I would like C. Drinking water and C. Source. At the moment there is no category at all.

[Radim V]

@freischneider Here is the exact configuration file that determines what is suggested for typed word (or part of a word). If you do a search for "spo" in this file, you will see what is suggested if you type "spo" in Locus using German language. It is (conceptually) as simple as that. This file was created for us by user Balloni, please take it as a reference. If anyone is interested in improving this file -- also applies to other languages -- that's great, but first: I should properly explain how it all works to editors. (It is important, really, you see it). Also we should set up some collaborative platform for this. Let me know if you want to participate here, please.You cannot view this attachment. 

[Andrew Heard]

No hierarchy in the JSON file? If I type "accommodation" for example, should I also expect to see hotel, hostel, motel, camping?

[Radim V]

No hierarchy in the JSON file? If I type "accommodation" for example, should I also expect to see hotel, hostel, motel, camping?

Exactly. Hierarchy exists there and is fully supported, but not defined here. "Hotel" is just hotel, "ubernachtung" is accommodation, "Emergency" is more generic, "Hospital" is specific. e.t.c