Creating a block to map faceted search results (with gmap, location, faceted_search, and views)

By the1andonlycary on 13 Nov 2009 at 16:28 UTC

I don't know if this is helpful for anyone, but since I took the time to figure it out, I thought I'd share.

I wanted users to be able to do a faceted search and have a map of their search results show up at the bottom when those results contained geographic data. Here's what I did to get it to work (pardon my verbosity, I'm trying to make this as accessible as possible):

Apply the patch to the GMap module found at #623234: Views 2.7 - breaks field output - GMap marker info window (bubble) doesn't display fields correctly (so markers show up on a map view in views 2.7)
Create a view of node data
Add fields to display in map markers as well as lat/lon fields
Add a filter for the node types that have geographic data
Change the style to GMap, using the lat/lon fields
Add an argument for Node ID - this part is important
For "Action to take if argument is not present", select "Provide default argument"
Select "PHP Code" for "Default Argument Type"
Add the following PHP

$env = faceted_search_env_load(1);
$results = $env->load_results();
$pages = array();
foreach( $results as $result )
    $pages[] = $result->nid;
$nodeids = implode( ",", $pages );
return $nodeids;

Make sure to check "Allow multiple terms per argument."
Add a block view

This block, when enabled on faceted search pages, will display only the nodes returned from the faceted search.
I realize that this could break if there were more than one faceted_search environment in play - it could be modified to include that case.

Comments

Block display tip

the1andonlycary commented 13 November 2009 at 17:01

It also works nicely to configure the block to show only when the following PHP code returns true:

$env = faceted_search_env_load(1);
return $env->ready();

_

WorldFallz commented 13 November 2009 at 17:06

Excellent info-- thanks for posting. You should really consider posting this in the http://drupal.org/handbook/config/contribmodules section of the handbook!

Return Limits

ctw816 commented 18 December 2009 at 14:16

It might also be useful to include a defined number of results to be returned. I believe the default is 10 which could of course be restrictive for both faceted search and mapping purposes.

$results = $env->load_results($limit = 100);

Not sure about unlimited though.

-chris

this. . .is amazing. . .

benjah commented 15 January 2010 at 03:20

this. . .is amazing. . .
Thanks so much.
Works like a charm.

Apache Solr

the1andonlycary commented 23 February 2010 at 19:36

We just switched from faceted search to apachesolr for our search. When I get a chance, I'll write up separately what I did for apachesolr, but basically it's the same as this except using the following php code:

$response = apachesolr_static_response_cache();
$docs = $response->response->docs;

$nids = array();
foreach( $docs as $doc ) {
  $nids[] = $doc->nid;
}

$nidList = implode( ",", $nids );

return $nidList;