For Locators installed after March, 2009

The Store Locator uses a Google.Com database and displays Google Maps for locations, starting at the closest to the entered Zip Code. A spreadsheet can be uploaded or you can enter stores one at a time in the Admin. Click Here to download the spreadsheet in Excel format, however upload ONLY a comma-delimited (.CSV) format file. The admin is located at http://www.yourdomainname.com/public_site/locate/admin (where “yourdomainname” is your actual website domain name) The exception to the above is if your site is either simply linked to OmegaNet’s server or if your domain is officially hosted elsewhere and redirected to OmegaNet’s server.  In that case the URL should be http://yourusername.cameoez.com/public_site/locate/admin (where “yourusername” is your Admin Console username. DO NOT use “www”) The username and password should be the same as for your Admin Console.

Store Locator Home Page

  The Admin has several navigation links at the top of the page.

1. Main MenuSimply links back to the main page from any location in the admin.
2. Upload LocationsUpload the comma-delimited (.csv) spreadsheet of your stores. The fields in the spreadsheet are (*means required):
   1. *Store Name
   2. *Address (there is only one field for address, so you may have to combine for suite numbers)
   3. *City
   4. *State (or Province. Canada is supported)
   5. *Zip or postal code
   6. Country
   7. Phone
   8. Hours (Times that the store is open)
   9. URL (the stores website – www.somestorename.com)
3. Manage LocationsAdd, edit and delete stores one at a time.
4. Manage SettingsManage general settings for your Store Locator. Many you won’t need to change. Those that you may want to vary include:
   1. Admin Email (defaults to gary@omeganetinc.net)
   2. Active Locations Dropdown Limit (defaults to 300. Set higher if you have more stores.)
5. Go to MapTakes you to your zip code entry page.
6. Manage DatabaseDo not use this unless you know something about MySQL databases.
7. Log Out Logs you out of the Admin.

Manage Locations

Once the initial installation is done, most of your time will be spent on the Manage Locations screen.

Fill in the fields as shown above for the spreadsheet. You do not need to fill in the Longitude and Latitude coordinates. These will be entered by the system when you save the new location by clicking the “Create Location” button.

To edit existing store locations, select from the first dropdown list (“Active Locations”) and click “Select Location”. “Broken Locations” refers to addresses that cannot be resolved by the Google database for some reason. If a store is in the dropdown for “No Coordinates”, it will not show in search results in the Store Locator because there is a problem with the address and the system cannot generate longitude and latitude coordinates for the location. The solution may be as simple as removing a suite number or changing a highway name like “2152 N. Local Politician Parkway” to “2152 N. US-66”. The latter (US-66) is the format for a Federal highway. NY-23 would be the format for a state highway in New York. You may have Broken Locations because of “No Category” but that will not prevent them from showing in the search, and we are not showing Categories so you can ignore this dropdown.

For Locators installed before March, 2009

The Store Locator used on OmegaNet sites is a third-party script that is available free. OmegaNet simply charges for installation and set up. The Find-by-State software consists of a configuration script, a program script several templates and a simple, text data file (states.db). The data file is where the Retail Store information is stored. This script finds the stores in Zip codes numerically close to the Zip the user enters in the search screen. There are more complex (and costly) systems that calculate distances, but the numerical system is simple and therefore inexpensive and usually accurate. There are links to Mapquest maps which is nice, and secondary searches allow searching by state from a US map. You can edit your states data file from an Admin screen. Instructions are below.

Accessing your Administration Menu

Now that your program is running, you will need to access the Administration Menu. To do this, type the following link into your web browser: http://www.websitename.com/public_site/locator/states.pl?command=admin Of course, you need to replace the ‘websitename‘ above with the real URL of your own web site. You should see the Login Screen where you must enter your Administration Password. This is the password that you set in the configuration file (statescfg.pl).  Please enter the password that you set for the $adminloginpassword in the config file to login to the system.  Make sure you enter it exactly as you typed it in your configuration file.

Once you have successfully logged into the Administration Menu, you will see the Administration Menu Choices.

Add New Record: Press this button to add a new record to the database.  Fill in the form with the information you wish about this record.  Press the save button to save the record to your database.

Edit/Delete Records: Press this button to edit or delete an existing record in the database.  You will see a list of all the records in the database.  You can click on the edit or the delete link to edit/delete any record in the database.  Simply follow the instructions to do so. These admin sections are pretty self explanatory.  Simply fill in the forms and submit your information. Add as many records as you wish to the database.

Uploading a Database: If you wish to upload an existing database (which must be named “states.db”), here is the format that it should have.  Each field should be separated by a colon “:“.  Records should be ONE PER LINE. Name:Street:City:State:Zipcode:Telephone:Email:Website:Notes:HideValue:Record_ID:

Field Examples:

Name: Captain Hooks Seafood
Street: 123 Main Street
City: Anytown
State: AL (KEY FIELD.  SEARCHES ARE COMPARED TO THIS FIELD)
Zipcode: 36619 (This field is required for searching)
Telephone: 555-1212
Email: info@hookseafood.com
Website: www.hooksseafood.com  (DO NOT USE HTTP:// IN WEB ADDRESSES) Notes:
Captain Hook’s Seafood servers up the best seafood in town. Be sure to stop by and ask for Peg Leg.  (HTML IS ALLOWED HERE)
HideValue: no  (THIS VALUE HIDES THE RECORD FROM DISPLAYING.  no=display, yes=hide)
Record ID: 1 (THIS IS THE RECORD ID.  IT SHOULD INCREMENT BY ONE FOR EACH RECORD.  NO TWO RECORDS SHOULD HAVE THE SAME RECORD ID.)

The easiest way to create a states.db as a colon-delimited file is to create an Excel spreadsheet with the columns in the order above. When you are done, save the file as a CSV (comma-delimited), then open the file in NotePad or some other text editor and Search and Replace to change the commas to colons. Save the file as “states.db” and send it to your web site via FTP or the File Manager in the Admin Console (CAMEO EZ© version). Set UNIX permissions for states.db to 777. In FTP you will find the place to set permissions where you see the word “chmod”. If you can’t change the permissions, contact OmegaNet to have us do it for you.  

NOTE: This locator will not recognize Canadian postal codes. If you want to include Canadian and/or US territorial locations which do not have ZIP codes: A) inform OmegaNet so the proper template can be installed and B) leave the ZIP code field blank and use the following state abbreviations: GU=Guam MP=Mariana Islands MH=Marshall Islands FM=Micronesia PW=Palau PR=Puerto Rico VI=US Virgin Islands DC=Washington DC AB=Alberta BC=British Columbia MB=Manitoba NB=New Brunswick NL=Newfoundland and Labrador NT=Northwest Territories NS=Nova Scotia NU=Nunavut ON=Ontario PE=Prince Edward Island QC=Quebec SK=Saskatchewan YT=Yukon If you wish to include additional international locations, please contact OmegaNet for further customization.

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