Customer Forum

Integration with Google maps

Workbooks Support Posted: 2011-06-23 14:35

Several Workbooks customers have integrated Workbooks with Google Maps. Our documentation on an iFrame Custom Field provides a worked example.

Here's a high level example of how a Solar Panel company integrates their website / Google Maps with Workbooks.

Prospective customers visit the Solar Company's website and submit an enquiry outlining the roof area where they wish to install solar panels:

Create three Custom Fields in Workbooks:
1. longitude_and_latitude(text)
2. kmlfile (text)
3. googleMap (iframe) - http://www.domainName.com/showMap.php?fileName=@cf_kmlfile_8@&longLat=@cf_longitude_and_latitude_4@
  NOTE: Your custom field names are likely to differ. Custom Field names are automatically generated when you create them. Identify your Custom Field names in each individual Custom Field's screen, or by adding the Field name column to the Custom Fields screen.
Create a webpage with a Google Map that allows a user to click points on the map to make a polygon (the outline of the roof area where they wish to install solar panels)
The webpage creates a KML file using all points of the polygon, which is stored on a server.
When the Web2Lead form is submitted, the KML filename & First Lat/Long point are submitted to Workbooks and stored in the custom fields
The showmap.php script (attached) renders a Google Map from the KML file, taking the file name for the KML file and the Lat/long to build the URL
When a Salesperson opens the Sales Lead record they see a birds-eye view of the roof area. This screenshot has been cropped to show Sales Lead's iframe custom field.

(Click image to enlarge)

NOTE: This article is provided as just one example of what can be achieved, and is intended as inspiration rather than a fully worked example.

Workbooks Support Posted: Wed, 14.03.2012 - 16:36

A simpler solution for more general use from our documentation: you can also use the standard Country and Postcode fields together. Add an iframe custom field, call it 'Map' and enter the URL like this:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=@main_location[postcode]@,@main_location[country]@&t=m&z=14&view=map&hl=en&ie=UTF8&iwloc=&num=1&output=embed

Google Maps will show in an iframe as long as both the Country and Postcode fields are completed on the form. This works well for People and Organisation forms.

External Posted: Tue, 19.02.2013 - 17:06

I would like to be able to have a map of the customers house all throughout the sales process (i.e. Sales Lead, Opportunity, Person) as there are site surveyors, installers and service people going around to the house at each stage.

Can you please suggest how this is done, and how do I keep the map after converting from Sales Lead to Opp. and Person.

Thanks

P.s. The postcode and country is a mandatory field in Sales Lead and looks like; 'Postcode/Zipcode' and 'Country' respectively.

Workbooks Support Posted: Thu, 21.02.2013 - 18:28

As a general rule, if you want values from custom fields on a Lead record to populate the resulting Person and/or Organisation and/or Opportunity records that are created when you Save & Convert that Lead, you need to create custom fields of the same data type and with exactly the same field label on each record type. However, the iFrame for a Google map references the Postcode and Country field on that specific record so this isn't quite so simple. Nevertheless, you can still create the situation you're looking for by following the steps below:

Create an iFrame custom field on Sales Leads using the following URL:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=@org_lead_party[main_location][postcode]@,@org_lead_party[main_location][country]@&t=m&z=14&view=map&hl=en&ie=UTF8&iwloc=&num=1&output=embed

Create an iFrame custom field on your Person record (and also on your Organisation record if you're using Organisations), using the following URL in both cases:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=@main_location[postcode]@,@main_location[country]@&t=m&z=14&view=map&hl=en&ie=UTF8&iwloc=&num=1&output=embed

The above steps will result in you seeing a Google map in an iFrame on both your Sales Lead and Person and/or Organisation record. In each case, the map displayed will depend on the Postcode and Country entered for each record so if you were to change the Postcode on, say, the Person record after you'd converted the Lead, the two records would display different maps.

In order to display a Google map on an Opportunity for the customer shown in the Prospective Customer field you need to pull through the Postcode and Country fields from the customer record using Linked Fields. You will then be able to create an iFrame for a Google map that references these values. Follow these steps to create the right fields:

Add two custom text fields to your Opportunity - one for Customer Postcode and the other for Customer Country. (If you want, you can make these read only or even use form layouts to hide them from the page entirely but don't do this until you've completed the rest of the steps.)
On the Customise Opportunity dialogue box, open the Linked Fields tab and click on Prospective Customer. This will allow you to define which field values to pull through from the customer record to auto populate the Opportunity. For these purposes you need to choose the Postcode and the Country.
Now you can create an iFrame to put the Google map onto your Opportunity. You'll need to insert the field names of your Customer Postcode and Customer Country fields into the Google map URL. To find these, reopen each custom field and you'll see the Field Name shown under the Field Label. It will start with cf_. Your resulting URL will look something like the one shown below with the bold strings being replace with the names of your custom fields.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=@cf_opportunity_customers_postcode@,@cf_opportunity_customers_country@&t=m&z=14&view=map&hl=en&ie=UTF8&iwloc=&num=1&output=embed

Hopefully the above provides you with enough information to create the configuration you're trying to achieve. Do let us know how you get on.