I'm trying search our live opps to pull off a list of some of the ones that are currently available, but the search only seems to pick up those opportunities that have an actual postcode attached to them and not the regional opps. To explain, I want to find the opps in and around Bognor Regis so I enter our office postcode which is pretty much in the middle of town and search within 10 miles. But the search then only brings back those opportunities that have been located at a specific address not those which we have given the 'regional' location of Bognor Regis. I can't see a way of searching via region rather than postcode and this is obviously leading to many opportunities being left off the list. Please could this be looked at as obviously it make the whole search and print summary function pretty useless. Thanks.
Hi Jen,
Proximity search needs a valid postcode hence the regional opportunities can't be filtered using proximity search.
Thanks
My understanding of the way that the do-it search functions is that it applies a postcode to the centre of the region (or something along those lines) so that the opp is picked up when an individual searches within so many miles of their postcode, can the search on VBC not work the same way? Otherwise, as far as I can see, the search facility is pretty useless as it misses out a considerable amount of opportunities.
Hi Jen
I think that the search that you describe only works like that in Do-it (and it is pretty useless at that). It was part of the regional feature that they trumpeted when new Do-it first came out and was later found to be not at all what was required - and in fact no different from what you can get anyway by adding a postcode location at some point in the district.
Do-it has now introduced the ability to add multiple postcode locations to an opportunity, which promises to be a great feature and solve lots of problems going back to old Do-it and V-Base. Strangely this new feature has never been actually announced to the user community as far as I can see!!
Questions I would like to see answered are....
Hope ivo and VEDA are monitoring this so we can get a response.
Yes we do use 16 locations to cover the county. There is a limit of 10 locations to each opportunity so I put three opportunities on calling them West, Mid and East and add 6, 4, 6 locations respectively.
Lorna
Hi Lorna
Right - thanks for clarifying the locations limit - that's what the forum is for. Are you using VBC then - how does it work with that?
Richard
Hi Richard
I do use VBC but the multiple locations do not at all work with that. It only shows as one location there, but in exporting from do-it they do show up as seperate opps. To be honest, I usually use do-it for orgs and opps and VBC for volunteers. When reporting I cross check between the two but they often show as different results. the main reason I use do-it for orgs and opps is that I can't fully trust VBC. Not ideal!!
Lorna.
VEDA - please can we have a status report n this. I have posted a question on the Do-it forum as well, because it will require an API change for this.
I think we're discussing two separate issues on here now. My first query was about the search and it still seems to me that the search function is relatively useless if it doesn't pick up the regional opps as well as those with a postcode. Richard I take your point about multiple postcodes, but to be honest I don't think that is particularly relevant as we will probably still use regions instead of postcodes, but just use more, smaller regions for each opp. This is mostly because I don't want to have to look up a a suitable postcode for each of the areas, it is much easier if I can just type in the town name. Is there no way to pull off whatever postcode do-it is assigning to each region in order to perform it's search function so that VBC can do the same? Otherwise, it sill seems to me that the search live opps function is fairly useless!
Hi Jen
I believe that searching will always be done with respect to postcodes (or more precisely - locations. I suspect that the mapping functions may use geo coordinates because map locations are often displayed in the middle of nowhere, where there would be no actual postcode). What you are describing is what we thought that ivo had developed in the initial release of new Do-it. However, that is not what it did and my suspicion is that the whole issue of giving an opportunity a regional location that can be searched on is either not possible or hopelessly complex.
I would welcome some feedback on this from ivo or veda or anyone else. But that is my understanding.
Richard
Damien from ivo has posted on the Do-it forum today that they are working on the API changes necessary. Once they finish and release that (I have asked him to post when complete) it will be up to VEDA to tell us if and when they can implement multi-locations.
Hi Richard, I'm sure you're right that it is very complex and it's certainly beyond anything that I know about. However, when you search within so many miles of a postcode in do-it, it still picks up those opportunities that are listed as regional rather than at a fixed address. That is what I was hoping would be possible on VBC too.
Thanks for your input though, as you say maybe it's just not possible.
Hi Jen
It will pick up the regional ones in Do-it - but not really properly. The problem is exacerbated in rural areas. When you search for your regional opportunity it does not assume that the opp is ANYWHERE in the region, it takes it as a fixed location at the geographical centre of the region. For example - our region/district is 35 miles from end to end, so someone located at one end of the district would have to put in 20 miles to pick up opps that are classified in our region.
Richard
Thanks Richard. Yeah I understand that, that's why we use smaller areas for our regions (such as towns/villages) rather than the whole district, but at least the search still picks these up, even though the location may not be exactly where you want it to be, but the search on VBC doesn't seem to pick these up at all. That was my point. If we are able to put a region for an opportunity, then the search function should give it a fixed location of some sort, whether it encompasses the whole region or just a postcode at the centre of it, rather than just missing those out of the search altogether.
I'm sorry if i'm not explaining it very well, it's not very easy to explain!