Location GPS component

Seriously?!?!
Guys,
Sorry but, I really can’t understand Adalo’s team’s decision…
We desperately need user location feature, there are more than 500 votes for Location / GPS Features in canny, actually, 631!
Screen Shot 2021-04-30 at 02.38.36

After more than 30 days of waiting for this notification sign… I open it and what I get?! Interstitial Ads.

Seriously, I can’t even pronounce that name! How many features request it has?! 13… 13!!!
Screen Shot 2021-04-30 at 02.38.25

6 Likes

Yes, I would love to have this feature or at least to have an alternative based on embedded HTML.

I check the github and it seems like they are working on it recently but it would be great to have an estimation date GitHub - AdaloHQ/map-component

Said this, is there a way using 3rd party apps that I can retrieve the location of a user and save it in the database at a certain rate (like every second)?

I think it’s important to remember that Adalo (like every company) runs several projects concurrently. Just because one feature is developed, doesn’t mean they aren’t working on other features at the same time.

The GPS component is significantly more difficult to develop than the admob one and at the end of the day, apps don’t get paid for having GPS, they get paid for having ads :smiley:

The GPS component will be out in the coming weeks/months. Not sure this type of response will make that happen any faster (I’ll admit it won’t make it any slower though!).

Erik

9 Likes

Iam waiting for the IAP subscriptions. Why they release IAP without it :frowning:

1 Like

Hey Kato,

You could use custom component to pick up IP info. For example NoCodeAPI and RapidAPI make this quite easy for you to do…

It’s not going to be GPS level accuracy and if they use a VPN it will throw this info off… but it may work. I done a quick custom action to pull current user data and this is what you will get back based on IP info…

{

13 items

“area”:{

3 items

“code”:

“US-LA”

“geonameid”:

4331987

“name”:

“Louisiana”

This will return the IP address of the client with all the location data

https://nocodeapi.com/ip-geolocation-api

It may or may not help.

4 Likes

Hello! Thanks so much! It helps to restrict a little bit the position of the user!. I tested using that API together with https://www.ipify.org/ because I could not find a way to get the IP directly in Adalo.

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Great. Good luck with the project :slight_smile:

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@Erik is correct. Adding the new type of ad to our Google Ads component was actually a project done by one of our interns. The GPS feature is inherently more complicated, not only because it has to do with native device functionality but also because there are many features within GPS such as

  • Adding a new location property type for collections
  • Ability to sort lists based on distance from the logged in user
  • Ability to filter lists based on distance from the logged in user
  • Setting conditions for visibility and actions based on location
  • Adding a location/address autocomplete field type in forms and as an individual input
  • A way to continuously log the logged in user’s location such as for tracking a run
  • Ability to display that as a path on the maps component

@pushingpandas IAP subscriptions is getting close!

18 Likes

Awesome Ben! Thanks so much for Adalo’s hard work. Can’t wait for IAP subscriptions especially!

5 Likes

Thanks @Ben. Very excited for the subscriptions also, it’s huge. I’m literally holding off on submitting 3 apps I have for release when I heard they are this close :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes

Thanks @Ben and all the team! Those features you mention are great!

yeah, I got 2 apps waiting :smiley:

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All the points mentioned are hugely in demand by users. Looking forward to them!

PS: Pretty surprised that GPS feature is just ‘Planned’ and not 'In Progress" at all…
Just looking into changing this status would make everyone happier. :slight_smile:

3 Likes

Just a quick question are those features something that can be done just with the development of the component or some development on other parts Adalo. In other words, can I implement those features by myself using react following the components documentation and use it directly?

Sorry but no production app can rely on this type of API to get the user’s current location, It’s far away from being accurate. When pricing and many other critical features depend on the user’s current location, a workaround like this will bring more problems than solutions to our projects. All though I don’t see it as a fit for my needs, it may help others, so thanks for sharing.

I understand your point @Ben These days are been stressful here. I got an investor, using an MVP made with Adalo. My error was to rely on features that are to come, and when I see other features that are not what I need to achieve my goals, it’s easy to understand my deep frustrations. Take the maps component for instance. It’s has everything ready to get the current user location, in fact, it does get the current user location and displays it on the map. However, we have no access to that lat and long to use in the custom action, to store in the database… to use it. I know you guys want to give us a complete “no-code” set of features with location, like all those you listed, but remember that some of us already have capabilities with Integromat, N8N, Zappier, API Calls, so just by giving me the users latitude and longitude, I will have all I need to go further with my project. And that takes less time than the component I criticized.

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I don’t believe it can be done without the help and knowledge of Adalo’s team.
I tried hard but component development also has its limitations. A simple component like input field masking took me weeks to find out that it can’t be done without some customizations that only Adalo can make. I am not that talented developer, after all, I am here using a no-code tool right? So, I may not be the perfect one to say it’s impossible but, so far, it has been for me.

It may be true for your business model @Erik, but not all apps rely on ads as their source of revenues. So, no. At the end of the day, apps like mine don’t get paid for displaying ads. I understand that this type of response will not make them work faster, even though it was not a response, it was an outburst. I believe that the Adalo team has to know the impact that the decisions they make have on the lives of their customers. That does not mean I don’t believe in Adalo or Adalo team anymore. I just signed for the $200 plan and will keep trying to get the best out of the platform

I hate ads and wont use them. They nagging the user and most wont purchase just to get the ad gone.

so just by giving me the users latitude and longitude, I will have all I need to go further with my project.

Although this is certainly true. It is often hard to find that balance and we are still certainly learning here. Take the In App Purchases release as an example. We wanted to get some of the functionality in the hands of makers as soon as possible and so released it without the recurring subscriptions ability. We faced a lot of heat for doing that by those who were expecting the whole featureset immediately.

It’s not an excuse, but more an example to understand the further complexity for decisions being made.

1 Like