Der Dieckmann

During the last days, I discovered a promising extension for vtiger called OSS Report2Map offered by OpenSaaS Betissa Investments Sp. z oo, Warszawa, Poland. Its purpose is to geolocate accounts as different pins on a map within vtiger by using the google maps API. By clicking a single pin, the application shows the name of the account and its adress. OpenSaaS offers a video on YouTube to show the module at work. According to OpenSaaS, its functionality eases search operations e.g. to find “empty areas”. To do so, the user can make use of the report-module to define a specific selection of accounts to be shown on a map. When editing the settings of Report2Map, this report can be chosen by it’s record-ID to import name, adress and geolocation of related accounts into a map. Even more, the resulting map can be exported as static html to be used somewhere else – e.g. on a website. Report2Map is for sale only, but at a reasonable low price of actually 246 PLN (ca. 62 EUR or 89 USD). After purchase, OpenSaaS sends you by email the manual and the module as a zip-file which has to be installed as usual via vtiger’s module manager. After a smooth installation, I personally faced some teething troubles which I was able to solve after a kind email conversation with OpenSaaS.

Troubleshooting

First of all, make sure that all language files available at modules/OSSReport2Map/language, like e.g. “de_de.lang.php”, match with the content of “en_us.lang.php”. Otherwise, vtiger might break as long as the new module is active.

Second, configuration might be corrupted due to a missing table. Normally, the file index.php included in the module should create a table called “Raport2MapSettings”. If this does not work automatically (as it didn’t at my first installation), you have to create it on your own by making use of e.g. PhpMyAdmin to be able to insert a row including the report-ID (e.g. “1″) and the Google Maps API.

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `Raport2MapSettings` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL,
`RaportId` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
`APIkey` text,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_general_ci
AUTO_INCREMENT=0


After this, you can change the report-ID by using the configuration menu at the module manager.

Third, if data import shows a warning like “Warning: file() [function.file]: URL file-access is disabled in the server”, php-settings have to be checked whether “allow_url_fopen” is “on”. If it is off, php.ini has to be changed by e.g. a php.ini, an htaccess-file or by making use of the administration panel of the server.

Usage and Outlook

At first glance, the module works fine. No doubt, Report2Map adds a completely new “feeling” to the usage of vtiger which will be of great value for the user. Unfortunately, some felt three percent of the pins are misplaced, presumably due to a misinterpretation of single adresses by the Google Map API. As far as I can see in the moment, those misplaced pins can only be replaced by a manual update of the according coordinates at the underlying table of the mysql-database called “os_coordinates”. Future releases may offer the opportunity to correct such coordinates at a panel where single entries may be edited directly by the user instead of making use of PhpMyAdmin. Furthermore, OpenSaaS may think about to extent its module not only to show accounts on a map but also contacts. This might be of interest for those who make use of vtiger to adress single persons more than the organization they are related to.
After all: Report2Map is a well done piece of software and a great extension for vtiger which is useful and valuable. Its purchase will be paid back in short!

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