How to handle multiple locations?

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michelle's picture

I'm at a fork in the road and looking for input. Should I limit each node to one location? My thoughts so far:

  • My directory already works with one location so I don't have to change anything.
  • One location makes for a cleaner data entry page. Multiple locations currently requires one form for each possible location as there is nothing in the location module UI for adding another form.
  • Works well with views as there is a one to one relationship between location and node.
  • My directory is divided by community in the URL. Multiple locations could span communities. Which community do I put the node in? Not an issue with taxonomy as multiple tags work.
  • Multi location would look nicer on display of a single node as you'd have one node with all the locations listed along the map and markers on the map for them.
  • Multi location is nicer for someone who has a chain where they have 20 identical businesess and they'd need 20 nodes.
  • But 95% of the entries in my directory would be businesses with one or at most 3 locations. And more than likely multiple locations would be in separate communities.

If you can't tell by the weighting of my thoughts, I'm leaning towards one location one node. But I'd like to hear other thoughts before I commit to this as it will be difficult to change later. Is there anything I'm over looking that would make multi locations per node a better idea?

One other thing I was thinking is, if I go with the one location model, is adding a node reference field so other locations can be linked. I could possibly take that a step further and show all the locations for all the nodes on each node's map.

Thoughts?

Michelle

Comments

If there is only one listing

gemini's picture

If there is only one listing per business no matter how many locations they have - then it makes sense to let them use multiple locations option. But if multiple locations have their own listings, then multiple location per listing will create a location duplicates... so it's better to have one location per node in this case.

...

michelle's picture

Well, yeah, I realize that. But that doesn't really answer my question. LOL! I'm asking "Should I do A or should I do B" and you're saying "If you do A do it this way but if you do B do it this way"...

Michelle

Well... I don't know what's

gemini's picture

Well... I don't know what's your exact setup... Multiple nodes is a good thing as long as you have enough info to fill them up... but if you don't, I would go with the single node with the option of multiple locations. Even they are single nodes, but they would be the most informative and less clicking around for the user.

My setup is what I'm trying

michelle's picture

My setup is what I'm trying to decide on. I can either have one node for a business that lists all of their locations or have a separate node for each location of each business. The more I think of it, the more the latter makes sense. There really would only be a few businesses with multiple locations so it's probably not worth the hassle of trying to put multiple locations on one node at this point.

Michelle

As I understand, multiple

gemini's picture

As I understand, multiple locations basically result in multiple addresses that can be listed on a single node. The business description (or whatever the rest of the content for that listing is) will be pretty much the same for all locations, so there is no need to have multiple nodes for each location.

can change mind

volunteermama@drupal.org's picture

seems like making components, then putting them back together, allows to change later the way it is displayed.
so having a business directory entry node with generic fields. And then multiple ( could be one ) location nodes with location specific fields would allow the choice ( views ) to list in the directory each location ( which would include the general info ), or one entry with each location listed along with the generic info. A View (views module ) should allow to change the presentation of the underlying data... Right?

Multiple locations with node relativity

jdwalling's picture

I have been researching the need for multiple locations.

I plan to evaluate Node Relativity to see if it has the right stuff.
http://drupal.org/project/relativity

If anyone has tackled this issue with Node Relativity, please comment.

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