Add ten, or more, places of interest to Plak, and get one of your Plaks promoted for free!

Promotion usually costs R 500.00 a year, and promoted Plaks are displayed randomly at the bottom of each page on the Plak website, like this: -

Following is a list of criteria to quality for the special offer: -

1. You must add ten, or more, places of interest to the Plak website.
2. Each place you add must be a bona fida place of interest. i.e. It can’t be fictitious, and it must have a physical location. NOT your hen house or garden shed! No one (apart from your hens maybe) has any interest in that.
3. Each place you add must be described using at least 200 words.
4. Each place you add must be placed accurately. i.e. Correct GPS coordinates.
5. Each place you add must be within the borders of South Africa.
6. Each place you add must have a full physical address.
7. Each place you add must be an acceptable place of interest for the Plak website. i.e. Anything of an “adult” or pornographic nature will not be accepted.
8. Do not duplicate places that are already on the Plak website, or that you have already added.

Any places of interest, added by yourself, that do not meet the criteria listed above, will be deleted. If you aren’t sure about places you’d like to add, or if you need help, just ask. You can contact me on Skype (mikek123), you can post questions on the Plak Facebook page, or you can post comments on this blog post.

Please also make sure that the Plak you want to promote has all of the following: -

1. An acceptable description of at least 200 words.
2. An associated image (If you need help, contact me).
3. An associated website (If you need help, contact me).

To claim your promotion, I need your user ID, and the ID of the Plak you want to promote (If you need help, contact me).

If you’d like to see a working example on Facebook, click this link.

To install Plak Map, go to the Plak Map Community page, and click the “Install Plak Map on your FB Pages” button.

After clicking the button, Facebook will prompt you to select a page.

After selecting a Facebook page, click the “Add Page Tab” button.

If Plak Map installed successfully, you should now find a Plak Map link (you can change the title of the link) on the page’s timeline.

Click the Plak Map link, and you should see something like this: -

Please note that ONLY page admins will be able to set the Plak ID of the Plak Map Facebook app. Now, enter the ID of your Plak, and click the “Set Plak ID” button.

If you don’t know the ID of your Plak, it’s very easy to find. On your Plak’s more info page, look at the URL. The ID of the Plak is the number at the end of the URL.

A few seconds after clicking the “Set Plak ID” button, Facebook should display something that looks like this: -

Please note that ONLY page admins will be able to see the “Edit” button. If you entered an incorrect Plak ID, or if you just want to change the Plak ID, click the “Edit” button, and you’ll be able to reset the Plak ID.

If you want to change any of the information displayed on your Facebook page, simply update your information on Plak, and the information displayed on Facebook will be updated automatically.

If you want to change the title of the link that is shown on the timeline of your Facebook page, click “Manage” and select “Edit Page” on your page…

… and select “Apps” on the left-hand side of the page.

Look for the Plak Map app in the list…

… and click the “Edit settings” link. Facebook will now open a little window, into which you can enter a different title.

Each Plak’s more info page now includes four different QR Codes

Clicking on the QR Code icons will open a popup window, and will display the QR Code you have chosen

Reading the Google Maps QR Code should open the mobile version of Google Maps on your mobile device, and a pin should indicate the longitude and latitude. Google Maps should also resolve the actual physical address of the GPS coordinates.

Reading the GEO QR Code should create a Point of Interest, that can be used by the GPS system, on your mobile device. The behaviour might vary, depending on the mobile device you are using.

Reading the GEO vCard QR Code should create a geolocated contact on your mobile phone. You should then be able to navigate to that contact using the GPS system built into your mobile phone. I haven’t tested this one, but apparently it does work on Blackberry and Android mobile devices.

Reading the Garmin POI QR Code should open a GarminPoint XML on your mobile device. Most mobile devices won’t know how to deal with the XML automatically, but you can copy and paste the XML into something that knows how to deal with it. In the case of mobile devices that don’t know how to deal with a GEO vCard, the GarminPoint XML can usually be pasted into a field associated with a contact, to add geolocation to that contact.

Plak to the rescue – Ta-daaaaa!

Over the weekend I worked on a very simple Plak interface that allows anyone to add a Google map (that includes driving directions from anywhere) to their website, and it’s quick and easy! All it requires is a rudimentary understanding of HTML. No understanding of the Google maps API is required! And here is how it works: -

If you already have an establishment added to the Plak website, you will notice a new button, just above the map on the More Info page.

Clicking the “Put this map on your website” button, will take you to a page (please read the instructions on that page) that will generate a snippet of JavaScript code, that you can copy and paste into the HTML of your website.

It’s that easy!

If your establishment hasn’t been added to the Plak website, just register, by clicking the Register button, which you will find in the top left-hand corner of every page on the Plak website. Once you have confirmed your registration, log into the Plak website, and feel free to add as many Plaks as you like – You will be able to generate map code for ALL of them.

If you’d like to see a working example, please have a look at Letsatsi Bay Directions

For example: -

Peter registers on the Plak site
Peter has a small business and wants to track his driver’s movements during the day
Each one of Peter’s drivers has a mobile device with a built-in GPS
Peter installs the Plak tracker software on each of the driver’s mobile devices
The Plak server will store the last 30 sets of GPS coordinates for each of Peter’s drivers
Peter can then log into Plak and see, in real time, where each of his drivers is, and the route they have followed over the last 30 minutes. No one else will be able to see where Peter’s drivers are, or where they have been over the last 30 minutes.

The Plak Tracker is still in the process of being tested, and I need a few people who’d like to participate in the testing. Those who participate in the testing must be prepared to report any problems they might find, either on the mobile interface, or on the Plak website, so that problems can be addressed and fixed. They must also be prepared to test changes to the mobile interface (changes to the mobile interface would be made to address problems that may have been reported) or changes made to the Plak website.

To install the Plak tracker software on a mobile device, the mobile device meet the following requirements: -

1. The mobile device must be able to run Java ME (Micro Edition) applications.
2. The Java ME platform on the mobile device must support MIDP 2.0 or 2.1.
3. The Java ME platform on the mobile device must support CLDC 1.1.
4. The mobile device must have an embedded GPS, and the embedded GPS must support Java location based services (JSR 179) – This is to collect GPS information from the embedded GPS device.
5. The mobile device must have connectivity to a mobile network i.e. GPRS, 3G, etc. – This is to communicate GPS information to the Plak server.

To install the Plak tracker software on your mobile device, click this link (You must click the link using the mobile device on which you want to install the Plak Tracker software).

Using the Plak tracker software on your mobile device

The first time that the tracker software is run, it will ask for some information.

The Device ID uniquely identifies each mobile device within a Plak account. Using the example from above, let’s say that Peter’s drivers are named Joe, Dave and Edward. Peter could then use the driver’s name as the Device ID. Using the driver’s name as the Device ID might be silly if the drivers often swap vehicles, so he might want to use the vehicle registration number. Basically, the Device ID can be anything you want it to be, as long as it uniquely identifies each mobile device that connects to your Plak Account.

The Account ID is the numeric value associated with your Plak account. To find this value, log into Plak, click the My Plak button, and then click the My Info Button. The number shown to the right of the User ID: label, is the number that should be used in the Account ID field.

The Password is the same password that you use to log into Plak.

The tracker software running on the mobile device will also ask for your permission to access the mobile network. If you deny access to the mobile network, the tracker software will not be able to communicate with the Plak server, and will thus be unable to work correctly.

Furthermore, the tracker software running on the mobile device might ask for your permission to access the GPS embedded in the mobile device. If you deny access to the GPS, the tracker software will be unable to read information from the GPS, and will thus be unable to work correctly.

So, while I was adding the Linked In share button, I thought it would be a good idea to tidy things up a bit. All of the different Social Media buttons have now been rolled into a single Social Media button.

Clicking the single Social Media button will popup a div with all of the different Social Media buttons in it.

When the Social Media div is being displayed, clicking the Social Media button again will close it.

The main noticeable change on the Plak home page is that Street View information is no longer displayed in a little popup window. Street View information (if any exists) is shown on the main map.

While every effort has been made to ensure that the changes are bug free, bugs may well exist. If you find any bugs, please report them so that they can get fixed.

My plan is to eventually move all AJAX calls on the Plak server from PHP to Node.js. Some very basic benchmarking that I’ve done, shows that AJAX calls to Node.js are about 300 milliseconds faster than the same AJAX calls made to PHP. 300 milliseconds may not sound like much, but considering that the Plak server handles tens of thousands of AJAX calls every day, the 300 milliseconds adds up to quite a large chunk of time.

At this point in time the Node.js server is only handling AJAX calls from these pages: -

http://plak.co.za/latest.php
http://plak.co.za/popular.php
http://plak.co.za/recent.php
http://plak.co.za/search.php

Over the next few days I’ll monitor how Node.js stands up to “real world” conditions. If it manages to handle the loads, without falling over or doing anything silly, it’ll tie more AJAX calls into Node.js.

Firstly, a Google +1 button has been added to all More Info pages.

The Google +1 button is a bit like a Facebook “Like” button, with the added advantage of having an impact on Google search results (which, of course, Facebook doesn’t have). If you’d like to lean more about Google’s +1 button, and how it is supposed to work, please see this post in the official Google blog – http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/1-button-for-websites-recommend-content.html. There is also a short YouTube video on the +1 button, which you can view here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAyUNI3_V2c.

Secondly, I have been updating Plak to use the new version of Google Maps API. Up till now, Plak has used v2 of the Google Maps API, but with the changes that have been made, Plak now ties into v3 of the Google Maps API. At this point in time, all Plak pages that display a map tie into v3, except the Plak home page. I’ll get around to updating the Plak home page in the next few days time – It’s going to be a mammoth task, so please bear with me

The main change that you’ll notice on the v3 maps, is “Pegman.” Errrrmmmm… Please don’t ask me why the people at Google decided to call him Pegman. Maybe he looks a bit like a peg. Anyway, meet Pegman: -

Pegman has two states. Orange, as in the pic shown above, or grey, as in the pic shown below.

When Pegman is orange, it means that Street View information exists within the bounds of the map you are currently viewing. So, rather obviously, when Pegman is grey, it means that no Street View information exists within the bounds of the map you are currently viewing.

If you move your mouse over orange Pegman, you will notice that he leans out a little bit. This is Pegman’s way of asking you to drag him around the map. And when you do drag orange Pegman around the map, all streets/roads that have Street View information will be highlighted in blue.

To view the actual Street View information, simply drop Pegman on a highlighted street. When Pegman is dropped, the map will change to display the Street View information, and, by default, the view will always be to the north.

You can rotate the Street View, zoom in or out, look up or down, or even “drive” along the roads, simply by using your mouse, or by using the navigation widget.

On the Plak More Info Pages, Pegman works in exactly the same way, unless you click one of the Street View buttons. If you click one of the Street View buttons, a separate popup window will open, showing Street View information (if any exists) for the current Plak, and Pegman will stand on the map, indicating the actual location of the Street View information in the popup window. You will also notice a green “thingy” (I don’t know what to call it) under Pegman’s feet. The green “thingy” will point in the direction currently being viewed in the popup window. If you move around within the Street View window, Pegman will follow you around on the map, giving you a pretty good idea of where you are, or where you are going. You can also drag Pegman around on the map, and as Pegman changes location, the Street View information in the popup window will automatically update itself to show the new location.