# Locations Plugin 🌍
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742
**Category:** Plugin
**Tags:** paid-support
**Created:** [September 10, 2017, 10:36am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742 "2017-09-10T10:36:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2017, 10:36am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742/1 "2017-09-10T10:36:42Z")
| | | |
| --- | --- | --- |
| ℹ | **Summary** | A Discourse plugin that adds structured and geocoded topic and user locations with map-based discovery |
| 🛠 | **Repository Link** | [https://github.com/merefield/discourse-locations](https://github.com/merefield/discourse-locations) |
| 📖 | **Install Guide** | [How to install plugins in Discourse](https://meta.discourse.org/t/install-plugins-in-discourse/19157) |
| ❤ | **Sponsorship** | Please consider becoming an ongoing [sponsor of my open source work](https://github.com/sponsors/merefield) at a level that suits your or your organisation’s resources and needs to ensure this plugin gets the maintenance it deserves and continues to work for your site in the future. |
Enjoying this plugin? Please ⭐ it on [GitHub](https://github.com/merefield/discourse-locations)! 🙏
### Features
Discourse Locations provides the complete location-storage, geocoding, and map foundation. The optional Pro extension adds advanced discovery, automation, and users-map presentation while requiring this base plugin.
| Feature | Base plugin | Pro extension |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Structured topic locations and configurable input fields | ✅ | — |
| Optional or required geocoding with multiple providers | ✅ | — |
| Category and site-wide topic map views | ✅ | — |
| User locations on posts, profiles, cards, and the directory map | ✅ | — |
| Leaflet users map with local name and username search | ✅ | — |
| Configurable location labels, flags, map markers, clustering, and tiles | ✅ | — |
| Default a new topic to the current user’s location | ✅ | — |
| Automated IP-based user-location estimation | — | ✅ **Exclusive** |
| Nearby-topic discovery based on the current user’s location | — | ✅ **Exclusive** |
| Optional location-aware [Discourse Chatbot](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-chatbot/256652) tools | — | ✅ **Exclusive** |
| Permission-aware group and result-limit users-map filters | — | ✅ **Exclusive** |
| Interactive WebGL users-map globe | — | ✅ **Exclusive** |
| Idle globe screen saver | — | ✅ **Exclusive** |
Installing Pro adds its exclusive features to the base functionality; it does not replace the base plugin.
### Configuration
The base plugin’s settings use the `location_` prefix and control topic locations, geocoding, map display, user locations, and the standard users map.
Useful documentation:
- [Administration settings](https://coop.pavilion.tech/docs?topic=1620)
- [Locations in topics](https://coop.pavilion.tech/docs?topic=1763)
- [Locations in categories](https://coop.pavilion.tech/docs?topic=1550)
### Privacy and storage
Users choose whether to save a profile location. Complete editable topic and user locations remain in base-owned custom fields, while plugin-owned projection tables support spatial queries and map ordering.
Raw location custom fields are not made globally public. Topic, profile, card, post, and directory responses expose only the location data required by that surface and respect Discourse’s profile and group visibility rules.
### Pro extension
[Discourse Locations Pro](https://github.com/merefield/discourse-locations-pro-ext) is an optional extension available to GitHub Sponsors as a thank-you for supporting ongoing development. Individual and independent-community sponsors receive access from the **$7/month Bronze tier** ; businesses and institutions must sponsor at the **$40/month Silver tier** or above. Eligible sponsors receive private-repository installation instructions.
The Pro extension adds automated IP lookup, Nearby topics, Chatbot tools, enhanced users-map filters, the interactive globe, and the globe screen saver. Each optional automation or integration remains disabled until configured, and the Pro master setting can disable all Pro behaviour without disabling the base plugin.
**[Sponsor on GitHub to get Locations Pro](https://github.com/sponsors/merefield)**
---
### Author:  [@ycrepeau](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ycrepeau)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2020, 5:30am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742/486 "2020-04-16T05:30:19Z")
I am very new with this technology. I have installed the plugin (I see the Map command in the hamburger menu and I have a location field in my User profile page (with working georeference with nominatim) BUT…
I don’t see “Add location” button in the editor.
This is my configuration:
[ ](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/087a959mrm99kos/Capture%20d%27%C3%A9cran%202020-04-16%2001.20.36.png?dl=0)
And this is the editor window:
[ ](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/9jhmczcvupp5dpm/Capture%20d%27%C3%A9cran%202020-04-16%2001.26.55.png?dl=0)
Finally, this is the way I have installed the plugin:
```plaintext
hooks:
after_code:
- exec:
cd: $home/plugins
cmd:
- git clone https://github.com/discourse/docker_manager.git
- git clone https://github.com/discourse/discourse-math.git
- git clone https://github.com/paviliondev/discourse-events.git
- git clone https://github.com/paviliondev/discourse-locations.git
- git clone https://github.com/davidtaylorhq/discourse-whos-online.git
- git clone https://github.com/discourse/twitter-profile-link.git
- git clone https://github.com/discourse/discourse-tooltips.git
```
I have tried with locale= en with the same results.
---
### Author:  [@ycrepeau](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ycrepeau)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2020, 5:35am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742/487 "2020-04-16T05:35:59Z")
Well, well, correction: the plugin works as expected in the User Profile.
According to the map, I am a dead person since the map indicates a point in the middle of the largest Montreal graveyard:
[ ](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/5kwcv2cbstxx5l0/Capture%20d%27%C3%A9cran%202020-04-16%2001.33.46.png?dl=0)
---
### Author:  [@SouperC](https://meta.discourse.org/u/SouperC)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2020, 5:38am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742/488 "2020-04-16T05:38:26Z")
It has to be enabled for each of the categories that you wish to use it also.
---
### Author:  [@ycrepeau](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ycrepeau)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2020, 12:02am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742/489 "2020-04-17T00:02:43Z")
Thank you! It has worked.
By the way, the check mark was “on” by default BUT!! you have to show the setup panel, uncheck and recheck to have the feature actually works.
---
### Author:  [@SouperC](https://meta.discourse.org/u/SouperC)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2020, 6:21am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742/490 "2020-04-18T06:21:52Z")
Glad you got it working. It’s been a while since I used the plugin so it was kinda my best guess.
---
### Author:  [@Richie](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Richie)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2020, 8:23pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742/491 "2020-04-21T20:23:28Z")
@angus I’ve noticed this issue recently when people don’t have a location entered on their profile:
It’s not occurring on every user though, can’t quite work out the pattern to it.
Maybe those who have deleted a location on their profile? Or maybe it’s and empty string eg “”, rather than NULL? 🤔
---
### Author:  [@omarfilip](https://meta.discourse.org/u/omarfilip)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2020, 4:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742/492 "2020-04-23T16:38:04Z")
It looks like the recent update removed the location from the user card altogether.
User card:
User profile:
---
### Author:  [@david](https://meta.discourse.org/u/david)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2020, 4:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742/493 "2020-04-23T16:39:01Z")
This is very likely caused by this change in core:
> [@Changes to the user card data source](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changes-to-the-user-card-data-source/139951/4):
>
> This is now the new default, and the setting has been removed
---
### Author:  [@Richie](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Richie)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2020, 7:09pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742/494 "2020-04-23T19:09:41Z")
@omarfilip @david Thanks for the insight 👍🏻
@angus is this something you’ll be able to modify?
---
### Author:  [@angus](https://meta.discourse.org/u/angus)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2020, 11:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742/495 "2020-04-23T23:38:30Z")
@david @Richie Thanks, this plugin has been updated to support the change.
[https://github.com/paviliondev/discourse-locations/commit/5c762ccc1f34d190fafec49498e95a395c73c2bb](https://github.com/paviliondev/discourse-locations/commit/5c762ccc1f34d190fafec49498e95a395c73c2bb)
Just a heads up that this plugin will soon be moving to the same update schedule as the rest of Pavilion’s main plugins. This means that it will be brought in line with the latest Discourse core in the first week of every month. Details to follow specific to this plugin, but see further here:
- [Topic List Previews (legacy) - #900 by merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-list-previews/101646/900)
- [Events Plugin 📅 - #664 by fzngagan](https://meta.discourse.org/t/events-plugin/69776/664)
- [Question Answer Plugin - #228 by mbcahyono](https://meta.discourse.org/t/question-answer-plugin/56032/228)
---
### Author:  [@omarfilip](https://meta.discourse.org/u/omarfilip)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2020, 4:13am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742/496 "2020-04-24T04:13:24Z")
Thanks for the quick fix, Angus.
---
### Author:  [@Richie](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Richie)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2020, 10:33am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742/497 "2020-04-24T10:33:41Z")
Hi @angus confirmed the locations are now displaying on the user card but we’re still seeing the issue whereby some users have a map pin and map icon showing even if they don’t have a location entered:
And on their full profile page:
---
### Author:  [@k4rtik](https://meta.discourse.org/u/k4rtik)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2020, 8:45pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742/498 "2020-04-25T20:45:26Z")
I cannot start the Discourse app because of the locations plugin currently. Attaching log below, it works if I comment out locations in `app.yml`. Can someone prioritize this and fix it?
Also, is there a way to only upgrade to tests-passed version of the plugin (if there is such a thing), like how the main discourse app does? So that we do not run into such issues in future.
> **Log**
>
> ```
> 5: from /var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-layouts/plugin.rb:49:in `block in activate!'
> 4: from /var/www/discourse/lib/discourse_event.rb:13:in `trigger'
> 3: from /usr/local/lib/ruby/2.6.0/set.rb:338:in `each'
> 2: from /usr/local/lib/ruby/2.6.0/set.rb:338:in `each_key'
> 1: from /var/www/discourse/lib/discourse_event.rb:14:in `block in trigger'
> /var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-locations/plugin.rb:234:in `block in activate!': uninitialized constant DiscourseLayouts::WidgetHelper
> Did you mean? DiscourseLayouts::WidgetSerializer (NameError)
>
> **INCOMPATIBLE PLUGIN**
>
> You are unable to build Discourse due to errors in the plugin at
> /var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-locations
>
> Please try removing this plugin and rebuilding again!
> I, [2020-04-25T20:32:06.399307 #1] INFO -- : gem install icalendar -v 2.4.1 -i /var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-events/gems/2.6.5 --no-document --ignore-dependencies --no-user-install
> HEADS UP! iCalendar 2.0 is not backwards-compatible with 1.x. Please see the README for the new syntax
>
> HEADS UP! icalendar 2.2.0 switches to non-strict parsing as default. Please see the README if you
> rely on strict parsing for information on how to enable it.
>
> ActiveSupport is required for TimeWithZone support, but not required for general use.
> Successfully installed icalendar-2.4.1
> 1 gem installed
> gem install geocoder -v 1.4.4 -i /var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-locations/gems/2.6.5 --no-document --ignore-dependencies --no-user-install
> Successfully installed geocoder-1.4.4
> 1 gem installed
>
> I, [2020-04-25T20:32:06.400580 #1] INFO -- : Terminating async processes
> I, [2020-04-25T20:32:06.400773 #1] INFO -- : Sending INT to HOME=/var/lib/postgresql USER=postgres exec chpst -u postgres:postgres:ssl-cert -U postgres:postgres:ssl-cert /usr/lib/postgresql/10/bin/postmaster -D /etc/postgresql/10/main pid: 50
> I, [2020-04-25T20:32:06.400979 #1] INFO -- : Sending TERM to exec chpst -u redis -U redis /usr/bin/redis-server /etc/redis/redis.conf pid: 167
> 167:signal-handler (1587846726) Received SIGTERM scheduling shutdown...
> 2020-04-25 20:32:06.401 UTC [50] LOG: received fast shutdown request
> 2020-04-25 20:32:06.403 UTC [50] LOG: aborting any active transactions
> 2020-04-25 20:32:06.406 UTC [50] LOG: worker process: logical replication launcher (PID 59) exited with exit code 1
> 167:M 25 Apr 2020 20:32:06.406 # User requested shutdown...
> 167:M 25 Apr 2020 20:32:06.406 * Saving the final RDB snapshot before exiting.
> 2020-04-25 20:32:06.409 UTC [54] LOG: shutting down
> 2020-04-25 20:32:06.439 UTC [50] LOG: database system is shut down
> 167:M 25 Apr 2020 20:32:06.502 * DB saved on disk
> 167:M 25 Apr 2020 20:32:06.502 # Redis is now ready to exit, bye bye...
>
> FAILED
> --------------------
> Pups::ExecError: cd /var/www/discourse && su discourse -c 'bundle exec rake db:migrate' failed with return #
> Location of failure: /pups/lib/pups/exec_command.rb:112:in `spawn'
> exec failed with the params {"cd"=>"$home", "hook"=>"db_migrate", "cmd"=>["su discourse -c 'bundle exec rake db:migrate'"]}
> b5a02d7f9df6b6a9dc160e269de30eef49bb0aeaf5dcb1b712bab5e6edad4030
> **FAILED TO BOOTSTRAP** please scroll up and look for earlier error messages, there may be more than one.
> ./discourse-doctor may help diagnose the problem.
> root@discuss:/var/discourse#
>
> ```
---
### Author:  [@angus](https://meta.discourse.org/u/angus)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2020, 2:19pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742/499 "2020-04-26T14:19:55Z")
@k4rtik Thanks for your report, and sorry you’ve been impacted. Your issue arose because:
1. The layouts plugin was updated 2 days ago.
2. The locations plugin was supporting the existing version of the layouts plugin.
3. You use both plugins.
4. You updated your Discourse in between the initial update of the layouts plugin and support being added to the locations plugin.
I’ve updated the locations plugin to support the new layouts plugin version: [Update to support layouts v0.2 · merefield/discourse-locations@52aec30 · GitHub](https://github.com/paviliondev/discourse-locations/commit/52aec30461f8439c6658fdc401127cb52881ab49). When you update now with both plugins installed, it will work. @Richie This will fix your issue: [Add include? to geo\_json in user\_card serializer · merefield/discourse-locations@5185063 · GitHub](https://github.com/paviliondev/discourse-locations/commit/51850630187c43df8e2c8186a2943e20eeaadda2)
Having a tests-passed branch in the plugin would unforatunately not help too much in this particuar situation, or a not-insignificant portion of other plugin incompatibility situations. People update at many different frequencies and have many different combinations of customisations.
That said, we’re starting to make some steps to address this problem. We’re moving to a schedule of ensuring Pavilion’s primary open source plugins (this plugin, Events, Topic List Previews etc) are up to date with Discourse every 24 hours in the first 5 days of every month, starting May 1 to 5.
This gives you a safe window to update all the plugins on [try.thepavilion.io](http://try.thepavilion.io) along with Discourse itself with greater certainty that:
1. You won’t experience conflicts between the plugin and Discourse, and if you do they will be addressed within less than 24 hrs.
2. You won’t experience any issues due to changes in the plugin itself. Any potentially breaking changes to the plugin itself will happen outside this window.
This applies to all the plugins listed here:
This list may be expanded over time. See further: [https://try.thepavilion.io](https://try.thepavilion.io).
If you have any questions about this, feel free to PM me, or contact us over at [thepavilion.io](http://thepavilion.io).
---
### Author:  [@k4rtik](https://meta.discourse.org/u/k4rtik)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2020, 6:23pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742/500 "2020-04-26T18:23:17Z")
Thanks, yeah, I was trying to figure out why my custom layout was not showing up either with the last update. It still doesn’t seem to appear but I see on Pavilion that you are in the process to release updated doc for the changes in the plugin so I will wait a while.
---
### Author:  [@Richie](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Richie)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2020, 6:32pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742/501 "2020-04-26T18:32:36Z")
> [@angus](#):
>
> @Richie This will fix your issue: [Add include? to geo\_json in user\_card serializer · paviliondev/discourse-locations@5185063 · GitHub](https://github.com/paviliondev/discourse-locations/commit/51850630187c43df8e2c8186a2943e20eeaadda2)
@angus confirmed - issue resolved 👏🏻
Thanks again for your continued support of this plugin 😃
---
### Author:  [@Richie](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Richie)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2020, 6:23pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742/502 "2020-05-04T18:23:57Z")
Hi @angus I saw a notification to say the first post in this thread was edited.
Looks like the location of the repo has moved.
Should we all update our discourse settings to the new location or will the existing / old location still be updated?
Do we need to rebuild anything after changing the plugin source location?
---
### Author:  [@angus](https://meta.discourse.org/u/angus)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2020, 11:46pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742/503 "2020-05-04T23:46:40Z")
Hey @Richie, you can continue using the old url of [GitHub - merefield/discourse-locations: Tools for handling locations in Discourse · GitHub](https://github.com/angusmcleod/discourse-locations). You can wait to update it when you naturally get a chance, i.e. you have to rebuild your site for some other reason.
The plugin was transferred from my personal github to Pavilion’s some time ago. When a repository is transferred, Github automatically redirects all links to the old location to the new one.
The first post will be changing a bit more in the coming weeks. I’m going to write some documentation for this over on [thepavilion.io](http://thepavilion.io) and a shorter description here on meta.
---
### Author:  [@Richie](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Richie)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2020, 8:46am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742/504 "2020-05-05T08:46:59Z")
> [@angus](#):
>
> When a repository is transferred, Github automatically redirects all links to the old location to the new one.
Excellent, I didn’t know that 👍🏻
Thanks once again for the support!
[Next page](https://meta.discourse.org/t/locations-plugin/69742.md?page=2)