DataMappr Questions

At this stage, my main ? is can you filter results ?

I would like to start using Data Mappr on my site, but am a bit confused. 

Answered questions may lead to more questions... 

It looks like this displays all entries from a catalog. ???

• If so, is there a way to filter the output?
  • or will I need to create several smaller catalogs?

Examples of some filtering I am thinking about...

• In a "Tourism" catalog
  • National Parks
    • National Parks filtered to show just those in each of the 50 states.
  • State Parks
  • Theme Parks
    • Show all "Disney" theme parks in the whole country
    • Show all theme parks in a specific state.
• In a "Companies" catalog
  • Show a map with all "Casey's Convenience Stores" nationwide or statewide
  • Show a map with all companies with the same zip code.
  • Show a map of all "Barbers" or "Gas Stations" in a zip code.

Is this something Data Mappr can do, or should I look at other options?

Some things I "think" I know:

• One way to "filter" would be using the zoom option.
  • The farther in you set the zoom, the fewer locations would show up.
    • But, I think the entire catalog would still be looked at by the program, which could really slow things down as my catalogs become quite large.
• I am NOT a database wiz, but have created several dynamic web sites over the past 20+ years using a whole lot of different platforms...

 Thanks in advance for any and all ideas...

Doing a nice filter UI with proper database design is out of the question without having an experienced programmer. It may be possible with the block as-is (use of Selectcode and Filtercode), but it'd need some real expertise to tie in the block options into a workable user-interface.

Creating multiple catalogues and a different block instance for each catalogue is a viable workaround so long as you can partition it so there aren't 1000s of entries in each partition and so long a users are comfortable enough switching maps (you could use Comcode tabs to make it a little nicer).

Pins merging on zoom is viable assuming it still works, again assuming there aren't 1000 of entries. It's the 'cluster' option on the block and it works via including a 3rd party clustering library.

OK Thanks Chris.
I will rethink.
There's more than one way to skin a cat!