[development] Making a whole site location aware - a design question

[Scott McLewin]

Dave,

I've run into a problem that may be easily solved if one knows the right 
SQL trick.  How do I know when to apply my JOIN and WHERE clauses to a 
given node query?  I've run into a condition where my nodes with 
locative data filter exactly as I want them to based on location, but 
nodes without locative data don't show up (I know why - it is because I 
INNER JOINED them with the location table, which yields no result).   At 
the point where hook_db_rewrite_sql is called, how do I know that I'm 
dealing with a node that has location information?

If this thread has become inappropriate for the overall developers list, 
I've placed a copy of it on http://mclewin.com/node/495.  My 
hook_db_rewrite_sql implementation is posted there as well.

Scott


Dave Cohen wrote:
> Consider...
>
> Write a module which stores this data however you see fit.  (Could be a table 
> you create that joins the users table on uid).
>
> Then, use hook_db_rewrite_sql to filter out any nodes which have location 
> information which is not within the users radius.  This way, your work 
> applies to any node with location information, not just events.  And the 
> event (or any other) module does not have to change at all.
>
> If you take this approach, your module is essentially a location-based access 
> control module.  Read up on how node.module uses hook_db_rewrite_sql to 
> filter nodes based on the node_access table and emulate that.
>
> -Dave
>
> On Thursday 17 August 2006 19:39, drupal at mclewin.com wrote:
>   
>> I have a question for the masters.  If you are an impatient master, jump
>> over the context and to the second to last sentence for the question.
>>     
> [snip]
>   
>> Hopefully that is enough context for you.  Here's the question: What is an
>> appropriate "well recognized location" within Drupal to keep these seven
>> pieces of information? (latitide, longitude, search radius (storage in
>> miles), country code, province, postal code and city.
>>
>> I'm looking forward to having an answer (or seven :) ) so that we can get
>> closer to having patches in the patch queue.
>>
>> Scott
>>