If you're using Shack Locations to display maps on your Joomla site, you might have noticed a search box missing. Visitors can see all your locations but can’t search for a specific one.
The good news is that adding a search feature is quick and easy once you know where to look. In this post, I’ll walk you through how I enabled the map search on my own test site and why it makes a big difference in user experience.
When I first set up Shack Locations on a Joomla test site, one thing immediately stood out — the map directory looked great, but no search box was in sight. It felt like something was missing. Especially if you have lots of locations listed.
I wanted visitors to be able to search and find exactly what they were looking for quickly.
Out of the box, Shack Locations doesn’t show a search box by default. Here’s what the map page looked like at first:
I figured there had to be a way to turn it on — and sure enough, it was just a matter of digging into the settings.
So, I headed over to the Joomla admin panel and opened up Components > Shack Locations > Maps:
From there, I clicked the Options button in the top-right corner of the Maps page:
That opened up the Shack Locations configuration settings. I jumped over to the Map Search tab:
And there it was — a setting called "Enable map search?". I switched it to Yes and also took a moment to explore a few other options related to search filters.
After hitting Save & Close, I reloaded the map directory page on the front — and just like that, the search box was right where I wanted it:
Now, visitors can easily search through locations instead of scrolling endlessly. If you’re using Shack Locations and want to offer a better user experience, enabling this simple feature is a no-brainer.
Conclusion
Turning on the Shack Locations map search is a simple step that adds real functionality to your Joomla site. It helps users navigate large sets of locations more efficiently and improves the overall user experience. Don’t overlook this small but powerful setting!
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