Introduction
Geofencing is an important concept that gets used a lot. It has its uses for several different use cases. For example, if you want to find all technicians within a certain radius of a service address (typical field service scenario).
Implementing geofencing
Typically, geofencing involves drawing a circle around a given point. While this approach will not give you an exact radius around a given location, it is a good approximation that has worked for me for most use cases. The approach involves the following steps:
- Gather a user's current location (to learn more about signals, click here)
- Add/subtract a predefined or configurable range to the user's latitude and longitude
- Then filter the list of accounts/contacts/service locations/technicians that have latitude/longitude within that range
Here is a sample code for geofencing:
OnSelect of a button:
Set(
gblLatRangeSetting,
Value(TextInput4.Text)
);
Set(
gblLongRangeSetting,
Value(TextInput4.Text)
);
Set(
gblUserLat,
Location.Latitude
);
Set(
gblUserLong,
Location.Longitude
);
Set(
gblLatValidationLowerEnd,
Value(gblUserLat - gblLatRangeSetting) * 1000
);
Set(
gblLatValidationUpperEnd,
Value(gblUserLat + gblLatRangeSetting) * 1000
);
Set(
gblLongValidationLowerEnd,
Value(gblUserLong - gblLongRangeSetting) * 1000
);
Set(
gblLongValidationUpperEnd,
Value(gblUserLong + gblLongRangeSetting) * 1000
);
Items property of a gallery:
Filter(
colAddress,
(Lat >= RoundDown(
gblLatValidationLowerEnd / 1000,
5
) && Lat <= RoundDown( gblLatValidationUpperEnd / 1000, 5 )) && (Long >= RoundDown(
gblLongValidationLowerEnd / 1000,
5
) && Long <= RoundDown(
gblLongValidationUpperEnd / 1000,
5
))
)This creates a square but is a good approximation of geofencing for all intents and purposes.
Stay tuned for the remaining 19 tips!