There have been instances where administrators want to share information about a specific location or point on the map. Take an example of where a council is consulting on a new dog park location. They will set the map up with 3 pins that show where existing dog parks are already located and then ask the community to suggest a location where a new park can be built.
To do something like this, once the setup of your Places tool is complete, an administrator can drop pins with information on the map. Then this pin category can be hidden (so no-one from the public can use that pin) and the participants can use the other pin categories to share their preferred location and information.
Outlined below are the steps that can be taken to populate your map with pins prior to the start of your consultation.
Open the Places page of your project.
2. Click the Preview button, as highlighted above. The front end view of the map is displayed. This is the page that a participant can view and access.
3. Here, as an administrator you can place pins of your choosing, for example use the pin to mark the locations on the map.
Note: If you do not want to be restricted by the boundary set for the participants when placing a pin, turn off the setting for "Restrict Pins within Boundary" in the tool settings.
Remember to turn this setting back on if you wish to restrict your consultation within the boundary area.
4. Once your required pin drops are completed, this pin category can be hidden on the settings page. Once a pin category is hidden, participants will not be able to view the hidden pin category and can use the other pin categories to share their preferred location and information. NOTE: There should be more than one pin category to see the “hide” option. Click on the “+ Add Pin Category” option to add more pins if required.
5. Once hidden, only the other (green) pin category is available to participants.
When participants click on the existing pins, they are shown additional information about the pin.
This information should be entered by the administrator when the pin is added, in the comments and photo options provided when a new pin is dropped.
Read our article on Understanding the participant view of Places to better understand the mapping between the front end participant view and the administrator back end options.