My goal is to allow a user to login to the App from wherever they’re located, make updates as necessary, and track their GPS location as they move while a task is in a specific status.
The intention is to allow another user, like a manager, to be able to view the user on a map.
I’ve read that GPS tracking is possible but can’t seem to find documentation on the usage.
If there was a way to record locations for a user and display it on a map, it then opens up the world where a user (could be a customer, could be an office manager) can monitor arrival of someone similar to a ride-share experience.
At first I thought it would be natively available but I’m also quite new here.
On top of that, calculating an arrival time estimate based on the user’s location and the location to which they are traveling would fill the other gap.
Good to know. I assumed so, but, as I stated, I’m new! I’ve explored more than a dozen platforms (along the lines of Tadabase) and I’m blown away with what’s possible with this platform.
With Pipes, would I be able to include a time estimate in a notification? For instance, since I can use variables, could an Email include an estimated arrival time based on the user’s current location and end location?
User is at X
User traveling to Y
Time to travel from X to Y is ## mins
Include ## mins or arrival time in the Email message when sent.
In order to use the pipe values, you’ll need to save them to a record. Let’s say you had event records with drivers assigned to the event, it could look something like this:
You assign a driver to a event record
A pipe runs either from the submit form above, or you could run it in an action link
Pipe calculates multiple values between either a User’s record address, or a generic origin address and the address of the event record
Returned pipe values such as, drive time, distance, arrival time, departure time, and directions are saved to the event record
Small note on arrival/departure times. I think you can calculate either by supplying the opposite but I can’t remember.
An email system/form is setup to email record information to the assigned driver, or whoever else
The time of the ‘action’ matters. For instance if it’s a delivery driver who presses a “In Transit”, that would:
Get current location of the Driver
Take that location (lat/long) and record to a ‘Location’ table (I think?)
Calculate time & distance
Record the calculation, capture in some table, like Events
Return the variables to use within the Email
Some items that come to mind:
I don’t think that Email can be sent immediately because it will need to ensure the variables have been calculated first
If for some reason a calculation fails, include some form of an ‘if’ statement to use generic phrase such as “The Driver will be there shortly” versus “The Driver will be there in 20 minutes”
Am I overthinking or would you say it’s reasonable?
If the users address will be changing, like a delivery driver, you’ll need a form or action link to set the users current location to a user record field like {last known location}.
In order to use the directions API, you have to send an origin and a destination address from either a stored record value or a form value.
Sounds like that’s what I’m after. I can store a current lat/long for a given user based on their native GPS? If true, do I create a Lat Text field and Long Text field in the table?