WT Yandex map items

WT Yandex map items displays Joomla articles as placemarks on Yandex Maps: offices, shops, properties, events, anything the site already keeps as articles. Coordinates are stored in an article custom field, so a content manager adds a point to the map the same way they fill in a regular article. The module follows the Joomla 4+ structure and, since version 2.0.0, uses the Yandex Maps API 3.0.

Features

• Placemarks are taken from data sources; for now there is one source, Joomla articles.
• Coordinates go into a text custom field (comma-separated) or into a field of the Fields - WT Yandex map plugin.
• Standard Yandex Maps API 3.0 layouts for placemarks and popups, or custom layouts.
• An image or an HTML layout can serve as the placemark marker.
• A custom layout for a whole category, set in a category custom field, and for a single article, set in an article field. Article settings take precedence over category settings. This works for both the marker and the popup content.
• Layouts can be picked from a list with the WT Layout Select custom field plugin instead of typing paths by hand.
• Layouts can be overridden in the Joomla template folder.
• Marker and popup layouts are loaded into the page body as JavaScript literals.
• Custom map styling for the Scheme map type from the Yandex Map Style Editor.
• Optimised for large data sets: several thousand placemarks can be shown on one map.

Marker and popup layouts

A layout path is given relative to the layouts folder, with dots instead of slashes, for example modules.mod_wtyandexmapitems.marker.city-marker. This uses the standard Joomla override mechanism: the layout can be overridden in a template at templates/[YOUR_TEMPLATE]/html/layouts/mod_wtyandexmapitems/marker/city-marker.php. A text or list field (list, radio buttons, checkboxes) is used to specify the marker or popup layout.

Installation and setup

1. Install the package through the Joomla Extension Manager.
2. Get an API key in the Yandex developer dashboard and, if required, add the site domain to the key settings.
3. Create a custom field for coordinates: a text field (comma-separated coordinates) or a WT Yandex map field.
4. Fill in the coordinates in the articles.
5. In the module settings, enter the Yandex Maps API key and the API type (free or paid), choose the data source and the coordinate field and, if needed, the category, tag and number of articles.

To apply a custom map style:

1. Create a style in the Yandex Map Style Editor and export it to a JSON file.
2. Put the file on the site, for example at /media/mod_wtyandexmapitems/map-style.json.
3. Point the module's "Path to map style JSON file" parameter at this file. The module passes the file contents to YMapDefaultSchemeLayer.customization.

Compatibility and requirements

• Joomla 4 (4.2 or later) and Joomla 5.
• A Yandex Maps API key.
• Version 1.0.0 used the outdated API 2.1; the documentation has a separate guide for upgrading from it.