Show nearby events in dashboard events widget in a per country basis

[fernandot]

Hi!

I've noticed that the new events dashboard widget don't show all WordCamps in a country basis. It shows only that ones nearby in kilometres, 400 kms as seen in code (https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/browser/sites/trunk/api.wordpress.org/public_html/events/1.0/index.php?rev=5559&marks=707,708#L703).

That way, i.e., for an Spanish WordPress user from Madrid (in the geographical center of the Country) it going to be impossible to know about WordCamps in Chiclana (Cádiz) or others far away from that 400 kms standard, and totally impossible for anybody to know about a WordCamp in Las Palmas (Canary Islands), and impossible for anyone that lives in Canary Islands to know about continent WordCamps.

It could be possible to extend/change the range to a country basis (best) or more kilometres?

[fernandot]

Example (strange but true) of the results of the actual system

[unintended8]

Yeah, it would make sense to have at least the WordCamps listed if they're in your country. That example of Spain is really graphic, two events, one in the North, one in the South, and not easy to find about them depending on where you are. And it will probably happen the same in other middle-sized countries.

[coreymckrill]

The map illustration makes an excellent point. The API actually does have a way to just list events within a particular country rather than within a radius. However, it's not the default because there are some other examples where it wouldn't make sense to list events from anywhere within one particular country:

• The United States and Australia are two examples of countries with large land areas and lots of WordCamps/meetups. Most people in Miami, Florida aren't going to care about a WordCamp or meetup in Seattle, Washington.
• In some places in Europe, for example, the radius may cover multiple countries with relevant events. If you lived in France near the border with Switzerland, should the API omit a WordCamp happening in Geneva just because it's not in the same country?

That said, there are probably ways that this could be improved to accommodate both scenarios. But first let's clarify the distinction between the Events API and the Events Widget. The Events API is where data is sent in order to retrieve relevant events, and where the logic is that defines the 100km and 400km radius areas. The Events Widget uses the API to display the events to users.

So, some improvements could be done on the API side (which is what this, Meta Trac, is for) and some could be done for the Events Widget in the Dashboard itself, for which you would want to open a ticket in ​Core Trac instead. Since this ticket is in Meta Trac, it should probably be reworded to focus on the API side of things.

[dimadin]

This is something we talked in Serbian community. We would like to have all events from Serbia listed for every request with Serbian IP or city name. I guess that some other countries have other requests too.

Although @coreymckrill examples make sense, they do not apply to most places since everyone has different customs. For example, I guess that some countries do not want all meetups in country but want all WordCamps in country, or other want all meetups and want WordCamps in neighboring countries.

Another thing is that radius from IP location doesn't make sense in most of the world because it is not correct. For example, I get Belgrade which is 200km away. That means I will not see meetups from Niš which is 40km away. You can see this if you look at any site analytics report: visits are mostly placed in a few large cities even though people visit from all over the country.

My suggestion is to make several search templates and leave to local communities to decide which one makes sense in their country. So when API gets request, it first checks if there is anything for that country, if not, fallback to default search.

[iandunn]

The corresponding Core ticket is ​#wp41442, and it has some more discussion about the pros/cons.

[iandunn]

Related #3476