I need to create a second CMS template page for a single CMS collection. Now I have read that this is not permitted by Webflow, so I am looking for alternative approaches like the following which came from another forum post from about a year ago: “split your data into two CMS collections and create a reference in each CMS to the other CMS. Then you could create two different CMS collection pages and access all the data on both CMS’s.”. Here is some context. My site is a real estate site listing thousands of homes in the “Homes” CMS. I have a text field in this CMS that records the full address of the home, in a single line format. This address is used to map the individual home in a small Google map, as part of the “Homes” CMS template page used to display the specifics of each home when a viewer clicks on the item in the collection list. On a different page, I would like to show only one element, a larger Google map with pins for every home listed in the “Homes” collection. But this is not possible on a static page (as I understand it), and a second CMS collection template page is also not possible. Is there a way to achieve this, either with refrencing the “Homes” collection (specifically the single line address field) to another collection (see above in bold), or by some other method? One concern is this, because I have thousands of homes, I do not wish to create seperate collections (“Homes” and “addresses”) thereby doubling the number of collection items needed to accomplish my goal. Any help will be appreciated, thank you.
For what you’ve described, I cannot identify any reason why you’d want two different collection pages. You have a property listing page ( one CMS containing all property & address info ) and a catalog page ( one static page showing the main map ).
100% possible. In the CMS, you’d want to store lat / long rather than address, so you’re not paying API charges for the lookup on every map generation.
You’d use a collection list, and custom code to generate your pins & overlays.
However;
Thousands is difficult. A few thoughts…
You can increase the number of items on your static page by using additional collection lists, at 100 items per, however;
There may be limits on the number of pins Google map will render in a single map render, and if it’s too packed it’s somewhat unusable anyway.
To manage this you might need to consider approaches like zoom-level pin-aggregation which is a bit advanced… click on a pin and it expands into e.g. 5 houses, or make someone choose a neighborhood before they can see pins… that kind of thing.
It might be possible to combine this with Finsweet CMS filter and CMS load to create a filterable view. You choose price range, location beds, baths, and once you have it narrowed to 100 properties or less, then you get pins on the map. Before then, only premium listings- different icons, different messaging, etc. This complicates things, you’d need to use the Finsweet JS API to get the current filter view and update the map.
These are fun builds, but they involve some technical understanding of the Google maps API, and the FS API if you go that route. If you need a pro on the project let me know and we can chat.
Well, one reason for the second CMS template page was that the large map with the thousands of pinned locations was intended to be “premium” contant that was only going to be available to users who paid for that access.
At the present time, my CMS is only 12 homes, but ultimately it will expand to several thousand homes. So I will be implementing the zoom level pin-aggregation when that time comes.
A little more about the “premium” content solution. Te intent for the “premium” access page was to provide the subscriber with methods of filtering the content so they can see what they are interested in, and to provide the map pins so that the view can select a pin and obtain driving directions to that location, so they can visit the identified home in person. Hope this helps.
I’m not sure what this is referring to, I don’t see any mention in your original post.
If you have two different feature sets on your property-directory page and your property listing page, depending on whether a user is logged-in or now ( Memberstack? ), then I’d just use some script to add/remove those features or page parts depending on the user login state or access level.
Then, yes you could have a user enter their address, you geocode it and remember it, and then deliver a driving directions map when they visit individual property listings.