Show related CMS items by nearest distance to current shown Item

Design help CMS
1

Hi guys,

I have a collection list named “Locations”

On my Locations Template page, the location section is shown, and then below in a separate section, I want to show 3 x of the —nearest— locations to the currently shown Location Item.

Is this possible?

Thanks

Here is my public share link: LINK
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2

Hey Craig, I feel like I answered this somewhere yesterday. Facebook maybe?
You have two good options here;

The simple approach is to create a multiref field and manually set the 3 nearest for each location.

If you really want it automated, you’ll have some scripting work to do, the approach is;

  • Determine your reference location lat & long
  • In a collection list, list all other locations with their lat & long ( I put these as custom attributes so they’re easily accessible ).
  • On page load, run a script that calculates distance as-the-crow-flies, and sets it as a 3rd custom attribute on those items.
  • Sort the list, shortest distance to longest
  • Limit the list to 3

Note, I usually hide the list on page load, and then unhide it after the script runs, so the user has a more elegant experience.

Also, if you have more than 100 items you’ll need multiple collection lists. If you have thousands, you may do better with an AJAX-style approach and a server-side API.