I’ve got places with location-specific URLs set in the URL field. Some of them get pretty long. I’ve just discovered that when WMEPH runs, it ends up truncating the URL - which of course then breaks it as a usable link in the app since it’s no longer a complete URL.
Is there any chance that you can remove the truncation of URLs or at least seriously extend how many characters it limits to?
Edit: I just did some additional testing, and discovered the following:
The place where I noticed it was for a hotel. The URL as entered into the field is:
When WMEPH runs on that place, it’s shortening it to:
http://hiltongardeninn3.hilton.com/en/hotels/nevada/hilton-garden-inn-elko-EKOEHGI
So it looks like it’s removing the /index.html. Not a bad idea in practice, I suppose. However the website in question doesn’t see the two as being the same. If that second one is entered, the website returns a “Page cannot be found” type of error. With the trailing /index.html at the end, it works just fine and brings up the reservation page for the specific hotel location.
So, modified request: Can you have it be “less helpful” in the trimming of URLs?
One other feature request: Can you please make it a bit more forgiving of gas station names that don’t quite match the brand name in the drop-down? Sometimes, a gas station will have a customized name and dispenses a brand of gasoline.
My latest experience: “KJ’s Airport Shell,” which has a brand of - you guessed it - Shell. WMEPH ends up flagging it in red because the name doesn’t match the brand. “Shell” is still in the name of the station, so I’m not sure why it would be complaining - in red - about the names not matching. Yes, I can hit the green “WL” to whitelist it, but it seems kinda weird to me that it needs to be whitelisted, rather than have it be more accommodating of names that at least include the brand name.
I have always been instructed, and the wiki supports, the primary name of a GS should be the brand.
The Gas Station Wiki says
"The name of Gas Station should reflect its brand affiliation, so that drivers can select their preferred brand from the gas station search results in the app.
Alternative names may include the name as provided by the third-party provider, or the name of the associated convenience store."
The wiki does not say “…should include only its brand affiliation…”
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Related request: When a gas station name is formatted something like “Exxon - Circle K” or “Exxon – Tiger Mart”, can you please have it stop at the hyphen/en-dash and pull up the store locator for “Exxon”?
I had a feeling that was going to be brought up and I do actually agree with you on that or the Wiki needs to be more specific if it was intended to be brand only
I’m not certain regarding the current contents of the page, but I do remember asking for some leniency in the guidance, as at the time Shell was my preferred brand and there were 3 Shells nearly equidistant from my abode all with locally-known names and often with different prices. “Edenborn Shell”, “Clearview Shell”, and “Esplanade Shell Center” are their names.
Exactly my point. The brand is reflected in the name, and as sketch mentions, it’s possible to end up with multiple gas stations in the immediate search area that are all the same brand. If they actually have a name, then that name should show in the name of the place - same as any other Place marked on the map. If the name reflects the brand, then as far as I’m concerned, that shouldn’t even be a blue notice by WMEPH.
As the original author of the Gas Station page, I can confirm it was my initial intention to have only the brand name as the Place name.
However, it was suggested that some areas of the country would prefer more flexibility because, apparently, the brand name plus the road/city wasn’t enough information in search results.
We also added the examples where stations were differentiated by access(NB/SB)/road/convenience store names.
If I’m reading what you wrote correctly regarding leniency and extra examples, etc., then what I’m referring to here seems to fit that bill. Sure, in most cases, “Shell” is all that’s known for a given location and that suffices. But in many other cases, you get a name that still reflects the brand and makes it easy for the person looking for it to identify it from others. “KJ’s Airport Shell” indicates that it’s a Shell station. As you might guess from the name, it’s near an airport. That helps to further identify it. Street View clearly shows that name on the station itself. There’s no reason to not have that name as the name of the Place. There are others that do similar things. A lot of Maverick gas stations are on the map as “Maverick Food Store #xxxxx” (or without the store number), and they really are convenience stores that just happen to have gas pumps at them (I.E., they’re pretty big as convenience stores go).
Again, I agree that in the majority of cases, just the brand name is sufficient. But there needs to be flexibility with WMEPH. Those types of things should be configurable by the editor (person) at the very least, so that the editor can check whether he/she wants that to be a red alert, blue notice, or “don’t bother me about it” if it can’t simply be changed for all. You shouldn’t have to whitelist every such instance in order to get rid of it. The whitelist is one big string, and I don’t know how it’s being stored within the browser, but I image it is possible for it to get full to the point of not being able to add anything - and it doesn’t offer a method to edit it so you can take some things out. The only choice there is delete the entire whitelist and start over. Not very efficient.
With other places, the name of the business (especially as it appears on the building) is what the name of the Place is. Why should gas stations with convenience stores be any different, especially as long as the brand is part of that name?
This is still happening, and when it does, it breaks the link for those websites that seem to get lost without the “index.{whatever}” part in the URL. Yes, a properly-configured webserver should default to searching for “index.{html|shtml|php|asp}” (and any other appropriate . extension that I may have left out). But some of the sites for certain businesses, they are apparently not properly configured, as evidenced by the fact that leaving off the trailing “/index.{whatever}” gets a “not found” response instead of the page for that location.
Can we at least get an option that we can check that tells WMEPH to not auto-edit the “website” field of a Place?
Is the maintainer of this addon still reading this thread?
WMEPH disappeared on me today. I even reinstalled it. Still gone. It’s showing in my scripts list on Tampermonkey but not showing in the list of open scripts on the left of my editor. Any suggestions? I have closed out Chrome a couple of times. Thank you.
Ok, something I notice here… The “Web Search” button is show for me on a place, but the “Place Website” (or whatever it was call) button (that opens up another window/tab with the URL in the Website field) seems to be gone. Was this an accident (I hope)?
This is from WMEPH Production, still shows for me.
Web Search = Google searches the place information
Store Locator = Goes to Locator URL (if in PNH, if not in PNH then it does not show)
Open Website = Opens the URL in “more info” tab (If website is not listed on “more info” tab it does not appear)
Well, I’m in the production editor, there’s a website URL in the Website field, and the button isn’t appearing for me…
So I’m kinda at a loss for why it’s not showing up for me. This is just one example for me today. None of the Places I’ve edited today have showing the Open Website button.
Edit: Ok, nevermind. I was being blind. It looks like Open Website isn’t next to Web Search anymore, and I just didn’t notice it 'cause it wasn’t where I was expecting to see it. :lol: :oops:
It is the Green Button that says Open Website next to Run WMEPH that opens the URL listed in the More Info tab.
The Store Locator button that is next to the Web Search button only appears if there is a Locator URL entered into the PNH spreadsheet (not visible in WME)
I’ve just discovered that when WMEPH runs, it ends up truncating the URL - which of course then breaks it as a usable link in the app since it’s no longer a complete URL.
