Connect: Show the Local Locator Map on Your Grand Body's Website

This article is for the Grand Secretary's office and the webmaster who runs the Grand Body's public website. It shows how to put a live map of your local groups on your website, so a visitor can find a local group near them and see when it meets.

On your Groupable site the map may carry your organization's word, such as "Lodge Locator." The names are listed under "Words used here" at the bottom.

What visitors see

• A pin for each local group. Clicking a pin lists the local groups at that spot, each with its meeting schedule, a Connect Page link (when the local group has an active Connect page), and Get Directions.
• Search. By local group name or number, city, or zip code.
• Meeting On. Pick a date to show only the local groups known to meet that day. Clear removes the date.
• Organization. A menu to pick one organization. It appears only when your Groupable site serves more than one.
• A list beside the map (optional). A scrolling list of the local groups that match the search and date.

The map reads from Groupable each time the page opens. When a secretary changes a local group's address or meeting schedule in M2, the website shows the change the next time a visitor opens the page. There is nothing to update on the website.

Which local groups appear on the map

A local group is on the map when all four are true:

1. It is active in M2.
2. Show on Connect is Yes on its Info/Officers page in M2.
3. It has a street address in M2 that Groupable can place on a map.
4. Connect is turned on for your organization. Groupable sets this.

Several local groups that meet at one address share one pin.

Where the meeting schedule comes from

• Stated Communications on the local group's Info/Officers page in M2. This is the best source: the map can tell exactly which dates the local group meets.
• If a local group has no Stated Communications, the map shows the Meeting Night note typed on its record and uses the meeting dates Groupable placed on its Connect calendar from that note. Events entered on the calendar by hand, such as a dinner, do not count as meetings.
• If Groupable can't place meeting dates from the note, or there is no note, the pin says "Meeting schedule unknown" under whatever note there is, and the local group drops out of the map when a visitor picks a date. A note such as "Full Moon" or one written in a sentence shows on the pin but gives the map no dates.

To fix "Meeting schedule unknown," enter the local group's Stated Communications: Local Info/Officers screen (including updating Stated Meetings/Communications).

Step 1: Groupable allows your website

A website can show the map only after Groupable adds that website's address to your Groupable site. Until then, the visitor's browser refuses to show the map, and the space on the page stays blank or says the connection was refused.

If Groupable has sent you an embed code, this is done. Otherwise, email support@groupable.com with:

1. Each website address where the map will go, starting with https:// (for example, https://www.example.org). If your website opens both with and without "www," send both.
2. Whether you want the list beside the map.
3. If your Groupable site serves more than one organization: which one the map should open on. Visitors can still switch.

Groupable replies with your embed code. If your website ever moves to a new address, email support@groupable.com first, or the map stops showing.

Step 2: Paste the embed code into your website

The embed code is one line that starts with <iframe and ends with </iframe>. It looks like this, with your Groupable site's address in it:

<iframe src="https://yoursite.groupable.app/connect/google_local_locator" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0;" loading="lazy" title="Local Locator"></iframe>

The version with the list beside the map ends its address with ?list=1.

1. Open the page of your website where the map should go, in your website's editor.
2. Add a block that accepts HTML code. In WordPress it is the Custom HTML block. Other website builders have a similar block; your website host can tell you its name.
3. Paste the whole embed code into the block, from <iframe to </iframe>.
4. Save and publish the page.
5. Open the public page in a new browser window and check that the map shows.

If your website shows the older Mori locator map, delete that code and paste the new code in its place.

To make the map taller, change 600px in the code to a larger number, such as 850px. Leave the rest of the code as it is.

If something looks wrong

No website? Use the Connect page

Your Groupable Connect site already has the map, with the list beside it, under Find a Local in the menu, or your organization's word for it (see "Words used here"). Nothing needs to be set up. You can link to it from an email, a newsletter, or social media: https://<your Groupable site>/connect/google_local_locator_page.

Words used here

Your Groupable site uses your organization's word for its local groups, so the map and its menu item have different names. They are the same map.

• Embed code: the one line of code your webmaster pastes into a web page to show the map. It starts with <iframe.
• Stated Communications: a local group's regular meeting schedule in M2 (for example, "2nd and 4th Tuesday, 7:30 PM").