Location-Based Contexts
 

Okay, I just published this [URL="http://blog.omnigroup.com/"]blog post[/URL]. What I'd like to do in this thread is cover some slightly more advanced stuff, and give you guys a spot to contribute contexts that you find helpful.

The first thing that's helpful to know is that all of Google's [URL="http://www.google.com/help/cheatsheet.html"]search operators[/URL] are supported. You can use those to restrict your results to things that are actually relevant.

Example, which actually came from a customer:
Home Improvement context which does this business search:
"Lowes" OR "Home Depot" OR hardware -"Restoration Hardware"

This finds results from either of the two big home improvement chains; failing that, it falls back on a general search for a hardware store, but specifically excludes the chain that's not really a hardware store. :-)

Anyone got any other handy ones they use?

Since you already listed the most important contexts (I could only add specialty stores), there are some improvements to the Nearby view I'd love to see, to avoid getting shown irrelevant stuff:
1. limit distance, i.e. show only stuff in a distance of max 3 miles (or some other configurable value). I frequently get shown stuff for contexts I definitely cannot reach right now.
2. limit time (i.e. I'd like to add opening hours for stores. I live in Europe, 24/7 store availability does not exist here, not even for the biggest chains :-)
3. add Nearby to OmniFocus Mac (isn't there location-awareness in Snow Leopard?) My favorite way to have this would be a "Sort by distance" option for the sorting field in the list view. Then I could add my own Nearby perspective.

tib.

I really like the location-aware context feature of OF and I use it a lot. I live in a rural area, about 30+ miles from a larger city, and there are some errands that I can complete only when in the city. Many of these errands may not pressing when I enter them in OF, so I can put them off to whenever I am in the area next. These tasks do not clutter my daily radar, but when I am in the city and do a location search, these tasks are now in my radar and I can act on them accordingly. This lets me complete the tasks when convenient, and I seldom need to make special trips to complete the errands. I'm not sure if this explanation is making complete sense, but bottom line is that this feature does save me much time and resources when running errands. I'm really looking forward to using maps within OF with the iPhone 3.0 update.

ok, what am i doing wrong? I setup a context called 'grocery". i set a business search to "grocery." When I tell it to find, it picks the closes one and sets a route in maps to this. Turns out this is some cheesy convenience store. What I want to be able to do is the equivalent of typing "grocery" into google maps and getting a picture of all the pins nearby that meet the tag "grocery." I can then select the pin and get directions if I don't know how to get there already.

I don't need to have it jump to the directions to the closest one. That means I need to back it all up and retype the search.

Make sense?

J.

It makes some sense, but it isn't what is provided. The current implementation just gives you the closest one (not sure off the top of my head if that is closest by distance to travel or closest by straight-line distance, though I believe it is the latter). Being somewhat choosy about my groceries, I built up a search based on the names of the various grocery stores I patronize, on the theory that I probably am not going to be doing that errand far afield. It would be quite a bit easier to construct such a search with a real keyboard and maybe a bit of cut and paste!

Not immediately obvious to me that Omni really has the right pieces available to display a list of nearby choices and let you choose one. Have you seen any apps not provided by Apple or Google that do so? And how would this work when you have multiple location contexts with actionable items? It shows the closest one, as it does now, but you have some button to tell it you want to override the Location Services choice for a given context?

Speaking personally, I believe that using a generic search term for OF's context-based Location Service is next to worthless, yet is one of the most common examples given to demonstrate the technology. Your example of the grocery store search demonstrates this well. OF will suggest the closest store that sells anything grocery related, even if it is a gas station that sells milk (what I might need to pick up) for $5.00 a gallon. The store may also be 5 miles in the other direction that I am headed, but since it is the closest to where I am at the time, it's the one that gets displayed.

I've found the utility of this feature much more useful to me using more specific search criteria, for a few contexts only. Assigning a location to a grocery store context-I don't need. For me, going to the grocery is a planned errand and I don't need to know where the closest one is as I already know where I want to go. If I do need to pick up, say a gallon of milk, I also can pretty easily find a store along my route that sells milk. Where I find the feature useful is to either a) use the physical address or GPS coordinates for the location or b) use more specific business search terms. As example, I use the 'Home Depot' or 'Lowe's' search for home improvement store errands, an 'OfficeMax' or 'Office Depot' for office supplies, and a 'mybankname' to search for the closest ATM machine of my bank so I'm not charged an ATM fee. This approach works much better for me than using the more generic search terms.

Well, so far, the capability exists for all of these in the choices that can be selected for the location of the context. Unfortunately, all choices resolve to only the direction to the closest one.

I travel a lot. I can see making a list of items I need and then needing to find them when I get there (I stay for usually a week at a time so groceries are needed). If I had done this, using the example above, I would have gone to the wrong place and had no information as to where the right choice was. Not exactly a great way to help me "get things done."

I don't need to know the location of things around my home area. I know where all the Home Depots, Lowes, and hardware stores are. I know where to stop on the way home from work etc... It's when I'm somewhere that is not familiar that matters.

Where it really matters is when I'm not home and not in familiar surroundings.

So, when the context is set as "business search" then it ought to go as a straight set of search terms to google maps. When it is location, use the GPS coordinates. Do not put it in "directions" mode but "search" mode and I can pick the pin that makes sense for me. I can then get direction there if I need it.

Google Maps also need to be carefully sanity checked. It's wrong a not insignificant percentage of the time even when given a fully specified address.

Right now, as set, this feature looks to be poor utility in my estimation. Just changing it to "search" instead of "directions" will work much better and be much more flexible regardless of the location method selected for the context. Hard setting "directions" is overreaching and maybe the choice between "search" and "directions" should be a preference. K.I.S.S. applies.



J.

Why not just use the Maps application, then? You can type in your search, click on a red pin selected from the results, click a button to add it to your contacts, then update your location context with that contact.

then what's the purpose of having location based services in OF? The object is to make it easy to solve your problem. Sending you to the wrong location doesn't do that.

Otherwise this looks to me like a solution looking for a problem.

J.

We really need a push alert / alarm for when we are near a location where we have a task to do..

[QUOTE=Casper TFG;61254]We really need a push alert / alarm for when we are near a location where we have a task to do..[/QUOTE]

But to do that, the device needs to know where it is on a regular basis, and that's going to chew up the battery faster.

Well I can't say I am not disappointed. I wander about in an "ADD cloud" with a zillion things going off in my brain + I often like to listen to podcasts while I am walking alone.

I was looking forward to the full "Minority Report" shopping experience...

I would like a 'within 1 mile' shopping context list.

So I have parked my car, I am about to go walking in an area with a lot stores. What procedure do I do to reveal tasks I can complete on foot?

Can someone walk me through the procedure step by step please?

Thanks,

Since the iPhone doesn't support background applications, OmniFocus would need to be open for the phone to notice that you were nearing a place where you could get something done.

The current setup would work in your shopping mall scenario, casper, provided you had contexts set up that could handle the stores in that mall. (Probably using a combination of name searches and more generic business searches.)

Arrive at the mall, open OmniFocus, hit the Nearby Contexts button, and start shopping.

There's also a feature request open for the ability to discard whatever result a business search returns and have OmniFocus pick another. It sounds like a couple of folks in this thread want to see that added, so they should [EMAIL="omnifocus-iphone@omnigroup.com"]email the support ninjas[/EMAIL] and ask for it. :-)

[QUOTE=Brian;61304]Since the iPhone doesn't support background applications, OmniFocus would need to be open for the phone to notice that you were nearing a place where you could get something done.

The current setup would work in your shopping mall scenario, casper, provided you had contexts set up that could handle the stores in that mall. (Probably using a combination of name searches and more generic business searches.)

Arrive at the mall, open OmniFocus, hit the Nearby Contexts button, and start shopping.[/QUOTE]


That seems easy.. Thanks

Combining GPS contexts
 

I'm a new 3GS owner from the original 2G, so I've never looked at the location services in OF until now. I love the idea of being able to see what actions I have to do based on where I'm at, but wanted to know if there was a way to combine contexts or have multiple locations associated with a single context?

For example, if I have an @Lowe's, @Ace, and @Home Depot, I'd like all of those to roll into a @Hardware Store (or use the GPS coords from those stores in a single context) so any actions related to do at a hardware show up whenever I'm in front of that store. Any suggestions?

You could make an @Hardware Store context and move the @Lowes, @Home Depot, @Ace Hardware contexts underneath it. This will allow you to give each of them a business search for that store (chain) alone, but give the @Hardware Store context a business search for all of them -- Lowes OR Home Depot OR Ace Hardware (the capitalization of OR is significant, btw). Stuff you are happy to get at any hardware store you encounter, you put in the top level context. Stuff you prefer to get at one particular chain, you put in that chain's context. When you are out and about, and stop in at a Lowes, obviously you'll see the Lowes items at the top of the list, but you can also quickly check the @Hardware Store context, using the All Actions feature in 1.5 to see the stuff you have on the list for the other stores, in case it might make sense to buy it where you are, now. Maybe you put something on the Home Depot list because their prices for left-handed spanner wrenches tend to be better, but you're at Lowes and today they have left-handed spanners on sale.

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words:

[img]http://homepage.mac.com/jtyzack/.Pictures/screenshots/OFlocationcontext.jpg[/img]

I get my 3GS next week..

With some pre configuring (like the photo of the list above this post) Can you nominate say, a whole area as an @context area with geo reminders?

So you park your car - in a shopping area check OF and it tells you what you need to (can) get in that say, square mile..?

How would you set distance parameters..?

Perfect! I played with yesterday afternoon and it works great. Now even if I think I'm going to get something from store 'X', I can be reminded when I'm at store 'Y' and see if an alternate is available. Thanks.

[QUOTE=Casper TFG;61518]
With some pre configuring (like the photo of the list above this post) Can you nominate say, a whole area as an @context area with geo reminders?

So you park your car - in a shopping area check OF and it tells you what you need to (can) get in that say, square mile..?

How would you set distance parameters..?[/QUOTE]

You can set the location to be your current location at the time of setting it, or an address, or the address from a contact, or a business search through the Google maps linkup, or "always available". Whenever you fire up the Nearby search, it just asks Location Services for your location, figures out how far it is to all the contexts that have locations set, and either displays them in a list, ordered by distance to the nearest instance, or on a map, with a red pin showing the locations and a blue dot for your location. It is up to you to decide if something is "within range" so to speak. OmniFocus just makes the sorted list.

[URL=http://img20.imageshack.us/i/photoloi.jpg/][IMG]http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/7671/photoloi.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://img37.imageshack.us/i/photo1kbm.jpg/][IMG]http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/4236/photo1kbm.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

In the map view above, tapping the arrow on the right side of the label gets you the list view for that context. Tapping the left side of the label gets you the Maps application for getting directions there. In the list view, tapping the mileage button (which is straight-line distance, btw) will do the same thing as tapping the left side of the map label.

If you wanted to make a context for a shopping center, for example, you could set it up with an address of one of the stores there, or by using the "current location" button when actually at the shopping center. Then you could assign actions that would take place at that shopping center to that context, and be reminded of them when you use the Nearby feature. However, that would lose you the flexibility of having it suggest that you could do some particular errand at a different location (a different Home Depot, for example) where you happened to find yourself.

Roll-up of specific location contexts
 

I see what you did in your example and that works perfect for the contexts where I have actions at a single location. But what I'm trying to do is the following:

[IMG]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3406/3652144259_7bd20c3597.jpg?v=0[/IMG]

But what I'd like to see happen is the parent context aggregate any child contexts' location information. So in this case, I've got GPS coordinates for the @Home Depot, @Lowe's and @Menard's contexts. The idea is that I assign all my actions to the @Hardware Store, but when I check my current location I get all the actions for the context of @Hardware Store when I'm near any of the three child context locations.

This doesn't work now (tried it tonight), but would love to see what it would take to add this to the wish list for future release. This is a round about way of getting the ability to have multiple locations assigned to a given context. So either the ability to roll-up child context locations to the parent or allow contexts to have multiple specific locations.

You can set up your Hardware store context to have a location of business search for Lowe's OR Home Depot OR Menard's, and then set up each of the subcontexts to search just for that particular chain or location. See Brian's initial post in this thread. Tasks that could be done equally well at any of the bunch would go in the top-level context, and ones where you had a strong preference would go in the lower-level context. The All Actions view at the top-level context would let you easily check the specific contexts for the other stores, too.

What you propose would have to be an option selectable on a per-context basis, as I think there are cases where you really wouldn't want it!

Brian's method not working
 

I agree that there will be cases where you will only want one location for a given context. What I'd like to see one of two options.
[INDENT]Option 1: Allow me to edit contexts on my Mac like I can on my iPhone so I can add multiple lat/long coords for a locations (e.g. 'lat:long1' OR 'lat:long2' OR 'lat:long3') or multiple addresses. This will be ideal because then I can do more complex edits with a full keyboard and mouse. However, this may get too complex if you wanted to add multiple addresses or Contacts to a given Context. I've already sent a request for the ability to edit Context properties via the feedback button under help.

Option 2: If a parent context does not have any location information associated with itself, then use information from child contexts. This gives me the flexibility to assign an action to a general context that can be done at multiple locations or assign an action to a specific child context where it needs to be accomplished at a specific location. I've already sent a request for this one too.[/INDENT]
In both cases the method you enter your context will dictate whether or not it is a single location context or a multi location context. Option 2 I believe is the better choice because it allows a person to more easily create this type of relationship right from their iPhone.

Love to hear any thought or comments.

Casper, the Nearby Contexts view will show all your active contexts that have locations attached (in list mode) or will show whatever pins fit on the screen in Map view. (The default appears to be a couple of square miles.)

If you wanted to just set one location for a couple different contexts, you could just attach it to the parent context and leave the children without their own.

For your shopping mall example, I'd probably attach locations to each of the child contexts - that would hopefully ensure that an entire mall's worth of tasks don't all pile up in the exact same spot. That depends on how Google has the map set up, I suppose...

Brian/Casper, you're comment on being able to add geographic information to child contexts and have them roll up is exactly what I'd like to see from Omnifocus. I've tried doing that exact approach and Omnifocus does not do that at this time. If you really think this is a value (and it appears you do), please submit feedback to Omni and request this feature.

If enough of us say this is important, we'll see this functionality sooner vs later. :cool:

I made sure a placeholder item was created in our development database for the "parents should aggregate location info assigned to their children" request. :-)

[QUOTE=jason.verly;61676]Brian/Casper, you're comment on being able to add geographic information to child contexts and have them roll up is exactly what I'd like to see from Omnifocus. I've tried doing that exact approach and Omnifocus does not do that at this time. If you really think this is a value (and it appears you do), please submit feedback to Omni and request this feature.

If enough of us say this is important, we'll see this functionality sooner vs later. :cool:[/QUOTE]

Will do!
:cool:

I'm a first time user of OmniFocus, and it's awesome so far.

I'm trying to do what this thread suggests, creating a generic context for home improvement stores, and setting the business search to: Lowes OR Home Depot OR hardware.

I live in an area where I have a Home Depot <1 mile and a Lowe's < 2 miles; however, the generic context business search only reveals the Home Depot location.

If I change it to only search for Lowe's, it shows up... any suggestions?

You need quotation marks around the multi-word portions of the search:

Lowes OR "Home Depot" OR hardware

"Lowes" OR "Home Depot" reveals just Home depot on the map (< 1 mile)

"Lowes" AND "Home Depot" reveals Lowe's on the map (< 2 miles)

"Lowes" + "Home Depot" reveals Lowe's on the map (<2 miles)

seems like the nearby search isn't consistent...

I don't think "AND" works, nor would you want it for this search -- you're constructing a test to see if a given business matches what you are trying to find. If the result of the expression is true, then the business is a match. I don't think you are going to find many establishments that are both a Lowe's AND a Home Depot :)

"OR" is the only keyword I've seen documented, though Google's documentation seems a bit haphazard. In any case, OmniFocus hands off the search to Google and displays what comes back as the closest hit. If you've got a Lowe's 2 miles from your location and a Home Depot 1 mile from your location, a search for Lowe's OR "Home Depot" will return the Home Depot because it is the closest of the candidates. Get in your car and drive to a spot closer to the Lowe's than the Home Depot and the answer will change accordingly.

You can test out your searches in the Maps application. If you don't get the results you expect, likely reasons are that your search query doesn't mean what you think it does ("AND", no " around multiple-word items, etc.) or sometimes Google has the wrong information. Also, the "closest" location appears to be determined by straight-line distance, not the route that you would actually have to travel.

Adding location with contact info
 

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;61146]Why not just use the Maps application, then? You can type in your search, click on a red pin selected from the results, click a button to add it to your contacts, then update your location context with that contact.[/QUOTE]


OK. This sounds so simple. How does one create a location using a contact address?

HELP! I'm trying to do this every which way but right apparently...it would be SO useful!

It's pretty straightforward to use a contact's address in this fashion. I'll assume you've already created a context, and a contact whose address you want to use.

[URL=http://img232.imageshack.us/i/photoks.jpg/][IMG]http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/2620/photoks.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Tap the Contact button, and locate your contact by scrolling or searching.

[URL=http://img29.imageshack.us/i/photo2vw.jpg/][IMG]http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/7972/photo2vw.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[URL=http://img14.imageshack.us/i/photo3hw.jpg/][IMG]http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/365/photo3hw.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Now tap the address:

[URL=http://img14.imageshack.us/i/photo4jp.jpg/][IMG]http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/93/photo4jp.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Your location is all set.

Contexts/Maps/Lists
 

Of course as soon as I figured it out it started crashing left right and center...thanks iphone 3.1!

The Business Search: "Lowes" OR "Home Depot" OR hardware -"Restoration Hardware" was from me; cool to see it used in the start of a thread! :)

Regarding that specific criteria, I was on a bike ride and, while viewing the aforementioned hardware context, came up with "Gordon Biersch" (a local brewery/restaurant). I went to Google and found a reference of "Restoration Hardware" on a Gordon Biersch page (mentioning that RH was in the same building) -- but I have a "-" before "Restoration Hardware". Ideas on why it came up? I realize there are probably multiple possible explanations. I mean the idea of visiting Gordon Biersh did sound a bit enticing at the time. ;)

Bob

Can users edit their own locational information? For example if you a visiting a city you can map the areas you intend to visit but also use them as central points to find local businesses?

Location-Based Reminders Still Broken
 

Yea, I've been trying various searches to get this to work and it still seems... broken.

Merlin Mann talks about using this feature ALL THE TIME on various podcasts and posts, but between Google's searches and the implementation in OF it just doesn't work.

MM gives an example of traveling a lot, utilizing a location-based context example of "steak". There's NO WAY this works as he discusses (finding him a restaurant via the map view that serves steaks) without including places that sell steak knives, a butcher shop, etc. Hell, we can't even get a search for hardware stores to work!

Example Search: Lowe's OR "Home Depot" OR "Ace Hardware" OR hardware -"Restoration Hardware"

Kicks back an Advance Auto Parts store. Then I try to cull the search results down but in the end you end up with something that looks like this:

"home depot" OR "Lowes" OR "Ace Hardware" OR hardware -"Restoration Hardware" -lumber -plumbing -"advance auto parts" -timber -food -computer

And now we're gaming the game and it just doesn't work.

Suggestions? I'd really like to use these for "anywhere contexts" that automagically update via Google searches (new stores, old stores removed, traveling, etc) - but instead it looks like I'm going to just create local-based searches with known address to stores that I frequent (but even then, currently, parent contexts do not share all addresses associated with child contexts!).


Help appreciated!

The Google service we were using stopped working a couple monhts ago, so we've switched to a new one. We're aware that the new search results are often disappointing. We need this sort of feedback to work on tuning our queries to this service or evaluating alternative services.

Please email us these specifics and your general neighborhood, because I assume you'd rather not post your location on the forums. [email]omnifocus@omnigroup.com[/email]