Another component I ended up using for a couple of church sites. I searched quite a while for this one. I needed the ability for the parishioners to find each other based on address. I have used this on three sites so far.

Before anyone flames me, I know that there were issues with zipcodeshop's component. I looked at it but decided to look for another solution after reading the issues with the ioncube encryption. I didn't find another solution and was about to code my own, when a friend of mine contacted me to let me know he had the new zipcodeshop component and I could check it out on his server. I decided to check it out as rolling my own would take a big chunk of my time and profit.

He had originally purchased the ioncube version and had the same issues listed on this forum. He heard through the grapevine that the newest release dropped ioncube and that there were new owners so he chatted with their customer support. Long story short he got a free copy after he provided them with his original purchase order number. If you had the same issues you might be able to get a free copy as well. Try their live chat. It is available 9-5 every weekday.

I tested the version he had installed on his server and viewed the source. No encryption, no legacy mode and it worked well with the test accounts I created. We imported over 10,000 profiles with CBJuice I had from my church site and they geocoded in a couple of hours just fine.

I ended up buying the component.

Here are my thoughts:

1. I bought the 30 day live chat support. While it was helpful and they were always available when advertised, I think anyone with CB experience doesn't need it. They do offer a support forum for customers and any questions you have should be posted there.

2. The component and plugin installed without a hitch. I don't enable the legacy plugin and haven't seen any errors at all.

3. The manual is pretty thorough and includes pictures detailing the install. I checked and you can download it without registering.

www.zipcodeshop.com/downloads/cat_view/3-community-builder-search-component/6-pro

4. Geocoding can take some time for large user tables. I think this is a Google limitation. You also need to make sure that you set the country code to the 2-letter international standard (i.e. US for United States).

5. The plugin works from both the User and Admin side. Changing the address updates the latitude and longitude when you are logged into the admin console or as a user through the profile edit link.

6. The option to manually set the location works fine using either the marker on the map or manually entering a lat/lon pair.

7. The additional fields search only works for core or text fields. It is nice to be able to search by location and name for example. Unfortunately at the moment selects and checkboxes don't appear on the search form automatically. For core or text fields, making them searchable under CB automatically makes them appear on the search form.

8. Not needing a Google Maps API key makes it easy to access the search form from multiple domain names. It was a pain when you get a key error if a site could be accessed from multiple domains.

9. You can customize the search form and results using the Savant templates. If you have experience with Mosets Tree it is almost exactly the same method.

I hope this helps others who are looking for this type of component.

Hi, i need a component for CB that has the search radius feature.
In the registration form users may select his state and city. In the search form users can search others members within a radius of X miles or km from his location.
I do not need to have the google map.
What is the best component for this?
I'm interesting to:

Map and Geocode plugin (very good price)
myjoom.com/index.php?option=com_mjproducts&mjproductsTask=mjproductsDetails&catid=5&mjproductsId=3&Itemid=31

Webmap (but this is compatible with CB?)
www.webmapplus.com/features

Zipcodeshop
zipcodeshop.com/

JMaps
www.corshops.com/Joomla-Add-ons/471-JMaps-Google-Mapping-Suite-for-SOBI2-CB-XML-Files-KML-and-RSS.html

thanks and sorry for my bad english

I looked at these and some others, I ended up using ZipCodeShop. Here are my thoughts on each one:

Map and Geocode plugin (very good price)

Nice plugin but it doesn't have any search capability. Also requires a Google Maps key as it uses the maps API v.2

Webmap (but this is compatible with CB?)

This one does not support Community Builder. It also doesn't have a search. Google Maps API v.2. Needs a key.

Zipcodeshop

Has the radius search. Supports both km and miles. Has a geocoder plugin. Let you do batch geocoding on large user tables. Doesn't require a Google Maps API key. Supports search in 44 countries. Can be translated into other languages.

JMaps

This one doesn't include a search. It will map search results of the SOBI2 zipcode/radius search. No CB search.

As to cost, I charge a minimum of $50 per hour and coding my own version would easily take more than 3 hours. So anything under $150 was cost effective for my needs.

It isn't very obvious on the ZipCodeShop site but you can register on the demo webpage and create your own profile to see the geocoding plugin and search in action. I would suggest that you don't use your home address as the web page is open to the public.

Here is the registration URL:

www.zipcodeshop.com/demo/Community_Builder_Demo/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=registers&Itemid=54

I got to test two Zipcodeshop installs outside of the U.S. One in the Netherlands and the other in France. Both have been translated to the local language. It seems pretty simple to do and it does support local addresses.