Multi-Location Add-on: Install New Updates

Link: https://support.brilliantdirectories.com/support/solutions/articles/12000109029

The Install New Updates module on the admin dashboard lists one-time platform installers that have pending steps for your specific website. Click the green Check For Updates button to refresh the list — an installer only appears when your site actually has something left to install, and it disappears from the list once its steps are complete.

What Multi-Location Add-on Does

This installer prepares your website's database for the Multi-Location Add-on, the feature that lets a single member cover more than one location. Members select the areas they serve (a city, a zip code, and so on), and each selection is stored as a record in the database. This update adds new database columns so each of those records can describe an actual region with a name, instead of just a single point on the map.

Specifically, it adds up to six columns to the service_areas table, checking each one individually and creating only the ones that are missing:

• nelat, nelng, swlat, swlng: numeric coordinates for the northeast and southwest corners of the area's bounding box, the rectangle that outlines the area on a map (these start at 0 until real coordinates are collected)
• city: the city name for the location (text, up to 100 characters)
• zip_code: the zip code for the location (text, up to 50 characters)

Together these columns are what let a member's account store each service area as a real geographic region: the bounding box records how far the area stretches on the map, and the city and zip code fields record what the area is called. That structure is what allows one member profile to represent coverage of several distinct cities or zip codes rather than one street address. Before this update, a stored service area only carried a single latitude and longitude point plus a text address.

The installer also includes a second database step that verifies the four bounding-box coordinate columns exist. It makes no changes of its own; once the first step has added the columns, it reports success and clears.

No existing data is modified or deleted. The update only adds columns, so every service area your members have already saved keeps all of its current values.

Why It Appears

It appears when the service_areas table on your website is missing one or more of the six columns listed above. This is a legacy condition: sites created before the Multi-Location Add-on stored bounding boxes, city names, and zip codes still have the older, smaller table layout, while newer sites already include these columns and never see this installer. Seeing this entry does not mean anything is broken.

Why It Matters

The Multi-Location Add-on's location tools read and write these columns when members manage their service areas. With the columns in place, each area a member selects can be saved with its full map boundary and its city or zip code. Without them, features that try to save this richer location data have nowhere to put it. This is a structural update: running it changes nothing visible on your website by itself, it makes the database ready for the features that use it.

How to Run It

1. From the admin dashboard, find the Install New Updates module and click Check For Updates.
2. If your site has pending steps, Multi-Location Add-on appears in the list. Click Install.
3. After it completes, click Check For Updates again — the entry disappears once all steps are done.

If Multi-Location Add-on does not appear in the list, your website is already up to date — the module only shows installers with pending steps, so there is nothing to do.

After Running

Nothing changes on the visitor-facing side of your website, and no member data needs review. The new columns start out empty (or 0 for the coordinates) on existing records and are filled in as members save areas going forward. If your members already have saved service areas, a separate installer named Migrate City - Zip Code Service Areas may appear in the same module afterward; it fills in the missing city and zip code values on those older records, and it requires the columns added here before it can run. This is a standard, platform-authored schema update, it only adds columns, and it is safe to run at any time.