Wayfinding on session pages

Overview

Session wayfinding gives prospective students turn-by-turn directions from any address to your venue, without leaving the session page. It is the on-the-day companion to your On-Campus Events setup, so students arrive prepared and find their way around campus with confidence.

Wayfinding requires the On-Campus Events bolt-on. The Map bolt-on is optional and lets students pick any Vepple location as their start point. Both are paid add-ons: if your site doesn't have one, speak to your Customer Success Manager about adding it.

What students see

The map and directions panel can appear in two places:

On every session page, automatically, whenever the session has a location set. This is the default and needs no extra setup beyond adding a location.
On the event section landing page, only if you have added the Map featured block in the page builder.

In both places, students see:

A map of the venue with a pin at the location.
A floating From / To panel at the top of the map. To is pre-filled with the location.
The From picker offers three options:
- Your location: uses the browser's GPS. The browser will prompt the student to allow location access the first time.
- Vepple locations: only shown when the Map bolt-on is on. Students can pick any pin on your campus map.
- Typed address: students can type any address and pick a suggestion.
A list of step-by-step directions for Drive, Walk or Cycle that expands directly under the map.
To reset the route, the student clicks the From field again.

Session page with map and From/To directions panel

Setting it up

1. Set a location on the event or session (required)

Set a location on each page where you want wayfinding to appear:

For a session, set it on the session's edit screen.
For the event section's own landing-page map (Step 2), set it on the event section's edit screen.

Sessions do not inherit location from their parent event section, so you need to set a location on each session you want wayfinding for.

On a session edit screen:

In the Session Details panel, tick On location ("Is this a physical session?"). This reveals the Location settings panel.
In Location settings, tick Add map location. This reveals the rest of the fields.
Tick Feature post on map.
Use the Map location picker that appears. Search for the venue or drag the pin to place it.

Session edit screen Location settings panel

On an event section edit screen: the Location settings panel is already visible, so skip the On location step and start at Add map location.

2. Add the Map featured block to the event landing page (optional)

When you build your event section in the page builder:

In the featured block dropdown, choose Map. The event map and directions panel appear at the top of the event landing page.
If you do not see Map in the dropdown, the On-Campus Events bolt-on is not enabled on your site. Speak to your Customer Success Manager about adding it.

Preview before the event goes live

You can test wayfinding in your staging environment before pushing changes to live. For how to switch between environments, see How do I switch between staging and live environments when viewing the site?

Troubleshooting

The Map choice is not in my featured block dropdown. The On-Campus Events bolt-on is off for your site. Speak to your Customer Success Manager about adding it.

The Location settings panel is missing from the event section edit screen. The On-Campus Events bolt-on is off, so the panel is hidden.

The Location settings panel is missing from the session edit screen. On a session, the panel is only revealed once On location ("Is this a physical session?") is ticked in the Session Details panel. Tick it and the Location settings panel will appear below.

I can't see Feature post on map or the Map location picker. The Add map location parent toggle in the Location settings panel is unticked. Tick it and the rest of the fields will appear.

The pin does not appear on the event page. Either Feature post on map is unticked, or no Map location has been placed yet. Open the Location settings panel and complete both steps.

The directions panel is missing even though the pin shows. The On-Campus Events bolt-on is off. The Map bolt-on alone does not enable wayfinding.

Students cannot pick a campus building as their start point. The Map bolt-on is off. Students can still type any address into From, they just cannot pick from your campus map's named locations.

"Your location" shows a "Location services denied" error for students. The student has declined the browser's location permission, or location services are disabled on their device. They can still get directions by typing their address into From instead. If they want to use GPS, they need to re-enable location for the site in their browser settings.

An event section does not open at all. Event pages redirect to the home screen whenever events are disabled. Two possible causes:

The Enable events? setting in Event Modules' Settings is off. You can toggle this yourself in the CMS.
Both the On-Campus Events and Virtual Events bolt-ons are off. Speak to your Customer Success Manager about which one you need.

On-Campus Events: the feature overview, including schedule builder and post-event messaging.
Creating an event section: build the landing page.
Creating a session: add talks and tours.
Assigning sessions so they appear in your experience: surface the right sessions for the right students.
Map Settings: configure the campus map your wayfinding picker can reference.