Almost all businesses, including logistics, construction, manufacturing, transportation, etc., deal with location-based information as a form of authentication on a daily basis. From tracking a consignment to monitoring the attendance of workers at a construction site, from performing the inspection at a remote manufacturing site to dealing with transportation requirements, GPS location plays a crucial role in fulfilling business goals.

It is frustrating when you cannot track your workforce or milestones by location. Most smartphone-based apps across all industries use Google Forms as a primary way to collect and report information. Unfortunately, Google Forms does not support the geolocation feature; nevertheless, the good news is that sharing and tracking GPS location is easier than ever with Clappia.

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How to Capture the GPS Coordinates into Mobile Forms with Clappia?

The first step in developing an app with Clappia is to sign up for a free account and create your custom workspace. Once you create your custom workspace, you can develop mobile apps using drag-and-drop blocks without writing a single line of code.

Clappia's App Designer Blocks offers a range of blocks to input, upload, and process data, along with provisions to add workflows, incorporate analytics, integrate with external APIs, etc.

As a part of the Data Upload Blocks, Clappia offers you the GPS location block that you can use to share or track locations. Once you add the GPS location block to your app, you can configure it to detect the user's location automatically, enable geofence to trigger location-based actions, and allow the user to change the location if needed manually.

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To add the GPS location block to your app, drag it and drop it into the app designer. The GPS location block comes with the following options:

Required

The app will mandate the user to input the GPS location to submit the form when this option is enabled.

Default to current location

By default, this option is disabled. When this option is enabled, the GPS location automatically updates to the current location when the user loads the Clappia app.

Allow user to manually change location

By default, this option is enabled, thus allowing the user to edit the GPS location manually. When this option is disabled, it will not allow the user to modify their current location.

Enable Geofencing

Clappia allows users to set any number of locations as the designated location. You can specify a list of such places and a radius to define the Geofencing boundary. When this option is enabled, the user can submit the form only if they are present in one of the designated locations.

Automatically Detect Current Location

The ability to detect the current location of your workforce has tremendous potential to transform your business. 

Google Forms is the most commonly used tool for data collection and submission across all businesses, but it does not allow you to capture the current location of your workforce. Workers can easily exploit this flaw and close the work orders without even visiting the site. 

For example, a construction company observed that maintainers delivered field inspection reports via Google Forms without even visiting the field. You can easily automate this process by building an app that allows you to detect the current location of the field workers whenever they submit the data.

Clappia allows you to automatically detect the current GPS location of the user whenever they submit any data using the Clappia app. 

To implement automatic location detection, add a GPS location block, click on the “Show advanced options” button and then click on the “Default to current location” button. Moreover, disable the “Allow user to manually change location” option to ensure that the users cannot change their location manually.

Multi-Location Geofencing

What is Geofencing?

Geofencing is a location-based technology that uses GPS location data to create a virtual geographical boundary and trigger some actions when a mobile device enters or exits this boundary. This boundary is known as a geofence.

Its mobile-centric attribute allows businesses to deploy practical and accurate applications for marketing, advertising, live tracking, security management, law enforcement, etc. For example, a manufacturer can automate the manual attendance processes by building and deploying an app that enables workers to submit their attendance directly from their mobile devices when they are 200 meters or less from the factory.

Clappia allows you to enable geofencing to allow the users to submit the data only when they are physically present in any of the designated geofences.

Using the GPS location block and enabling the geofencing feature, the manufacturer can enter the location coordinates of all three plants as the designated locations and set the geofencing boundary to 200 meters. Along with this, the manufacturer can also mandate the employee to upload a selfie. Thus, employees can register their attendance only if they are physically present inside the plant.

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To implement geofencing, add a GPS location block, click on the “Show advanced options” button and then click on the “Enable Geofencing” button. Once the geofencing is enabled, enlist the GPS locations of all the designated locations based on your requirement, and enter the geofence radius. As a result, the users can submit the data only when they are physically present in one of the geofences.

Check out how to quickly build a GPS location-based geofenced attendance system using Clappia's no-code platform within a few minutes.

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Final Thoughts

When you can track and monitor your workers in real-time, it directly increases your business's overall productivity, profitability, and efficiency. With Clappia, you can easily track the location of your workforce and know from where they submitted the form. The GPS location block allows you to detect the current location automatically, enable geofencing across multiple locations, and allow changing the location manually if needed. The best part about Clappia is that you do not need to write a single line of code to incorporate these features into your app. Moreover, apps built using Clappia do not need an internet connection. This feature allows you to keep track of your workforce and operation in even the most remote place of the globe.

These capabilities make Clappia the perfect and the best alternative for Google Forms.

Sign up with Clappia for FREE today and start building your app!