# Helpers

**Helpers** is the page under **Spots** in a guide's sidebar. A guide has two kinds of pins. Spots are worth the trip on their own: a lake, a viewpoint, a cliff restaurant everyone comes for. Helpers exist for the spots: the car park, the cable car, the restaurant for lunch, the hut to sleep in.

What a pin is comes from its categories. A pin whose categories are all Parking, Get around, Eat & drink or Sleep is a helper and lists here. A pin with at least one See & do category is a spot and lists on [Spots](https://docs.sceniq.earth/guide/spots.md), even when it is also a restaurant or a guesthouse. Change a pin's categories and save, and it moves to the other page on its own.

Helpers never count as spots: the spot count on Spots, on the sales page and in the store counts spots only. A helper needs no photos and no property values. It is ready with a title, a category and a pin.

## The Helpers list

The line above the list counts the guide's helpers, like **1 helper** or 12 helpers, archived ones left out. **About helpers**, the (i) beside it, says what helpers are.

| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| **New helper** | Beside the page title: opens the dialog below. |
| **Search helpers** | Filters the list by name and by the names of the categories. |
| The chips | **All**, then one chip per group, Parking, Get around, Eat & drink and Sleep, each with its count, and **Archived** once a helper is archived. A group's chip shows once the guide has a helper in it. Screen readers call the chips **Show helpers**. |

Each row shows the helper's icon (its first category), its title, its categories and the spots it is for, like "For Äscher and Schäfler", or "For Äscher, Schäfler and 2 more" past two. A helper that no spot uses yet reads **Not linked to a spot yet**. Click a row to open the helper's form.

Places you made on [Planning](https://docs.sceniq.earth/guide/planning.md) before helpers came are helpers now, linked to the same spots. A place that was the same as one of your spots, like a mountain hut that is also the viewpoint, joined that spot instead: the spot took the place's categories, and the link to its routes and itineraries.

## New helper

The dialog finds the helper on the map by name. The tabs at the top pick what it is: Parking, Get around, Eat & drink or Sleep (screen readers call them **What it is**). The list under the search field shows places of that kind only, from OpenStreetMap.

| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| **In this area** | Nothing typed yet: places of the tab's kind around the middle of your spots, nearest first. A guide whose spots lie far apart, across countries, gets no list until you type. |
| **Results** | The places whose name matches what you typed, near your spots first. |

Each row shows the place's name, its category as the map data names it (a hut becomes a Mountain hut, a station a Train) and where it is. Places already in the guide, by name or with a pin of the same kind within about 50 m, are left out.

**Add** on a row makes the helper with its name, its pin and that category, closes the dialog and opens the helper's form, where you tick its spots. A place missing from the map: type its name, and the last row adds it by that name alone, **Set its pin in the form**. It takes the tab's usual category, Car park, Cable car, Restaurant or Hotel, which you can change in the form. **Cancel** closes the dialog.

When the place search does not answer, the dialog says so; add the helper by its name and set its pin in the form.

## The helper form

A helper opens in the spot form, in a short shape. **All helpers** goes back to the list, and **Previous helper** and **Next helper** step through it, as on a spot. Like a spot, the form saves with the guide bar's button, and asks before your unsaved changes would be lost.

| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| **Title** | The helper's name. Required. |
| **Categories** | What it is, the same field as on a spot: the first category is the helper's icon on the map. Add a See & do category and save, and it becomes a spot. |
| Two fields by kind | See the table below. Free text, shown to buyers as you write it. |
| **Location** | Its pin, like a spot's: paste a Google Maps link or coordinates, or **Pick on map**. Distances to its spots are measured from it, in a straight line. |
| **For which spots** | Every spot of the guide, nearest first, each with its photo and its distance. Tick the spots this helper is for; a tick links at once, without the form's save. The count beside the heading, like 2 linked, says how many are ticked. |

The two fields follow the helper's first kind:

| Kind | Fields |
|---|---|
| Parking | **Cost**, **Fills up by** |
| Get around | **Open**, **Website** |
| Eat & drink | **Open**, **Price** |
| Sleep | **Open**, **Cost** |

A website typed without https://, like ebenalp.ch, gets it when you save. Facts an AI agent set through the Creator API, such as the operator or a booking link, stay with the helper when you save these fields.

**Advanced options** holds only **Archive or delete**. **Archive** hides the helper from buyers with your next publish and keeps it saved; **Unarchive** puts it back. **Delete helper** asks **Delete this helper?** first: the helper leaves the guide with its links to spots and routes and its stops in [itineraries](https://docs.sceniq.earth/guide/itineraries.md). **Keep helper** closes the dialog. Unlike a spot, a helper can be deleted after the guide has buyers.

## Links

A link joins two pins of the guide and shows on both: the car park you tick for Seealpsee here is in Seealpsee's **Linked** box, and the other way round. Which group a linked pin shows under comes from its own categories. A spot that is also a restaurant, like Äscher, can be linked under another spot's Eat & drink, so nothing is entered twice.

On a spot, the **Linked** box links helpers from the spot's side, with a picker per group. See [Linked](https://docs.sceniq.earth/guide/spots.md#linked).

Buyers see a spot's linked helpers on its page, grouped under Parking, Get around, Eat & drink and Sleep, nearest first with the distance. On the map, a selected spot shows its helpers with a dashed line to each, and a helper's card shows its categories, its fields and the spots it is for.