Disable Location Sharing if map_style_url is not provided

[SPiRiT369]

Steps to reproduce

• Remove "map_style_url" from config.json or set it to blank.
• Try to share Location.
• You'll get an error message: "Failed to load map"

Outcome

What did you expect?

Since map_style_url is not provided - the option to share Location should be hidden/disabled.
Alternatively, admins should be able to hide it within the "settingDefaults" section (e.g. set "UIFeature.shareLocation" to false).
Note that this feature requires registering for getting a key. I'm not sure all HS admins would do that, also some HS might want to disable it because of privacy concerns.

What happened instead?

Error message is shown.

Application version

Element Web 1.10.2

[dbkr]

Would also need to decide how to render shared locations in the timeline

[Half-Shot]

As a fallback, it might be okay to have the sender include a thumbnail and url pointing to a place where they can look at the map out-of-band?

[jaller94]

ChristianP shared a location:
[49.31008° N, 123.07991° W](geo:49.31008,-123.07991)

[markiceman]

I need the ability to disable location sharing ...

[jakewb-b]

I'm not convinced that this:

Since map_style_url is not provided the option to share Location should be hidden/disabled.

Is the right fix since
a) It is possible to share your location even if tiles are not being loaded on your own client for whatever reason, and other users will still see the location correctly.
b) Even if you disable your own ability to share locations, you may still receive locations shared by other users, and the tiles will not load there.

So hiding/disabling the option to share when tiles are not available introduces a potentially frustrating limitation while also failing to fully resolve the issue.

For now, we're also adding a more useful error message in cases where tiles cannot be loaded for whatever reason.

We're also intending to offer the ability to disable viewing locations at all - for users/admins who have privacy concerns about it or don't wish to set up their own tileserver or use the Element-provided one.

[SPiRiT369]

I understand that sharing users' location might be helpful for some.
However, business users, or myself, having a non-federated server with zero need to share locations, will appreciate the (basic) ability to disable this feature for providing a more clean interface to the users.
I can (and I do) disable widgets, voip, integrations etc' - so why not to give homeserver admins the choise&control to customize their server?
As a developer, you should take in mind that different users have different use-cases.
Just to make it clear: This is a simple request, just to hide that "Share Location" icon. If there are other challenges (like other users sharing location using different client) - then it's a different issue and not relevant to my request. I just want to hide it.

[hex-m]

The desktop build has no "share location"-button, so the option to hide it should already be implemented somewhere.

This should probably be split into two issues:

1. fallback for location rendering without external service (without map_style_url)
2. setting to hide the "share location" button