The UI Dev

    Having seen a simple hard coded directions example yesterday, today we will have a look at another simple example but not an hard coded one. In today's  example we will see the directions between different states in India. We have two simple list boxes stating Origin and Destination as lists of the states in India. You can select a state from either of the lists and then you will get the directions between the two selected cities.     If you see yesterday's code and today's code you will find a lot of similarities and so  it would be easy to follow. The code will look lengthy, but it is just because of the list boxes code. So don't worry about the code, just go for it.     The output of the above code will look as seen in the results section above. Hope you find this code helpful in understanding the directions services even further. Tomorrow, we will look at another - a bit complex example. Till then, happy mapping. Note:...

    After taking an unintended long break after the 100 th post, I am back with more examples and several more GIS news. Today, we will take a look at a simple example showcasing the use of the Google’s Directions Services. Using the Google’s Direction service, we can calculate the distance between two points, show the path between these two points, calculate the average time taken to traverse this distance and we can also enforce several constraints on this path.     The Google Directions API is a service that calculates the directions between locations using an HTTP request. You may pass either an address (string) or a latitude/longitude coordinate as the origin and destination. If you pass an address as a string, the Directions service geocodes the string and converts it to a latitude-longitude coordinate to calculate directions. The origin and destination are two mandatory parameters for a directions request, whereas several other o...

    In continuation with yesterday’s code which showcased the Geocoding with region biasing , today we will see a little complex but interesting geocoding example. Today we will pan to a state using the geocoding capability! Sounds interesting, right! So, let’s get on to the code straight away!     Now even if the length of the code is big, but the logic is not rocket science! It’s quite easy and pretty simple. There is a drop down list box which lists all the names of the states and union territories in India. These state names will act as addresses or the inputs to the geocoder. When you select a certain state name in the drop down list, that state name will be passed as a parameter to the geocoding function, which after geocoding the address will pan and zoom on to the state that is selected!     The output of the above code will be as seen in the results section above. If you have any queries or doubts regarding the above...

    The blank web page seems so boring and dull when the map is still loading. You will come across such a situation quite often where you will be having a slow internet connection! We cannot do anything about the slow internet connection, but we can surely avoid the dull blank web-page by using a simple trick. We can place a "loading" image at the center of the web page so that the page doesn't look blank! An image like this:     The following code will show you how this can be done and here it is!     As you all can see the code is very very simple and the output will look as seen in the result section above.     Do let me know what you think about the examples shared here! Do leave your comments here! Till the next example, happy mapping!

    Hope you'll enjoyed the last post describing how two maps can be placed side-by-side on the same webpage ! Most of you'll will enjoy today's code example too! All of you out there who work on Google Maps API, must have visited the API home page several times! You must have seen the map within the Google Nexus Phone frame there! It appears as though there is a map visible on the mobile screen! One of friend asked me the other day if I could implement that, and I did it and here is the code that I am sharing with you all!     I have used an I-Pad frame and am displaying a map centered at India within it! Here is the code!     The output of the above code is as seen in the result section above! The map that is appearing within the frame is not just an image but can be dragged like any other Google Map! Enjoy the code. It is very simple to understand!     In case you have any queries regarding the same, feel free to le...

    How good I am feeling to post a code example after such a long time! It's been all "news" over the past so many posts! Well now that I am finally doing a code example, I am posting a very highly requested code sample. Placing two Google Maps on the same page (Now that's simple you would say!), but side by side. Now this is the thing that most people struggle with. Well, implementing the second part is also very simple, as you will see in today's code.     Let's see the code. Here it is!     The output of the above code will be as seen in the result section above.     As most of you will realize, there are two maps, one centered at "Pune" and other at "Noida". Why I chose these two locations? Well, just like that!...The main issue of concern is how the maps appeared side-by-side and not one below the other as would be normal behavior of two "div" elements used in the same page. Now here is the trick! Check out the...

            Do you have your application in which you are using HTTPS for security and so cannot use Google Maps Javascript API? Unhappy about that? You can now be relieved! You can now access the Google Maps JavaScript API over HTTPS, allowing you to utilize the API within your HTTPS secure application. Loading the Google Maps Javascript API V3 over HTTPS allows your application to use the Maps API within pages that are secured using HTTPS: the HTTP over the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol.             Loading the Maps API over HTTPS is necessary in SSL applications to avoid security warnings in most browsers, and is recommended for applications that include sensitive user data, such as a user's location, in requests. To load the Google Maps JavaScript API Version 3 over HTTPS , load the API from the following URL: <script src="https://maps-api-ssl.google.com/maps/api...

    The term geocoding generally refers to translating a human-readable address into a location on the map. The process of doing the converse, translating a location on the map into a human-readable address, is known as reverse geocoding. You can read more about geocoding here .     The Geocoder in Google Maps API v3, supports reverse geocoding directly. While geocoding, we supply a textual address and that gets mapped as a location on the map. However, in reverse geocoding, instead of supplying the textual address, we will supply a comma- separated latitude- longitude pair and get a textual address as the result. You can have a look at the geocoding example here , before proceeding to the reverse geocoding example.     The reverse geocoder often returns more than one result. Geocoding "addresses" are not just postal addresses, but any way to geographically name a location. For example, when geocoding a point in the city of Agra, India,...

    In continuation with the previous example on Fusion Table, we will have a look at another Fusion Table layer example. Today's point of discussion is heat map! What is a heat map? A heat map is geographical representation of data where the values taken by a variable in two-dimensional map are represented as colors. Higher the value of the variable, that place on the map would be represented with a deeper color.     This example is very much similar to the previous one, just for one minor change! Let us have a look at the code.     I have just used a readily available Google Fusion Table for this example. Any anomalies in the data is not my responsibility! Copy the above code in an html file and open it in your browser! You will see the fusion table heat map layer in action! The only change in this code from the previous one is that, the heatmap property of the fusion table layer is made true! The output of the above code looks as s...

    Today we will have a look at the "Fusion Table" Layer example. But before we start with the actual code, we will have a look at what Fusion Table is. Google Fusion Table is a free service for sharing and visualizing data online. It allows you to share data, merge data from multiple tables into interesting derived tables, and see the most up-to-date data from all sources. There is a lot of documentation about Google Fusion Table available on the web. You can visit their home page or the Google Research Blog to gather more information about Fusion Tables.     Let us have a look at the following code. The code is very short and simple to understand!     The few things to look out for in the above code are: The manner in which mapTypeId has been specified! In other Google Maps API v3 examples, we have seen that we specify mapTypeID as ROADMAP, SATELLITE, etc. i.e., all the letters are in uppercase and not in quotes! However, in this...

            By now we definitely know that Google Maps API stands out amongst other applications in creating interactive world maps. There are a couple of others which may be static, 2D or even 3D, etc, but Google maps have unique and distinctive features that make experienced webmasters prefer them over others.             Besides, being a great way to locate and navigate to places, Google maps API also provides many area and length measurement functions. These APIs’ allow for the development of web applications like measure distances and land features online with the Google maps embedded in them.             The Google Maps API has been considerably the most popular mapping API in the world. The Google Maps API delivers the standard interactive, easy-to-use features which are beneficial for your business. Google Maps A...