Joomla! Google Maps Blog

UK Geocoding Update

2006-12-17T16:55:00.000-05:00

Well, I thought that I had read that Google was providing geocoding for the UK, but it seems like it isn't the case. I've gone back and looked for the post on the Google Maps API discussion group and I'm unable to find it. Furthermore I went to the official Google Maps API Documentation page where they have a same of the geocoding code and UK geocoding doesn't work there either. Sorry guys. If you need UK geocoding you'll just have to find it somewhere else and turn off automatic geocoding in the component.

UK Geocoding...

2006-12-09T11:18:00.000-05:00

Sorry, I haven't updated this in a while. I've been really busy with other things. Also since my webserver got hacked into I really don't have a place to test any new additions I do to the component. Having said this, I made a new version of the component which should geocode UK address. I only say should because I haven't tested this version of the component. If people could please test this on a non-production site for me that'd be great. Especially users in the UK. The link to the file is below. Also remember to post any commentary about this on the component discussion board and not here.

http://forge.joomla.org/sf/frs/do/downloadFile/projects.google_maps/frs.google_maps_2_x.unstable/frs7999?dl=1

Minor update

2006-09-23T10:13:00.000-04:00

I've posted a minor update to the component. The only noticeable change is that the Google geocoder now geocodes for Australia and New Zealand. If you are from those regions then you'll probably want to upgrade. If you don't need this feature then I wouldn't worry about getting the newest version. I'd also like to thank people on the message board that are taking time to answer other people's questions. Since I haven't had as much time to answer things, a couple people have been stepping up to the plate. Thanks guys!

Status report

2006-09-13T19:02:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to give a quick status report on things, and explain why there hasn't been an update in a while. First off, I got a 9 to 5 job so I've been busy with that and haven't had as much time to work on the component. More than that, the features that people have been requesting are things that are pretty difficult to implement. A lot of people want more tie-ins between the CB plugin and the ACL system. The truth of the matter is that I know almost nothing about the ACL system in Joomla. Some people have noticed that my component doesn't exactly abide by the ACL in Joomla. While I think more ACL tie-ins is a good idea, I just can't implement it right now. Other requests include marker search and marker consoladation (when two markers are on top of each other). Both of those are not easy either or would create compatibility issues.

Lastly, I don't want to make an major changes until a beta of Joomla 1.5 comes out. Who know when that will be. I feel like this component is going to need quite a bit of reworking just to run on Joomla 1.5. This component is based on a very old mambo component, so a lot of the calls haven't been updated since then. When 1.5 rolls around I'd like to update the component to work with the new system.

Anyway, hope y'all are enjoying the component. Have a good one.

2.6 Released

2006-08-25T00:10:00.000-04:00

I've released 2.6. Not much has changed from the beta. The big changes from the beta are a couple of bug fixes and the ability to use the new onload method or the old onload method of loading the component. If you use the new method then you can put your map in an iFrame, which means that you can have it on any page you want (just put it in a wrapper). If you want to do that remember to use index2.php?option=com_google_maps instead of index.php. Index2.php just outputs the component not any of the other Joomla stuff.

Flickr Photos

2006-08-21T11:25:00.000-04:00

I've posted some screenshots on Flickr that basically go step-by-step on how to install the component. I've used the tag com_google_maps so if you'd like to add photos with this tag then feel free to do so. Perhaps examples of common errors or just things you think that I missed would be great. I'm pretty new to Flickr so if anyone else knows some cool things that I can do then feel free to tell me. Below is a link to the set I created and the tag. The set is in a more logical order, but if people add pictures with the com_google_maps tag then you'll see more examples there.

My Set

Com Google Maps Tag

2.6 Beta

2006-08-15T09:27:00.000-04:00

I've created a new version of the component that I am only going to release as a beta for now. So for the people that read this blog you can grab the new version here. The new features include the ability to dynamically create your XML file, which will make it a little more difficult for people to see all of your data. The XML Cache feature should also be working in this version of the component so if you want the cache to update every x minutes that will actually work now. You should be able to access your map in an iFrame by going to the url index2.php?option=com_google_maps. Since the map can be obtained in an iFrame the height and width of the map can be changed from the url using the flags mapHeight and mapWidth. Finally, the reason most of this is possible is because I added some code that no longer requires editing the body tag in your template, BUT you must remove the code in your body template if you are upgrading from a previous version. With so many new features I wanted to give the blog readers/subscribers the first chance to test the new version.

Remember to leave your comments on the discussion board at the Official Component Website.

Yet Another Release...

2006-07-26T13:38:00.000-04:00

Sorry, for putting out so many releases in such a short period of time. This release is fairly minor if you don't use the community builder plugin. Basically, I got the community builder plugin to use the component's geocoding function instead of the one built into the plugin. This means that you can have users type in real country names and they should geocode correctly. Lastly, I added support for two other mapping APIs. The Yahoo! Maps API and the Microsoft VirtualEarth API. I really only tested them with a couple of basic markers. Yahoo doesn't support polylines and I didn't test Microsoft with polylines although it should work in theory. I also get problems with the Microsoft API in Firefox, go figure. I don't know if I'll continue to develop for these other mapping APIs but I wanted to put them in there just in case someone else decided they want to do that.

2.5c Released

2006-07-23T21:02:00.000-04:00

Well, it looks like I'm getting a decent amount of people to subscribe to this blog via email. 2.5 was a fairly major upgrade and as such several problems have arisen. Hopefully I've worked out most of the bugs in the newest release (2.5c) If you are having problems then you might want to grab it. The newest feature is import from flat text files. You have to use the following format:

[markerType]|[catId]|[name]|[address]|[city]|[state]|[zipcode]|[country]|[misc]|[lat]|[lng]

You must make sure your misc field has no line breaks (\n) or else you'll break the importer. Finally, if you leave [lat] or [lng] blank then the addresses will be automatically geocoded! Finally a line break at the end or beginning of the file may break the importer. Also, if you have a lot of addresses in France, Spain, Italy, or Germany then the geocoder will stop working and you'll have to wait 24 hours for it to start up again.

Version 2.5 released!

2006-07-19T14:31:00.000-04:00

Version 2.5 of the component has been released. A lot of the internals of the component were recoded. New features include a new backup/restore/import system. Now all you need to do is keep a copy of your XML file on hand and upload that into the new install of the component. Right now the component only accepts XML files, but soon it should accept flat text files for batch uploads (and possibly gecodes) into the component. This is probably the single most requested feature not in the component already. Another new feature is that the component should now work with PHP5, so if you had trouble installing the component before there is a chance it'll work now. A few minor features were added to the configuration such as the ability to use users' user names (say that 10 times fast) and the ability to hide users' real names. Finally, the continuous zoom and double click zoom features that are part of the API v2.58 were added to the component. They won't work until Google updates the Default API version to 2.58 (it's 2.57 right now), but that should be any day now.

Component News

2006-07-15T23:28:00.000-04:00

A couple of things have been going on. First I was away from a while so I haven't done much work, but it has given me time to step back and think of some new improvements. First off, I am going to try and make this component work with PHP5. Someone donated server space to me on a server with PHP5 so hopefully, I'll be able to do that pretty quickly. Secondly, there are some new zoom features in the API. I'm going to add an option to enable those features. Lastly, I am looking at moving the discussion board/component home. The new site is up at joomlatech.com. I just need to do add a few more sections to the site before it becomes the official project home.

Quiet Update

2006-06-28T10:18:00.000-04:00

Well, I renamed the 2.4 file yesterday and added the Google Geocoder to the component. I didn't like the way that it was geocoding US address so for the USA and Canada, I am still using the Yahoo! Geocoder, but for France, Italy, Germany, and Spain the Google Geocoder will be used. This should allow for street level geocoding in those particular countries. I tested it out and it seemed to work (the correct street showed up at least).

Version 2.4 Released

2006-06-24T13:15:00.000-04:00

I've just release version 2.4 of the component. I added some error checking for ampersands so hopefully people won't keep running into this problem. Don't worry if you are correctly using & as there is checking for that too. Next I fixed the problem with coordinate precision. I just had to change the field type from FLOAT to DOUBLE. Now you should get at least 6 or 7 points of precision. Next I added some code to process KML files in the google_maps.js file. I have not tested this code, but for some javascript savvy folk this should prove useful. The last big change is that I made the XML file more space efficient. This won't matter to most people but if you have lots and lots of markers then this will definitely make a difference. Anyway, happy download and remember to post any problems to the discussion board at the forge and not here.

Geocoder, dedicated site, etc

2006-06-23T13:18:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been a while and I've got a couple updates. I haven't done much coding for the project lately as I just moved and didn't have internet (nor do I have a decent computer but that's an entire seperate issue). In the meantime Google has built a geocoder into the API. I've thought about using this geocoder, but right now it lacks look ups in the UK (even at the city level) so I think I'll hold off. I think it does do street level geocoding in a couple of european countries though, so perhaps I'll use it for those countries. Even cooler though is that inclusion of a geocoder in the API allows for easier realtime site lookups. This could add interactivity to the frontend or even test addresses in the backend to see if they get geocoded correctly. I'll play around with the functionality once I get a decent computer setup (right now I'm using a television as a monitor).

Next on the agenda. People have been asking about creating a dedicated site for the component. Most people agree that the forum software that is part of the joomlaforge is barely usable. I'm serious considering something of the sorts. There are a couple reasons that I do like the forge. The main thing is that I use the forge for version control (SVN) and that makes store the files on that server easy. Secondly, by using the discussion board my project is listed on the front page of the Joomla Forge under "Most Active Projects", which probably drives a lot of traffic to my component. However there are advantages to moving to a dedicated server. I'd have more control over the look of the project page. The discussion board, blog, example site, FAQs (something that is desperately needed), etc could all be in one place. Plus all those components would probably work better than the current forum. Before I was staunchly against a dedicated site, but as of now I'd have to say that I'm 50/50. I'll keep you all up to date on what is going on.

Internet Explorer issues, etc

2006-05-04T11:53:00.000-04:00

I just released an update to this component. The truth is that it may have warranted the 2.4 moniker, but I decided to just use 2.3c instead. A lot of international users were having problems with special characters in the XML file, so I went back to the old style XML and hopefully that'll fix the problem. I also added a few new features. The most noticeable being the ability to put the minimap (overview map) into the corner of your map. Secondly is the ability to create draggable markers. This is nice when you've got two markers on top of each other or if you just want to make a more interactive map.

Minor Release

2006-04-27T13:56:00.000-04:00

Some bug fixes and code clean up are the main features of this release. Not a huge problem, but some people were experiencing some PHP errors so I fixed those.

Street Level Europe Maps

2006-04-25T10:54:00.000-04:00

Good news for Europeans, Google has added street level maps for most of Europe. While there are still no free geocoders for European street addresses, the street maps are a cool feature.

Version 2.3 released

2006-04-17T09:23:00.000-04:00

I have released version 2.3 of the Google Maps component. New features include the ability to center on CB users, marker level filtering (&marker=), and an external javascript. In the near future, I'll release a module that can have a simplified google map in it, so that you can put a google map onto any page on your site. Many people that work on sites with listings (real estate, events, etc) have been asking for this feature.

New version coming soon

2006-04-14T10:53:00.000-04:00

Well, I put most of the PHP logic into javascript so now the component should be less stressful to your SQL server. As for features that you'll notice being different:

1. Marker level filtering. Just like filtering by category, you can now filter by marker id. This is a nice feature, especially if you want a map with just one point.

2. Center CB users. Because the centering function moved to javascript, you can now center on CB users via the URL. This combined with the marker level filtering can potentially be used to allow each user to have their own map.

3. Map in a module. One feature a lot of people have requested is the ability to have a map in a module. This is now possible. The map will be more limited than the map component map, but it should work just the same.

Javascript

2006-04-11T11:02:00.000-04:00

I have moved most of the javascript into a javascript file (.js). This shouldn't affect how the component works, but hopefully I'll be able to make a Google Maps module using this javascript file.The module won't be as configurable as the component, but most people only want one or two markers in a module map anyway. Another advantage of using a javascript file is that people can easily make customized changes to the component without having to change the main files of the component. Hopefully people will create custom javascript files for Google Map extensions such as the clusterer. I may even add an "upload javascript file" option into the component. Anyway, this feature is not yet released, but it'll be a feature availible in the next release of the component.

Tooltips Fixed

2006-04-10T11:26:00.000-04:00

Google made a minor update to the Google Maps API that caused tooltips to not function properly. I've updated the component to get tooltips functioning once again. I know tooltips is an option that many people use. So go download version 2.2c from the forge to reclaim your tooltips!

Minor Update Released

2006-04-08T11:30:00.000-04:00

A minor update was released that fixed the problem with auto-opening info windows. Next on the list of things to do is allow the auto-open function to automatically open info windows of CB users. Go grab the new file at the forge!

Welcome

2006-04-04T12:48:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the new blog for the Google Maps component for Joomla. For those that don't know Joomla is a content management system, and Google Maps is a mapping service similar to Yahoo! Maps or Mapquest.

The purpose of this blog is so I can make announcements about the component, throw out ideas to the users, and generally keep users up to date on the Google Map API component. Right now I am using the official forge to do this, but it's really not equipped to do this. Making small annoucements on the frontpage or message board are really inefficient ways of keeping people up to date on the project. With a blog, people can subscribe to the RSS feed, comment on my posts, and have a convient place for links to various Google Map resources.