[pmwiki-users] GoogleMap question

[Ben Wilson]

On 6/20/06, Chris Cox <ccox at airmail.net> wrote:
> Ben Wilson wrote:
> > On 6/20/06, David Spitzley <dspitzle at wash.k12.mi.us> wrote:
> >>I'm trying to figure out how to make use of the GoogleMap recipe.  It sounds cool, but I'm unclear on whether latitude/longitude values are required, or whether you can use the street address to set the points on the map.  Can somebody give me some hints?
> >
> > As the author of the recipe, I'll take a stab.
> >
> > The short answer is you should use lat/lon values, in decimal format
> > (e.g. convert 36d 24' 36" to 36.3355 or what have you).
> >
> > I've added the ability to show location by U.S. ZIP Code, but this is
> > a fairly inspecific method as it (should) position itself at the
> > center of the ZIP Code region, as provided by the U.S. Census Bureau.
> >
> > I believe being able to use your street address to point to the house
> > would require access to quite a hearty amount of data.[1] However, if
> > you look in the Google Map API file, it should point you to a URL that
> > allows you to type in your address and return the lat/lon value.[2] I
> > hope I've helped.[3]
> >
>
> I use something like this... (using the includeSite recipe)
> You can use just the address in the q= or you can do a hybrid
> after you have the ll codes... like
>
> (:includeSite http://maps.google.com/maps?q=6031+Connection+Dr+Irving,+TX+75039-2607&ie=UTF8&ll=32.894309,-96.966619&spn=0.013603,0.022016&t=h&om=1 width=100%:)

Except, that may be construed as a site scrape by Google. I'm not sure
if they have a policy about that, but other major web companies have
policies against. They prefer you link. Google provided the API as a
way of providing the functionality without having to include its site.

The advantage of the Google Map API is that you can set multiple
points and can provide message bubbles and a short form to generate
directions to a location.

-- 
Ben Wilson
"Democracy: two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner."