Google maps KmlLayer times out and InfoWindow not showing - google-maps-api-3

I have a google map embedded in a site that loads a kml file at https://www.getstable.org/who-can-help/therapist-map-kml using KmlLayer. Sometimes the map doesn't load up, I presume because google maps has a strict timeout, and often some of the pins on the map aren't clickable but some are with no clear reason why. Does anyone know what the timeout limit is on kmlLayer and how to increase it? Also is there any reason why sometimes some of the pins aren't clickable (ie no InfoWindow appears when you click a pin and the cursor doesn't change to a hand)?
Here's the code that shows it (some of the fields are templated):
<div id="map_canvas" style="width: 856px;height: 540px;">Loading...</div>
<script type="text/javascript" src="{protocol}://maps.google.com/maps/api/js?sensor=false"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var the_map = {
options : {
zoom:{embed:zoom_level},
center:new google.maps.LatLng({embed:latitude},{embed:longitude}),
mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP
},
geocoder : null,
map : null,
init : function() {
this.geocoder = new google.maps.Geocoder();
$('#map_canvas').delegate('a', 'click', function(event) {
window.location.href=$(this).attr('href');
return false;
});
},
load_map : function() {
this.map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map_canvas"), this.options);
query = encodeURI('{site_url}{embed:map_url}');
var ctaLayer = new google.maps.KmlLayer(query,{
preserveViewport:true
});
ctaLayer.setMap(this.map);
}
}
$(document).ready(function() {
the_map.init();
the_map.load_map();
});
</script>

The Google Servers have an unspecified timeout, but testing shows it to be 3-5 seconds. This timeout is not something you can affect. The solution is to make your server respond faster. This issue almost always comes down to a file that is too big (yours isn't) or from dynamically generating the KML. You need to optimize this and that may mean finding a way to create a static KML file.
Features that are not clickable are almost certainly a problem with your KML. You can validate your KML to check for this:
Feed Validator
KML Validator
You can also test your KML by loading it at maps.google.com.

Related

google maps infoWindow click event re-renders map-canvas in Meteor

Hey Im trying to use google maps within my MeteorJS project to have google maps display on a map all customers, and then to display an infoWindow when you click on one of the markers.
problem is anytime you click on the marker it re-renders the map from scratch, i know this has to do with the the reactivity of the Session variable being set when the infoWindow is being clicked.
is there any way avoid the map being re-rendered when the session variable is changing?
thanks.
below is the JS and template im using in my project.
<template name="customers_map">
{{#constant}}
<div id="mapWrapper">
<div id="map-canvas"></div>
</div>
{{/constant}}
</template>
the code for making the google maps and markers.
Template.customers_map.rendered = function() {
$("#map-canvas").height("400px");
if (navigator.geolocation) {
navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(function(p) {
Session.set("myLat", p.coords.latitude);
Session.set("myLng", p.coords.longitude);
});
}
Deps.autorun(function(){
var mapOptions = {
center: new google.maps.LatLng(Session.get("myLat"), Session.get("myLng")),
zoom: 15,
zoomControl: true,
zoomControlOptions: {style: google.maps.ZoomControlStyle.SMALL},
streetViewControl: false,
mapTypeControl: false,
scaleControl: true,
mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.SMALL
}
var map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map-canvas"), mapOptions);
var infowindow = new google.maps.InfoWindow({
content: Template.customers_infoWindow()
});
Customers.find().forEach(function(customer) {
if (customer.loc != null) {
var geo = customer.geoLocation();
var marker = new google.maps.Marker({
position: new google.maps.LatLng(geo.lat, geo.lng),
title: customer.name(),
icon:'http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/ms/icons/green-dot.png'
});
marker.setMap(map);
google.maps.event.addListener(marker, 'click', function() {
Session.set("customerId", customer._id);
infowindow.open(map,marker);
});
} else {
console.log(customer.name() + " has no geoLocation");
};
});
});
};
the infoWindow template
<template name="customers_infoWindow">
<h1>{{record.name}}</h1>
</template>
and the js for the infoWindow template
Template.customers_infoWindow.record = function() {
return Customers.findOne({_id: Session.get("customerId")});
}
If you create a global googlemaps object, you can access its properties from anywhere. This article has a nice example of doing this.
The overall gist is:
Create a googlemaps class with an initialize method. At the end of the initialize method, set a session variable for your map's existence. ( Session.set('map', true);)
Call create a googlemap object by calling the googlemap init method from within Template.customers_map.rendered.
It's a bit difficult to be sure without having a running version in front of me, but I think this is essentially because you have all your code in one big Deps.autorun block. Clicking one of the markers is changing the Session variable customerId, which will cause customers_infoWindow to re-render (as it's clearly a dependency), but I'm sure this is the intended behaviour.
However, since you're declaring var infoWindow in your Deps.autorun block to have an instance of that template as one of its properties, I think that changing customers_infoWindow will actually invalidate the entire Deps.autorun calculation, which means the whole block will be executed again, including the var map = new google.maps.Map(...) line, which will essentially re-render the map (even though it doesn't re-render that actual div element that contains it).
So, I would suggest splitting your code into separate Deps.autorun blocks, and making sure that anything in the same block should be re-run at the same time - clearly, this means that the Google Maps initialisation code and the infoWindow handler should be in separate blocks.
To reiterate, I think that's what's going on, but you'll have to try it and let me know...

Simplemodal Google Map displays once but not on 2nd Click

I've done well by my standards! I have pretty much zero knowledge of JS other than the basics of Functions etc. Ive used these pages to pull together a working script that loads Google Maps into a Modal using the SimpleModal framework. To my relief I got it working but it has one final bug that I cannot shift. The Modal loads on the first click of the HREF but if I close the modal and then try to reopen it it loads the modal with parts of the map missing. The missing map issue was a problem i thought I had already solved. My JS is
var map;
var src = 'https://sites.google.com/site/bristol2monaco/kml/route2.kml';
function initialize() {
var myLatlng = new google.maps.LatLng(51.337890,-0.813049);
map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("basic-modal-content"), {
center: myLatlng,
zoom: 7,
mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP
});
loadKmlLayer(src, map);
}
function loadKmlLayer(src, map) {
var kmlLayer = new google.maps.KmlLayer(src, {
suppressInfoWindows: true,
clickable: false,
preserveViewport: true,
map: map
});
}
initialize();
and the js file that registers the 'click' contains:
jQuery(function ($) {
// Load dialog on page load
//$('#basic-modal-content').modal();
// Load dialog on click
$('#table .newbasic').click(function (e) {
$('#basic-modal-content').modal();
var center = map.getCenter();
google.maps.event.trigger(map, "resize");
map.setCenter(center);
return false;
});
});
As i thought i had already solved the missing map bug (using solutions posted here) with the (map, resize) line above none of the solutions on here help. Do i have to reinitialise the map or something. Grateful for advice.
When you call the modal to open use the onOpen Function described by Eric Martin. With using his onOpen function you will be able to use the callback feature and thusly use the google map event-listener to listen for the resize event. Once the resize event has been heard, you can reinitialize your google map thusly removing the gray areas
$("#table .newbasic").modal({
onOpen: function (dialog) {
google.maps.event.addListenerOnce(map, 'resize', function() {
//Alert TESTING IF RESIZE is heard(remove after test)
alert("heard resize onOpen");
initialize();
map.setCenter(center);
});
google.maps.event.trigger(map, "resize");
}
});

Google Maps and Location

I'm building an application using CakePHP that will store events including the event location. When a user visits the application they will see a Google Map that will get their location and show events near them in the form of little pins that they can click on to view the event details.
I have some questions though:
1.) How would I store the Location in the DB? Would the actual geolocation coordinates be the best bet and how would I make it easy for a user to create an event and enter them.
2.) Once I have the events in place how do I create custom pins with the info pulled from the DB? Example like foursquare:
3.) Whilst getting the users location using HTML5 Geolocation how do I show a little loader on the map again like Foursquare does?
So far I've managed to create the Map and make the controls minified and get the location of the viewer but I'm not sure how do 3 and show a better feedback to the user for the geolocation.
If someone could help me with those other two questions as well it'd be very much appreciated as I'm finding it very confusing so far. Thanks.
var map;
function initialize() {
var myOptions = {
zoom: 8,
panControl: false,
zoomControl: true,
zoomControlOptions: {
style: google.maps.ZoomControlStyle.SMALL
},
mapTypeControl: false,
scaleControl: false,
streetViewControl: false,
overviewMapControl: false,
center: new google.maps.LatLng(-34.397, 150.644),
mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP
};
map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById('map_canvas'),
myOptions);
// Try HTML5 geolocation
if(navigator.geolocation) {
navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(function(position) {
var pos = new google.maps.LatLng(position.coords.latitude,
position.coords.longitude);
var infowindow = new google.maps.InfoWindow({
map: map,
position: pos,
content: 'Location found using HTML5.'
});
map.setCenter(pos);
}, function() {
handleNoGeolocation(true);
});
} else {
// Browser doesn't support Geolocation
handleNoGeolocation(false);
}
}
function handleNoGeolocation(errorFlag) {
if (errorFlag) {
var content = 'Error: The Geolocation service failed.';
} else {
var content = 'Error: Your browser doesn\'t support geolocation.';
}
var options = {
map: map,
position: new google.maps.LatLng(60, 105),
content: content
};
var infowindow = new google.maps.InfoWindow(options);
map.setCenter(options.position);
}
google.maps.event.addDomListener(window, 'load', initialize);
1) Store the actual coordinates of the location and any extra meta data (if you have it) like place name, foursquare_id, date, etc. Storing it this way will make using the data later on straightforward, such as plotting on a map or location name lookup. This will be your Location model.
Create an Event model which you can then associate to a Location. You could hack together some nice interactive functionality using event handlers on your map markers.
Something like: "the user clicks a location on the map, up pops a box asking them would like like to create a new event at this location, marker is added to the map and a form appears where they can populate the event details, etc, etc." You get the idea.
Have a look at the Marker documentation.
2) You can set a custom image for the map markers using ImageMarker Class. Take a look at the huge set of examples for ideas of what's possible.
3) The navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition() method as I understand it, is asynchronous. The first argument is the successCallback.
With this in mind, you could set an overlay on your map: "Finding your location", then make the call to getCurrentPosition(). In your successCallback function, you would then hide the overlay.

Google Maps API v3 - Get map by address ?

i am new to google maps,
and i would like to integrate it into my website ( Yellow pages kind of site ).
i currently have the following code:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title></title>
<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery-1.6.2.min.js"></script>
<script src="http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?sensor=false" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function () {
var latlng = new google.maps.LatLng(-34.397, 150.644);
var myOptions = { zoom: 8, center: latlng, mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP };
var map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map_canvas"), myOptions);
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="map_canvas" style="width: 500px; height: 300px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(229, 227, 223);"></div>
</body>
</html>
This code does work, and showing me the map for the specific Lat/Long
but, i want to be able to specifiy an address and not lat/long params,
since i do have the addresses of the companies in the phonebook, but do not have the lat/long values.
i tried searching for this, but i only found something similar on the V2 version, which was deprecated.
What you are looking for is Geocode feature in google service; first give an address to get a LatLng, then call setCenter to pan the map to the specific location. Google's API wrapped it very good and you can see how it works through this example:
var geocoder;
var map;
function initialize() {
geocoder = new google.maps.Geocoder();
var latlng = new google.maps.LatLng(-34.397, 150.644);
var mapOptions = {
zoom: 8,
center: latlng
}
map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById('map-canvas'), mapOptions);
}
function codeAddress() {
var address = document.getElementById('address').value;
geocoder.geocode( { 'address': address}, function(results, status) {
if (status == google.maps.GeocoderStatus.OK) {
map.setCenter(results[0].geometry.location);
var marker = new google.maps.Marker({
map: map,
position: results[0].geometry.location
});
} else {
alert('Geocode was not successful for the following reason: ' + status);
}
});
}
google.maps.event.addDomListener(window, 'load', initialize);
You can use the google geocoder: http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/geocoding/ Be careful - you can be out of quota and so the request to the geocoder will failed
Use of the Google Geocoding API is subject to a query limit of 2,500 geolocation requests per day.
If you are okay with an iframe, you can skip the geocoding hassle and use the Google Maps Embed API:
The Google Maps Embed API is free to use (with no quotas or request
limits), however you must register for a free API key to embed a map
on your site.
For example you would embed this into your page (replacing the ellipsis with your own personal Google API key):
<iframe width="600" height="450" frameborder="0" style="border:0"
src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed/v1/place?
q=301+Park+Avenue,+NY,+United+States&key=..."></iframe>
Obviously the usefulness of this will depend on your use case but I like this as a quick and dirty solution.
There is a plugin for jQuery that makes it, it's name is gMap3, and you can see it in action here:
http://gmap3.net/examples/address-lookup.html
and here
http://jsfiddle.net/gzF6w/1/
gmap3 doesn't actually do it for you, as suggested by another answer: it just gives you an API to abstract-away the geocoding part of the process.
The answer is: Google doesn't actually allow you to do that anymore. At least not in V3, and since that's been around for more than a year...
You could actually send addresses for driving directions, but their API has made it illegal to send an address for a normal (embedded, API-based) map of any sort. The daily quota on geocoding is their play at "still allowing" addresses while in reality completely disallowing them for any real website.
You can link to a map with an address, though I cannot find this in Google's docs either:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=&daddr=this is my address, city state
Maybe I just have a problem with this because they don't provide any clear, easy documentation - I have to come to StackOverflow to get the answers I'm looking for. Ie. they vaguely mention you need an API key to bypass the anonymous limits, but do not link either to what those limits are or how to use their API without a key. Which is what I want to do for skunkworks or proof-of-concept development. Instead Google wants to push their Maps for Businesses, etc., instead of providing actual information.

How to use own map database to show a map on website?

How to use own map database to display map on a website and use that map to find route and do other stuff ?
You should try the Google Maps API. http://code.google.com/apis/maps/index.html
You can store locations or routes in your database and use the Maps API to display them. Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but I've found their API really easy to use.
That is an absolutely massive task, I'm not sure I understand your question correctly... You've tagged this with Javascript, Web-development and map - so presumably you want to know how to implement a front-end that renders a map to a web page, and then performs custom pathfinding and other logic. Surely I'm misunderstanding you! :D
The O'rielly RESTful Web Services book uses a map service as its operative example throughout the book, so you may find it useful, at least for the design of your service front end. It doesn't delve into the implementation very deeply, particularly the actual mechanics of map image generation, as it is primarily concerned with the design of the service interface from an HTTP perspective. It also doesn't treat very much with the client-side logic that would be involved in dragging, zooming and the like.
You have two options in order to calculate routes depending on your database.
If your database has clean and accurate address names then you can easily use the google maps API that can be found here: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/directions/.
Bare in mind that you can only execute 2500 requests per day with the free version.
On the other hand if you have a network defined on your db (have the roads in a nodes and arcs manner) then you can implement Dijsktra's algorithm.
Have a look here: http://www.vogella.com/articles/JavaAlgorithmsDijkstra/article.html
Because of the fact that the network should be loaded from the database in order to calculate the best route I suggest the singleton pattern.
An OpenSource way to do this, which I would recommend in most cases, is using GeoServer and OpenLayers.
GeoServer can read gegraphic data from all the major databases and be used as host for the widely used standard GeographicgWebServices WMS and WFS.
OpenLayers is a JavaScript API to show your map on the webpage.
I recently implemented something like this. I realize it is an old question but Google has the javascript api v3 out for Google Maps and it works great.
https://developers.google.com/maps/articles/phpsqlajax_v3
This page helped me implement the entire system. Works great. You can also use php to update and edit the entries on the map.
You need xml pages and others but here is the map html page just to give you an idea of the javascript it entails.
<!DOCTYPE html >
<head>
<meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no" />
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"/>
<title>PHP/MySQL & Google Maps Example</title>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?sensor=false"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
var customIcons = {
restaurant: {
icon: 'http://labs.google.com/ridefinder/images/mm_20_blue.png',
shadow: 'http://labs.google.com/ridefinder/images/mm_20_shadow.png'
},
bar: {
icon: 'http://labs.google.com/ridefinder/images/mm_20_red.png',
shadow: 'http://labs.google.com/ridefinder/images/mm_20_shadow.png'
}
};
function load() {
var map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map"), {
center: new google.maps.LatLng(47.6145, -122.3418),
zoom: 13,
mapTypeId: 'roadmap'
});
var infoWindow = new google.maps.InfoWindow;
// Change this depending on the name of your PHP file
downloadUrl("phpsqlajax_genxml.php", function(data) {
var xml = data.responseXML;
var markers = xml.documentElement.getElementsByTagName("marker");
for (var i = 0; i < markers.length; i++) {
var name = markers[i].getAttribute("name");
var address = markers[i].getAttribute("address");
var type = markers[i].getAttribute("type");
var point = new google.maps.LatLng(
parseFloat(markers[i].getAttribute("lat")),
parseFloat(markers[i].getAttribute("lng")));
var html = "<b>" + name + "</b> <br/>" + address;
var icon = customIcons[type] || {};
var marker = new google.maps.Marker({
map: map,
position: point,
icon: icon.icon,
shadow: icon.shadow
});
bindInfoWindow(marker, map, infoWindow, html);
}
});
}
function bindInfoWindow(marker, map, infoWindow, html) {
google.maps.event.addListener(marker, 'click', function() {
infoWindow.setContent(html);
infoWindow.open(map, marker);
});
}
function downloadUrl(url, callback) {
var request = window.ActiveXObject ?
new ActiveXObject('Microsoft.XMLHTTP') :
new XMLHttpRequest;
request.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (request.readyState == 4) {
request.onreadystatechange = doNothing;
callback(request, request.status);
}
};
request.open('GET', url, true);
request.send(null);
}
function doNothing() {}
//]]>
</script>
</head>
<body onload="load()">
<div id="map" style="width: 500px; height: 300px"></div>
</body>
</html>

Resources