Beginning Google Maps Applications with PHP and Ajax: From Novice to Professional - Brossura

Purvis, Michael; Sambells, Jeffrey; Turner, Cameron; Turner, Cemeron

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1590597079 ISBN 13: 9781590597071

Casa editrice: Apress, 2006

Riassunto

There is much to like about this book. The explanations are straightforward, the code is readable, the examples are relevant, and the writing style is approachable.

- Michael J. Ross, Web developer/Slashdot contributor

Until recently, building interactive web-based mapping applications has been a cumbersome affair. This changed when Google released its powerful Maps API. Beginning Google Maps Applications with PHP and Ajax was written to help you take advantage of this technology in your own endeavorswhether you're an enthusiast playing for fun or a professional building for profit. This book covers version 2 of the API, including Google's new Geocoding service.

Authors Jeffrey Sambells, Cameron Turner, and Michael Purvis get rolling with examples that require hardly any code at all, but you'll quickly become acquainted with many facets of the Maps API. They demonstrate powerful methods for simultaneously plotting large data sets, creating your own map overlays, and harvesting and geocoding sets of addresses. You'll see how to set up alternative tile sets and where to access imagery to use for them. The authors even show you how to build your own geocoder from scratch, for those high-volume batch jobs.

As well as providing hands-on examples of real mapping projects, this book supplies a complete reference for the Maps API, along with the relevant aspects of JavaScript, CSS, PHP, and SQL. Visit the authors' website for additional tips and advice.

Su questo libro

L'autore:

Mike Purvis is a Engineering student at the University of Waterloo. He maintains a weblog at uwmike.com and enjoys cooking, cycling, and playing with LEGO. He's worked on many web projects of various sizes and has a strong interest in independent standards and open source. Jeff Sambells is a Graphic Designer and self taught Web Application developer best known for his unique ability to merge the visual world of graphics with the mental realm of code. With a Bachelor of Technology degree in Graphic Communications Management and a minor in Multimedia, Jeffrey was originally trained for the paper and ink printing industry, but he soon realized the world of pixels and digital ink was were his ideas would prosper. In late 1999, he co-founded We-Create Inc. an internet software company based in Waterloo, Ontario, which began many long nights of challenging and creative innovation. Currently, as Director of Research and Development for We-Create, Jeffrey is responsible for investigating new and emerging internet technologies and integrating them using web standards compliant methods. He is described by his peers as both a natural programmer and an innovative thinker. Cameron Turner has been programming interactive games since his first computer in 1985; interactive web sites since 1994 and since 1999 has been one of the founders of We-Create Inc. He obtained his honours degree in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo Ontario, with specializations in applied cryptography, database design and computer security. As the Chief Technology Officer at We-Create Inc. Cam has been involved in all aspects of Internet software development, design and specification. More than a manager, Cam maintains an active ability to develop in all of the latest break-through technologies as well as an ability to easily translate tech-talk into lay-English for clients and their stakeholders.

Contenuti:

Beginning Google Maps
Applications with
PHP and Ajax
From Novice to Professional
Michael Purvis
Jeffrey Sambells
and Cameron Turner
Beginning Google Maps Applications with PHP and Ajax: From Novice to Professional
Copyright © 2006 by Michael Purvis, Jeffrey Sambells, and Cameron Turner
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Contents
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
About the Technical Reviewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii
PART 1 ■ ■ ■ Your First Google Maps
■CHAPTER 1 Introducing Google Maps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
KML: Your First Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Wayfaring: Your Second Map. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Adding the First Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Adding the Flight Route . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Adding the Destination Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Adding a Driving Route . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
What’s Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
■CHAPTER 2 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
The First Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Keying Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Examining the Sample Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Specifying a New Location. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Separating Code from Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Cleaning Up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Basic Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Using Map Control Widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Creating Markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Opening Info Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
A List of Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Using Arrays and Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Iterating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
vii
■CHAPTER 3 Interacting with the User and the Server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Going on a Treasure Hunt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Creating the Map and Marking Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Starting the Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Listening to User Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Asking for More Information with an Info Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Creating an Info Window on the Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Embedding a Form into the Info Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Avoiding an Ambiguous State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Controlling the Info Window Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Using Google’s Ajax Object. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Saving Data with GXmlHttp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Parsing the XML Document Using DOM Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Retrieving Markers from the Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Adding Some Flair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
■CHAPTER 4 Geocoding Addresses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Creating an XML File with the Address Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Using Geocoding Web Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Requirements for Consuming Geocoding Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
The Google Maps API Geocoder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
The Yahoo Geocoding API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Geocoder.us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Geocoder.ca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Services for Geocoding Addresses Outside Google’s Coverage. . . . 85
Caching Lookups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Building a Store Location Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
PART 2 ■ ■ ■ Beyond the Basics
■CHAPTER 5 Manipulating Third-Party Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Using Downloadable Text Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Downloading the Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Parsing CSV Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Optimizing the Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Using Your New Database Schema. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
■CONTENTS viii
Screen Scraping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
A Scraping Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Screen Scraping Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
■CHAPTER 6 Improving the User Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
CSS: A Touch of Style . . ...

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Apress
• Data di pubblicazione: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1590597079
• ISBN 13: 9781590597071
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 384