Mapping & Geocoding Part 2

[DonRidley]

In my previous example of mapping with NetTalk I used GoogleMaps.  There is a problem with that approach.  You are supposed to pay Google if you use the GoogleMaps API in a commercial venture.

Another alternative is to use the OpenLayers API which is built upon the OpenStreetMap project.

The OpenLayers API is free for personal and commercial use.

I have updated my example to include an example of a map using the OpenLayers API.  This map will display all markers/points in the database.  The map will automatically zoom out to include all markers.  If there's only one address in the database then it will zoom in pretty close.

Anyway, the coding is pretty rough on my part so no flaming there please.  

Enjoy!

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[Skip Williams]

Hi Don.

This looks really interesting.  I hope to get a chance to play with it sometime this week.

Thanks for posting it.

Skip

[Skip Williams]

Here are a couple of links that might be useful...

http://leafletjs.com/features.html

and

http://www.netmagazine.com/features/top-seven-alternatives-google-maps-api

Leaflet looks pretty good...

Skip

[DonRidley]

Hey Skip,

LeafLet does look good!!  In fact, I will experiment with it ASAP.

Thanks for sharing that information!!

Don

[Skip Williams]

Hi Don,

Have you had any success with Leaflet?

Skip

[DonRidley]

Hi Don,

Have you had any success with Leaflet?

Skip

No.   I played around with it briefly but, no, I didn't have success with it.  (Not that it can't be done)

Don

[Skip Williams]

Thanks Don.

I haven't had a chance to look at it but may try in the next week or two....although if you didn't have much success, I may not either...<g>

skip

[DonRidley]

Oh no, I may not have communicated that properly.

I think Leaflet would definitely work but it's a different monster (slightly) than what I'm using.  So, I just haven't had enough time to sit and play around with the code and do a proper test.  I'm sure it would work.

Thanks for taking an interest in mapping with NetTalk.

I did a demo for a potential customer and when I showed him a sneak preview of the mapping.....wow!  He was impressed (actually his whole department was impressed.  He brought all of them to my demo.)

Thanks,

Don

[Poul Jensen]

Hi,

Has anybody using OpenLayers tried reading positions off a textfile with this method:

            var newl = new OpenLayers.Layer.Text( "text", {location: "./textfile.txt"} );
            map.addLayer(newl);

This way I should be able to specify different icons for various positions.

Cheers,
/Poul