Book Image

Google Maps JavaScript API Cookbook

Book Image

Google Maps JavaScript API Cookbook

Overview of this book

Day by day, the use of location data is becoming more and more popular, and Google is one of the main game changers in this area. The Google Maps JavaScript API is one of the most functional and robust mapping APIs used among Geo developers. With Google Maps, you can build location-based apps, maps for mobile apps, visualize geospatial data, and customize your own maps.Google Maps JavaScript API Cookbook is a practical, hands-on guide that provides you with a number of clear, step-by-step recipes that will help you to unleash the capabilities of the Google Maps JavaScript API in conjunction with open source or commercial GIS servers and services through a number of practical examples of real world scenarios. This book begins by covering the essentials of including simple maps for Web and mobile, adding vector and raster layers, styling your own base maps, creating your own controls and responding to events, and including your own events.You will learn how to integrate open source or commercial GIS servers and services including ArcGIS Server, GeoServer, CartoDB, Fusion Tables, and Google Maps Engine with the Google Maps JavaScript API. You will also extend the Google Maps JavaScript API to push its capabilities to the limit with additional libraries and services including geometry, AdSense, geocoding, directions, and StreetView.This book covers everything you need to know about creating a web map or GIS applications using the Google Maps JavaScript API on multiple platforms.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
Google Maps JavaScript API Cookbook
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Introduction


Location is becoming a very popular topic day by day, and Google is one of the main game changers in this area. Most websites have a contact page with Google Maps showing the location of the business. This is the simplest usage of the Google Maps JavaScript API. There are also other advanced usages of it to show different information on maps. This whole book contains multiple usage recipes on the Google Maps JavaScript API, from beginner to advanced topics. There are different parts that make up the Google Maps JavaScript API such as the raster/vector layers, controls, events, and services, which are all covered in the following chapters.

There are both open source and commercial alternatives to the Google Maps JavaScript API, such as OpenLayers, Leaflet, Bing Maps, MapQuest, and Here Maps (formerly, Nokia Maps), but the Google Maps JavaScript API has great support in base maps, satellite images, and the API itself. For example, the API can be used to show only one location or all the data of a government agency on a map.

The Google Maps JavaScript API is not a free tool to show maps, but its free usage limit is enough for most developers. There is a limit of 25,000 map loads per day per site, which is counted when a map is initialized on a web page.