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

Adding KML/GeoRSS layers


Keyhole Markup Language (KML) has been introduced in Google Earth, which was originally named Keyhole Earth Viewer before Google bought it. KML became an OGC standard in 2008. It is an XML notation for showing features in geo-enabled viewers. GeoRSS is also an emerging standard for sharing Earth features to show in geo-enabled viewers mostly used by web feeds or services. Both these standards can be consumable with the Google Maps JavaScript API.

In this recipe, dynamic services will be consumed via the Google Maps JavaScript API. We will use the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) web services to show recent earthquakes on maps. These services are updated regularly to reflect recent events.

Getting ready

In this recipe, we will use the simple map recipe introduced in Chapter 1, Google Maps JavaScript API Basics, as a template.

The source code of this recipe is at Chapter 3/ch03_kml_georss.html.

How to do it…

You can add your KML/GeoRSS files to your map if you perform the...