Hi all. Thanks in advance for reading this. I'm a beginner wrt the Google Maps API, so this question will either be desperately boring to you, or amusingly basic.
I've got a little bit of experience in a lot of stuff: Perl, PHP, Javascript, various flavours of SQL, etc. I'm not super-coding-stuff- from-the-ground-up-woman, but I'm pretty good at creating solutions, hacking stuff (in the traditional sense) and developing existing code. I run a website with an events calendar component (specifically, music shows in a couple of cities) using a PHP app called Webcalendar. I've added functionality and generally wrangled Webcalendar into submission, so I'm pretty familiar with its capabilities at this point. One thing Webcalendar does not do well is handle event venues. Essentially I have had to add the functionality to assign and display a venue to an event, but that info is stored as a plain old text string in the database. Currently I keep a My Maps page with the venue list on one map (ticket vendors are on a second map). I put a generic link to My Maps on each event page, ie. "Find this venue on the map." Presumably at that point the user is meant to just scroll through the venue list on the My Maps page to find the place they need, but with over 100 venues, this is not user-friendly. Here is my My Maps (there has to be a better way to say that): http://maps.google.ca/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=ca&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=104325829891716444050.000455b26e51bcbe54bd8&z=11 I'd like to develop something using the API to add a small map to each event page with the venue indicated. Here's what I'm working with: >> The way that event venues are handled in Webcalendar, the event page is >> passed a text string with the venue and address, ie. "Happy Fun Time >> Theatre, 123 Main St." >> I suppose I can obtain the lat/long coordinates for each venue somehow from >> my My Maps KML file, and create a table for looking up that information in >> the database. For a couple of reasons I would prefer not to do this... I can >> get into that if you like, but it has to do with the unsophisticated way the >> venues are being handled by the app. >> Obviously, it would be easier to pass just my text string directly to the >> API, but keep in mind that my text string does not include city, province, >> or postal code -- just the venue name and street address. I *could* add that >> info to each venue in the db, if necessary. I have simply tried to keep them >> short and neat for aesthetic reasons. >> I'd also like to have a map with all the venues on it, but I've looked at >> "Accessing and Displaying KML Data" in the API docs and I think I could work >> this one out on my own, provided I can pull the KML file from My Maps >> somehow. Based on this info, and anything else I can add, I'm wondering if someone can help me come up with a path for how to proceed. I don't need a tonne of handholding -- I enjoy the problem-solving process and I'm pretty resourceful -- but I do need a little direction, at least to get started. Thanks again! Julie --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Maps API" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Maps-API?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
