On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 00:23, Jack <[email protected]> wrote:

> I'm new to this, so apologies in advance for the likely naïveté of my
> question.
>

Welcome to the forum :)

I'd like to create a custom map using Custom Map Types (http://
> code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/javascript/
> overlays.html#CustomMapTypes).  The image for the map will be a single
> vector file, which I will then slice up into smaller tiles.  The map
> will include a hundreds of "hotspots" which I'd like to identify with
> markers.
>

This is to implement your own map imagery or tile overlays, so you would
need to re-generate tiles every time there is an update to the original
vector file. This is a good option if you have way too many hotspots and
they don't change very often.

However, if the source data changes too fast, so that by the time you
re-build the tiles they are already obsolete, you'd need to either live with
non-live tiles (e.g. refresh x times per day/week) or just drop this
approach.

Here's my problem: I expect that over time there will be subtle
> changes/shifts to the underlying vector file, and the coordinates of
> the "hotspots" will therefore change.  I don't want to have to re-
> record the coordinates of all the "hotspots" every time this happens.
>

When the hotsptos change, you'll need to somehow change whatever files you
are using to represent them on a map. If you'll be using your own tiles,
you'll need to re-build them. If you use some other sort of file (e.g. KML)
you'll also need to re-generate that file.

How should I approach this?  I want to set up a system where the
> vector file is "smart" and knows the location of the hotspots and can
> therefore easily update the coordinates if changes are made to the
> vector file.
>

Let's assume you have some sort of data base or data store with the live (or
frequently updated) data of where hotspots are. If building your own tiles
often is not a good option for you, I can see at least two alternatives:

1. KML. You can either create a static KML file and re-generated
periodically (easier) or create a web service that will return the KML,
generating it on-the-fly from the source vector data.

2. Fusion Tables. If you have really way too many hotspots for the above,
try this:
Map your data with the Maps API and Fusion Tables
http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2010/05/map-your-data-with-maps-api-and-fusion.html

I'm just starting to build this system, so I can use any approach. Let
> me know if I'm thinking about this problem in the wrong way or if I
> should be using a completely different set of tools.
>
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