Thanks for your thoughtful response. I can indeed build and update my own tiles. My question is how, when I do that, I can capture the new coordinates of the hotspots (which will get shifted around every time I update the vector file).
I'm planning on building an Adobe Illustrator file that will be sliced up to create the tiles. The various hotspots will be part of the vector file. This is important--I'm not overlaying the hotspots on top of the map; rather, they are part of the map (in fact the map is nothing more than lots of hotspots images). Then, I'd like to add Google Maps markers to emphasize the location of each of the hotspots. I'm sure that I will need to add/remove/move hotspots down the road, and when I do that I don't want to manually re-record the coordinates of each of the hotspots within the vector file. Is there a way to approach this that lets me avoid doing that? On Jun 25, 5:21 am, Miguel Angel Vilela <[email protected]> wrote: > 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 > Tableshttp://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2010/05/map-your-data-with-ma... > > 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. > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > "Google Maps JavaScript API v3" group. > > To post to this group, send email to > > [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > [email protected]<google-maps-js-api-v3%2B > > [email protected]> > > . > > For more options, visit this group at > >http://groups.google.com/group/google-maps-js-api-v3?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Maps JavaScript API v3" 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-js-api-v3?hl=en.
