I'm still not sure I understand what you mean with "re-record the coordinates of each of the hotspots within the vector file" but surely when hotspots move you'll need to re-feed their positions somewhere, somehow, to re-generate your tiles to reflect those new positions. Re-generating the vector file and re-slicing it into tiles sounds like a natural approach (not having a faint idea of what your actual workflow looks like) so I hope you can automate that.
On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 23:41, Jack <[email protected]> wrote: > 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%[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]<google-maps-js-api-v3%[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. 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