Hi, I'm fairly new to the Maps API, but I developed a simple kml service for displaying images from Flickr Commons in Google Earth and I was looking to see if there was a quick way of displaying this on an embedded map. The service is delivered via a NetworkLink in the kml file at http://www.whatsthatpicture.com/flickr/commons.kml which calls http://www.whatsthatpicture.com/flickr/commons-kml.php?BBOX=a,b,c,d
I can of course get a crude web visualisation of this at e.g. http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http:%2F%2Fwhatsthatpicture.com%2Fflickr%2Fcommons.kml but there are several limitations and I want to create my own custom map. I have got tantalisingly close using API v3. You can see the latest efforts at http://www.whatsthatpicture.com/flickr/commons-map-v1.php. This is intended to work as follows: - initially calls the dynamic kml http://www.whatsthatpicture.com/flickr/commons-kml.php with no BBOX (retrieves latest 100 images globally) and loads into into kmlLayer (works fine) - when the user pans or zooms it refreshes the kmlLayer with data called using the current parameters from getBounds (works with manually set BBOX value, not with getBounds - see below) Sorry, long winded introduction, now onto the problems and questions ... - I have managed to add listeners to get the basic user events, although I think they're a bit clumsy - suggestions welcome - I seem to be able to manually construct a url to pass to my kml service and then display the results (currently set as a region covering western Europe). I can also capture the current view using getBounds(). But trying to shape this into a standard BBOX format (removing parentheses and spaces) seems to break it, no matter what I try, so my ultimate aim of constructing the url using this has so far failed. - when it has changed the view and layer, the listener that handles the placemark click seems to be lost, I assume because I've emptied the original layer and reloaded it? - This was only intended as a 'quick win' re-using the existing kml, but I'm now starting to think that the effort I am putting into this would be better spent re-engineering it all to deliver json. Agreed?! - I've also now got the 'bug' and want to try more things with this, like custom icons (including a clear indication of the 'current' icon), a 'loading' image when data is being fetched, user input queries (the kml service accepts a simple q= to run a text search), and enhanced navigation. I'd also quite like to display more placemarks and cluster them. But before I plunge headlong into anything I'd welcome any advice, whether it's quick fixes, or longer-term approaches. Thanks, James -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Maps JavaScript API v3" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/google-maps-js-api-v3/-/j0p5WkAxGAkJ. 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.
