History of GmapPackage

{maketoc}
^__ALERT!__ This package is under development, and is in Alpha state. This package is only compatible with bitweaver version R2.^
!Summary
This package makes including and using Google Maps on your bitweaver site a snap! It makes the creation of maps, markers, lines, and other information just a matter of pointing and clicking. It also provides a service to other packages, so that if they want to include a map they can. The service feature is also wired into other bitweaver content for easy geo locating of wiki pages, blog posts, articles, etc. The Gmap Package also provides a universal map for viewing any of such geo-located bitweaver content on your site, so if you tag a page or article with a location you can search for that content by location and view it on a map.

__A Note about the R1 Version of Gmap Package:__
Google closed V1 of their API in early November 2006. At this time there is no plan to migrate the R1 version of the Gmap Package to V2 of the API. This means the R1 version of Gmap Package is currently dead and abandon.

!Core Features:
!!!Gmap Map Builder
Creating Custom Google Maps with Custom Markers and other features

!!!Gmap Mapping Service
Lets other packages integrate Google Maps into their features without having to do any map development. One example use that is already integrated is Google Maps can be used for easily attaching geo location data to any bitweaver cms content. Admins can select which content types can be mapped. Permalinks to the Gmap Content Browser can also be included on content pages for easy viewing of where a content item is on a map.

!!!Gmap Content Browser
A universal map interface for searching for bitweaver cms geo located content (like pages, articles, users) and viewing it on the map.


!Special Installation Instructions
!!Dependencies
The R2 version of the GmapPackage is dependent on the GeoPackage. All location date, lat/lng pairs, are being managed by the GeoPackage service. You must also install the GeoPackage if you want to use or test the GmapPackage.

!!You must obtain a Google Map API Key for your site.
To use the package you need a key from Google. You can sign up for a key [http://www.google.com/apis/maps/signup.html|here] - it is quick and painless and best of all, Free. After you install the package and have your key, you can plugin your key value for your site in the Gmap admin preferences, which you can get to by going to http://yourbitweaversite/kernel/admin/.

!!Get The Code
You can get the latest version of the package by getting module _bit_gmap from bitweaver CVS.


!Development Roadmap
!!Bugs
* Content Browser Map - Category options list has duplicates. (NEED HELP)
* Content Browser Map - Content in nested categories is not found when only ancestor is selected (NEED HELP)
* Maptype edit/updating refresh does not work
* write handlers for remove and expunge all content
* check permissions for remove and expunge all content (MIGHT NEED HELP)

!!Next Steps
Secondary Features of the package need some serious work. For example, although marker, polyline, and polygon styles can all be stored, there is no good way to get a list of them up to the marker,pline,and pgon set forms where they can be attached to the sets - basically getting a list of styles needs to be added into the sets editing process. __Critical ones are bolded__.

* want to make marker primary attachment size a content item param - best way to store this? content pref?
* cache page requests - including all related data
* stuff javascript
* Polyline and Polygone click handler and ajax for infowindow needs to be added - would be good to generalize the similar marker features if possible. [http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Maps-API/browse_frm/thread/2110134ae173c752/2517d6d7391192c5?lnk=gst&q=click+on+polygon&rnum=7#2517d6d7391192c5|click handler instructions]
* Polygon drawing assistant basically works - could be nicer
* Create custom display of polys on Gmap Content Browser page
* Create content page versions for Markers, Polylines, Polygons, that do not require loading the whole map.
* Clean Up gmap css
* Infinity and Beyond: see history below

!!!Custom History
History features would be for recording changes to gmap package specific data as well as displaying liberty history data.
* Wire in access to Liberty History records
* Map History
* Marker History
* Poly History
!!Final Beta Prep
* Test in various browsers


!Extended Features Descriptions
Many basic Google Map features are now fully supported and editable via a AJAX UI. When R2 is complete, the best supplemental libraries to Google Maps will be integrated and editable. Gmap Package will support the GxMarker and [http://www.pixeldevelopment.com/pdmarker.asp|PdMarker]. Also 600+ free custom icon images, as originally [http://mapki.com/index.php?title=Icon_Image_Sets|listed here] are also included with the package. Additionally, Marker infoWindow text can utilizes whatever default syntax is used on your bw install, in most cases this means the infoWindow text uses tikiwiki text formatting. With all these features you can create great looking maps without writing a single line of javascript. And with its "Sets Model", the Gmap Package makes it easy to re-use map components, like marker styles, custom icons, polylines, etc, over and over on multiple maps, i.e. create once, use infinitely. More about the "Sets Model" is below.

The features of the package are supplemented by a bleeding edge AJAX editing interface. Almost all features of the map can be updated live, without a browser refresh.

!!About the AJAX Editing UI
The Gmap Package has a very robust AJAX based editing interface for live updating of map features. The editing UI and related AJAX transaction methods use the [http://mochikit.com|Mochkit] library.

!!Sets Model Framework
The GmapPackage uses a sets model for associating markers, markericons, maptypes, polylines, polygons, and their styles with maps.

Through the use of various keychains, each object may be associated with many maps, many sets of obejcts, and many styles. Each map has a key chain which associates it with sets of markers, maptypes, polylines, and polygons. Marker Sets, Polyline Sets, and Polygon Sets in turn each have individual objects as well as styles with which they are associated. The reason for this is multifold.

One advantage of this sets model is it makes it easier to share individual markers, polyline, and polygons with various maps and sets of each object. For example a marker can be in any number of sets, and those sets can be on any number of maps. This makes it much easier to share content across multiple maps. This could be especially value where say you might want to mash up particular information like restaurants, or art events with something universal like subway stops. Once you create a set of subway stops, then you could reuse that on multple maps mixing it with other data.

The other advantage is that styles can be divorced from content. This is both valuable for customizing the look and feel of the same map data on a map by map basis, as well as optimizing the database and lightening page weight. Each set contains a reference to a style. If a new look and feel is desired for a set of markers, that set only need be duplicated and a new style assigned. However none of the actual marker or polyline or polygon data is duplicated, only the reference to that data. This thus reduces redundancy while following in the W3C ideal of seperating data from style.

This use of sets also makes for lighter db queries and page weight. For each style used that style is only delivered to the client once, each object in a set then references that one style. This is faster and more efficient than packaging style information with each object...especially as one starts to use tens to hundreds of like styled objects on one map.


!References
*[http://mapki.com/index.php?title=Knowledge_Base#Developer_Tools|Mapki Developer Tools]
*[http://www.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/|Official Google Maps API]
*[http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Google-Maps-API|Google Maps API News Group on Google Groups]
*[http://mapki.com]
*[http://www.flickr.com/services/api/|Flickr API]
*[http://www.flickr.com/services/api/key.gne|Flickr API Key Application]
Page History
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25 Nov 2008 (20:19 UTC)
bug fix updates
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