Geolocation: Better to just go with Googlemaps?

[Seanlail]

Hi all,

I'm working on a map locator for a client at the moment.

It's basically a world map and wherever the users clicks, it would zoom in and show the cities around it.

The client specifically said he did not want the Google maps look as the "full on" maps with roads, etc is too much overkill for what he wants.

Just needs the continents showing and the borders of each country.
Then when the cities load in, just a "dot" or icon to show it (with some text)

I've got the data of all the countries (with their ISO, Longitude and Latitude) but am finding now after I've researched more that it's not as easy as just saying "mouse is at X, Y... so Longtitude/Latitude would be XX, YY".

I've only played around a little bit with the new Google Maps API in Flex recently so I'm not sure of how much you can customise the UI.

So, here's my question:

Can I use Google Maps and have my own flash vector map of the world over the usual bitmap map and then just have the cities / border graphics above that?

That was a bit of a long winded post but I'm sure you have all the info about my problem now.



Cheers



Sean

[Fidodo]

I know I've seen overlays on google maps, but that was actually using google maps and loading an image over it. I would think you could customize it to not show roads and labels though.

[Seanlail]

Hi Fidido, thanks for the reply.

Yeah, I would not need the roads to be shown, but would need the city names / labels.

The most important thing is to be able to placer vector graphics between the road / labels layers and the actual map graphics below.

[Pier25]

Google just released the flash google maps api, check it out. Instead of using javascript, google maps goes straight into your flash.

http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/flash/

I have never used it, but I'm pretty sure you must be able to create your own vector layers over their maps.

[Stratification]

You might want to look at Yahoo's maps too. Not sure if they'd fit exactly, but they've been supporting Flash/ActionScript much longer.

[Fidodo]

I think he's already using that.

So I'm not familiar with the api but skimming through it
http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/flash/reference.html
You want to use the overlay package.

[Pier25]

I think he's already using that.

So I'm not familiar with the api but skimming through it
http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/flash/reference.html
You want to use the overlay package.

You're right...

Sometimes I read too fast :)

[Seanlail]

Yeah, definitely using the flash API.
It's new, so I guess everyone's still learning it anyway.

Cheers, Fidodo. Yes, the overlay is what I'm looking in to at the moment.

I looked at the examples they have and these 2 are on the right track:

http://gmaps-samples-flash.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/examples/GroundOverlaySimple.html

http://gmaps-samples-flash.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/examples/CustomMapCampus.html

I'm just trying to figure out if I can load a large world map as a vector in my Flex app instead of having it load in tiles of bitmap data.

I posted a message on the Google Maps Flash API group, so hopefully I will get some responses as well. Will update here if I find out anything more.

[Seanlail]

Stratification, thanks.
I forgot about the Yahoo one.
True, it has been out for a while, I'll look in to using that as well.

[Fidodo]

Well doing a vector object should be just as easy as a bitmap. The GroundOverlay class takes a DisplayObject parameter for contents so you can give it any DisplayObject, including vector images just fine.