Google Maps: Power Tools for Maximizing the API

I have purchased six previous books on Google Maps in order to learn how to design either a web interface to display my own annotated maps or hopefully a separate application to do plotting on a map. All of that was in vain because the previous books focused on the simple use of Google Maps or on putting markers on a map. They were highly disappointing to me.Finally, a definitive guide to using, programming, and interactive drawing has arrived with this book!Chapter:1. Introduction to mapping presentations and Google's choices.2. Designing web pages with embedded maps, event handling, and markers. Most books stop here in their introductions.3. Javascript programming. A very competent introduction to using Javascript and HTML to display maps.4. Advanced Javascript programming. Here the deeper details of getting Javascript to work interactively and in depth.5. This is where it begins, the Google API laid out for your use. Make Google Maps jump up and do your bidding.6. Embedding maps in desktop Apps. Here is the "Holy Grail" of mapping operations. This is where you get to own the treasure and get Google to run at the heart of your very own design. It's about time. Imagine being able to get the map you want to display, mark it up with path traces, geodesic traces, and compare multiple route lengths and travel time using your own database. Well, its all right here.7. Markers: Using them intelligently and inventing a few of your own.8. Features: Drawing paths and shapes on your map.9. Interactive Drawing: How to control placement of vertices and drawing shapes on your map with a mouse.10.Geodesic Calculations: Getting serious with map measurements. Defining path metrics and exercising the Geometry Library.11. The KML data format: Saving the results for later viewing and comparisons. Generating KML files, the globally recognized file type for holding geographical data. This format has also been used for maps of the moon and Mars. How else are you going to compare the layout of Cydonia on Mars with Mexico's Teotihuacan and Egypt's land of Re?12. Adding GIS Features to Mapping Applications: Building the full featured mapping application. A galary of useful items including comparing distances from files and making correct database querys for map items.13. Spacial Databases and SQL Queries: You're going to need this if you want to any serious geodesic mapping requests on the web. The sum of map information out there would fill up several terabytes of drives. It's much better to ask for what you need when you need it. You will find that PostGreSQL and SQL server have the best datatypes for spacial data management.14. Marker Clustering: Just one lesson here, don't overload your maps with markers.15. Web Services: Or how and where to get special data for your maps.16. Map Annotation: How and where to place map labels. Useful for general map recognition.17. Geocoding and Direction APIs: If you want to produce travel direction maps, this is the heart of the process.18. Visualizing Large Datasets: Beware, there is where you can get lost in the vastness of amorphous data returns.19. Animating Items on the Map: How to move the markers and make your map come alive.20. Advanced Javascript Animation: Now make the map tell the story in multiple motions. Do you want your airplane paths arc across the world and criss-cross each other as in "Rise of Planet of the Apes" or do you want to plot satellite tracks or show Superman circling the Earth in multiple tracks? Then read this chapter and use the information to make your own movie.If you need to spend any time working with Google Maps and programming your own web site or application buy this book. Everything you might want to do is in here and remember; your time is worth a lot.

This is an excellent book that covers all aspects of the Google Maps API, from basic markers all the way to heatmaps, symbols and animation. It also includes related topics such as KML and SQL Spatial. Most importantly, this book doesn't rehash the documentation; it demonstrates topics with practical applications. Sure the author shows how to place markers on a map, but also explains how to list the same markers in a table alongside the map. Later in the book you will find an application that bypasses the default info windows of Google Maps and displays data about the selected marker on a floating window on top of the map. The chapter on placing lines and polygons on the map goes even further and includes an application that allows users to draw shapes on the map with the mouse. Beginners may prefer a few statements that demonstrate a specific feature, but if you're developing mapping applications ("map-enabled" applications according to the author) you will eventually write code to perform complicated tasks. Context menus is an example that comes to mind, because the author seems to like them. In short, the book delivers what the title promises.The author is experienced in cartography and has packed a lot of information regarding geodesics and the Mercator projection in a single chapter. It's a great chapter that I enjoyed very much (and the basic reason I post this review).

To draw area boundary for a city or zip (like the effect on the redfin) , the boundary coordinates data are required for the polygon. But this book does not discuss where to get those coordinates data. any one has a hint?

I've been interested in GIS but had no idea how much functionality is exposed by the Google Maps API. While reading this book I've been learning everything from embedding maps on my web site, to in-depth topics such as storing and accessing geospatial data. Being a little rusty in Javascript I am also pleased that the author included two chapters devoted to Javascript and even a chapter explaining Javascript-based animation. Best of all are the sample applications, which are not only useful themselves but provide clear insight into exactly how you program using the API, and serve as a model for my own applications. Mr Petroutsos leads me every step of the way, making even the most daunting topics accessible. I highly recommend this book and after this experience I will be looking for other works by Mr. Petroutsos, given his talent with tutorials and reference books like this one.