Can you tell exactly what a request is? - google-maps

What are the actions that can be described as requests when the map in my website is used by a visitor? For example: if the user is zooming in or out, is this a request on the map?
Thank you

As the documentation states:
A single map load is charged when any of the following occur:
A web page or application displays a map using the Google Maps JavaScript API.
After a web page or application loads a map, a static map image, or a Street View panorama, any user interactions with it, such as panning, zooming, or switching map layers, do not generate additional map loads or affect usage limits.

Related

Save Image of Google map to be loaded offline

I am using Google maps in an Ionic application (which connects to NodeJS/Express) for ipad.
In the app, I am displaying markers for the addresses provided by the user. My use case is such that users need to view the google map with markers when they are offline. These are primarily field users who do not have access to internet when on the field.
The approach I was thinking was to have users launch the google maps with markers set, in the ionic app (when they are connected to the internet) and provide a save button. Once they click on the save button, we somehow save an image/screenshot of the maps view on the device.
When the user opens the map while offline we load this image instead.
What would be the best way to save the image of the map shown in a Ionic app? Is there another approach which I should be looking at?
Thanks.
option 1: I think here you can use Google Static Maps api which returns image files you can call this api when user clicks on save button (obviously when you have internet connection), and cache the image locally. Just go through the Google Static Maps api
option 2: I don't prefer this but worst case if nothing works for you just take a screen shot of the user's screen and save that image. Here is the cordova plugin to take screenshots cordova-screenshot
Happy coding :)

Google Map static vs Dynamic business and buildings view

I have a problem when i try to display a static map that display all elements
for example:
http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?&zoom=18&size=640x640&markers=color:red|40.7191413,%20-73.9973273
In it i can't view any business and buildings.
If i display same map with same zoom in google maps or in any other application that dsplay dynamic map
i can view them.
For example:
https://www.google.it/maps/place/40%C2%B043%2709.1%22N+73%C2%B059%2751.0%22W/#40.7191413,-73.9973273,18z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0
I have read this faq:
https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/business/faq#no_pois
and tryng to apply it in this mode:
http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?&zoom=18&size=640x640&markers=color:red|40.7191413,%20-73.9973273&style=feature:poi.business|element:all|visibility:on
but don't work
I's a limit of Static Map o what?
The Static Map API typically shows fewer points of interest compared to Google Maps or the Maps JavaScript API. This is working as intended, so unfortunately you can't do anything to get more POIs to show up.
You can consider using the Google Maps Embed API which might better meet your needs.

Best way to combine offline map (e.g. Open Street Maps) with Google Maps for iOS?

We have implemented Google Maps in an app for tourists but we want to provide seamless offline maps. We can generate these from the OSM data and we can even display these on the Google Maps with a negative zIndex which means they generally only show when the online map tiles are not available. However there are some issues with this approach:
1/ After going offline, for a while, Google Maps shows a very poor version of it's map (i.e. if you zoom in it is very blurry).
2/ As user moves around the map, sometimes the cached tiles (poor quality usually) show up and disappear.
3/ We can't control the zoom level when offline and so sometimes our map tiles won't be shown if the user zooms too much.
Ideally we'd like to be able to know if google maps can't load a tile so we could display our own. Is this possible? Or can we fix the above issues?

How to make website with google map available offline

I have created a webpage http://babysoftblog.co.cc/shahma/kmz/map_sexten.html in html5 with offline cache.its showing google map using a kmz file.the page is working fine online..but its not showing google map when page is o[en offline.
Am i doing any mistake?
Google Maps can't be used offline like that. Google Maps is much more than just the initial Lib, for example images, location data etc. If your website doesn't require all the navigation feature, I recommend check out Static Map API.
Initially you include the static map, which is just image file that can be cached offline, then check for connectivity status and load the dynamic map later (aka Progressive Enhancement).

JavaME LWUIT: is there appropriate map lib?

I am developing JavaME LWUIT application which needs to display some data on map.
And I'd like to use Google Maps for this.
I thought about the requirements to the maps and their user interface. They are
listed below:
Pannable map. It should be possible to scroll the map using the touch interface or navigation arrow buttions which are displayed on the map.
Zoomable map. At the best, there should be appropriate +/- buttons displayed on the map.
Search location by address and move to it (menu command).
Remember the last visited location.
Marker for the current location.
Markers with customable icon and text which is displayed when select the marker (click on it or select somehow).
I spent some time searching for appropriate Map Library for JavaME/LWUIT.
I expected to find a free library and map service (ha-ha).
See my results below:
MIDMaps library. URL: http://www.jappit.com/blog/midmaps-google-maps-java-me-library/
That library uses the Google Static Map Service. Not bad... but it needs a lot further improvements...
I found the follwoing issues with that library:
Markers: impossible to customize marker's icon and text. Displaying the marker's text on click/selection is not supported.
Map Panning: no UI controls for this (arrow buttons). Doing panning with menu commands is not a user-friendly.
Map Zooming: no UI controls for this (+/- buttons). Not so important...
License: not permitted to use in a mobile app if not a Google Premier User. Not a problem...
Nokia Maps API for JavaME. URL: http://www.developer.nokia.com/Develop/Maps/Maps_API_for_Java_ME/
Did not try. But looks like that lib fulfills all my requirements.
I am not sure about the following things:
Quality of the maps.
How much does it cost? I mean the cost of using the map service.
Nutiteq lib which uses OpenStreetMap service. URL: http://www.nutiteq.com/map-api
Not free the lib, but the map service.
Guidebee Map API. URL: http://www.guidebee.biz/
It's not free.
Now it's a time for me to ask questions. What should I do? Are there any advices?
Maybe I missed some possibilities or lib/services?
Thank you for your help!
See the Makeover demo in SVN (I updated it to use Google maps instead of Yahoo maps API which was killed off). The GoogleService API should be available in the SVN history it was (deleted because of licensing nonsense) within the IO services directory and it includes local search etc.
Terrence has a a demo that includes allot of interesting features including a browseable map.
You can also look at Waze although I haven't checked it myself, I saw people using open street map and AFAIK there is an open source mapping application based on that (although the license might not be appropriate for you but it might still be useful as a learning aid).
After some additional investigations I decided to use Nokia Maps. And now I have a working application which displays interactive map with my data markers on it and also my current location.
I chose Nokia Maps API because it provided real dynamic maps (panning, zooming, tiling) and fulfilled all my requirements, except "Remember the last visited location" (can be implemented on my own).
I met the following problems:
Using the maps from LWUIT, not from an ordinary MIDP application. I used the approach shown here Nutiteq SDK with LWUIT and also implemented my own MapWidget class for LWUIT.
Displaying additional info on marker click. There is no support for this in the lib. I had to implement it on my own. Details are here JavaME Nokia Maps API: how to display additional info on marker click
Additional info related to the choosing proper map library can be found here Discussion on Nokia Forum