Google Mapping Gizmo.

axoboy · Post by **axoboy** » Mon May 22, 2006 12:08 pm

Hello,

as a newbie, I was having a hard time finding the beach to kite at. so I found this site that "builds" Google maps w/ markers.
http://donkeymagic.co.uk/googlemap/

Thought I would try my hand at it and let you guys check it out...

http://pixelsushi.com/wbl.html

Let me know what you think, I can add more lakes, more areas. Could this be the start of something cool?

_axo

BTW, anyone kiting the Bear tuesday afternoon? and where?

Tighe · Post by **Tighe** » Mon May 22, 2006 12:41 pm

very cool.

I would love to integrate it into the Lakes Section of this site. Interested in working together on it?

Eric P · Post by **Eric P** » Mon May 22, 2006 1:15 pm

This is what Toby did on kitebeaches.com, works great. It would be really cool if the same thing was avalible on LAKAWA. Now I know where you guys are always talking about on WBL.

axoboy · Post by **axoboy** » Mon May 22, 2006 2:16 pm

I would love to Help the site out! I was thinking about 'mashing-up' the wind chart as an overlay to the map also. I know it's possible, but it would take some research on my end... Let me know...

Tighe · Post by **Tighe** » Mon May 22, 2006 8:35 pm

Before we revamp the current Lakes section of Lakawa, I'd like to collect some input on what the current system doesn't provide and what people would like. Quite frankly the majority of the maps were made over 10 years ago so it definitely is time for an upgrade.

What info would you like on the lakes?

Way back when I used to have a Site finder, that would ask a series of questions and give you sites that worked for the wind direction and how much time you had. Maybe we should develop another system like that and include kite or windsurf and skill level.

any input would be appreciated.
thanks

Tom L · Post by **Tom L** » Mon May 22, 2006 9:41 pm

Tighe,

When you decide what to put on it I think Google map might be the way to go. You can really pack a lot of info on a page. The clickable links on the right side can provide info about each launch. I did this one last winter for kiting on Tonka.

http://www.loweprofile.com/misc/tonkamap1.html

I used this site: http://www.mapbuilder.net/

Hunter Welles · Post by **Hunter Welles** » Mon May 22, 2006 9:58 pm

An idea for setting up the maps page, and though this would require more work, is setting up both a winter and summer section. Like Tom just posted, there are a lot of different winter launches vs summer launches, and it may be easier for people to choose winter or summer before getting to the lakes page, so they dont end up going to a winter launch during the summer.

Also the descriptions that are there are awesome, very helpful, and if it up with a map also like the google/map builder one so people could get internet directions printed there. That way, the directionally challenged(and those who just got there license and dont know any roads) could find their way pretty easily.

Tom L · Post by **Tom L** » Mon May 22, 2006 10:05 pm

Good ideas Hunter. Winter & summer maps might be nice. I think with map builder you can open them to the public and people can add to to them if you want. That could be good....or it could be bad....

axoboy · Post by **axoboy** » Mon May 22, 2006 10:42 pm

I like that mapbuilder, very cool! You cool even add more info, if you wanted to dive into it. add icons for summer and winter, photos, lots of info is packed into the API. Not that i know anything about it, but I have run across a few sites.

my help is here if you want it...

Tighe · Post by **Tighe** » Tue May 23, 2006 7:50 am

slick job Tom. Tonka is done. Mind if we use your page for Tonka?

Hunter good points. I could switch the maps when I switch the home page. We could have the descriptions change as well.

I like being able to add other content to the launch info. I'm not sure if I'm comfortable letting it be open for anyone to add content though. Snowkiting.com has done that. You get a lot of repetitive info and since there is no consistent format it isn't as clear.

cool stuff

Tom L · Post by **Tom L** » Tue May 23, 2006 8:18 am

Tighe wrote:slick job Tom. Tonka is done. Mind if we use your page for Tonka?

No problem Tighe. Once you get into it I could email you the source code and you could paste in your API key and run it off your server, also. The API key is domain specific.

With the Google maps you have to obtain a "Google Maps API key" which is free. You then paste this key into the map builder code in a specified area, before you upload to your server. This is the one hassle with map builder. You have to keep pasting in that key everytime you update the map code. Once you get your map done you shouldn't have to do it to often though. Map builder is a pretty cool app, the possibilities are endless.

With map builder you could just use one big map for the whole state, since you can zoom into any one lake. Then maybe provide a link for map submissions which could be emailed to you, and you could have control over the content.

ONE TIP: Using WXP and FrontPage, I had to upload my map page to the server to preview, it would not preview locally. Mac might be different.

One great thing about the Google maps is you can switch to satellite view and see quite a bit of useful info. You can see the milfoil, and you can actually tell if it's shallow on the local lakes. Mille Lacs is shot at lower res so you can't see the bottom there, unfortunately. Cool stuff.

Tom L · Post by **Tom L** » Tue May 23, 2006 8:19 am

Tighe,

You have to fix that quote thing. The PHP forum should have the answer to that glitch.

Paul F · Post by **Paul F** » Tue May 23, 2006 11:02 am

You might want implement a state map with lakes and click to zoom to a lake like this site:

http://thewindmap.com/