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01.02.2008 at 01:48PM PST, ID: 23054308

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8.2

Omit InfoWindow in embedded Google Map

Zone: Search Engines

Tags: Google Maps

I am embedding a Google Map on an html page using an iframe as copied from "Link to this page" on the desired Google Map. The map on my page opens with the InfoWindow bubble obscuring a significant part of the map. How can I cause it to open without the InfoWindow?

Using "Link to this page"/"Customize and preview embedded map", I can set the map size and zoom I want, and those specifications are reflected in the parameters of the resulting URL. Closing the InfoWindow does not seem to be reflected in any parameter. The best parameter list I can find is <http://mapki.com/wiki/Google_Map_Parameters>, which may be out of date (I can't get the InfoWindow Display (iwd) parameter to work).

I don't believe using the Google Map API is an option for me as its Terms of Use require updates to the API to be tracked, and I will be turning over the designed Web site to my customer upon its completion. They would not be happy if it stopped working after six months.

Thanks.

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Question Stats

Zone: Web Development

Question Asked By: DCraft99

Solution Provided By: rweil

Participating Experts: 1

Solution Grade: A

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01.02.2008 at 02:39PM PST, ID: 20568887

rweil:

an ugly way around it is to create a temporary KML file with the desired zoom, size, and markers. Then feed the KML file to maps.google.

01.02.2008 at 04:21PM PST, ID: 20569470

DCraft99:

That type solution should work fine for me--the map(s) are basically fixed at the time of site design. KML is new to me. Kinda neat.

I'm having trouble referencing the KML file from the embedded iframe. Here's what I've tried, and where I'm stuck (numbers in square brackets reference code snippets below):
- view map I want at Google Maps;
- "Link to this page"/"Customize and preview embedded map" to refine iframe params and centering, and get HTML [1];
- plug the iframe src param into a browser address bar, fixing ampersands and changing "output=embed" to "output=kml" [2];
- save the resulting kml file [3] to a Web server;

Now, how do I reference the KML file from the iframe (for embedding)? I tried using src="q=<theKMLFileURL>" [4], and I get not only the map but the Google UI outside the map (search text area, etc.) stuffed into my iframe. I tried adding back in the "embed" specification, imagining that would suppress all but the map, src="q=<theKMLFileURL>&source=embed" [5] and get the "Google Error Forbidden" message. Tried several other permutations, but to no avail.

I notice the <styleURL> in the KML. Perhaps I need to adapt that?

Thanks!

                       
         
           
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             [1] From Google Maps "Link to this page":
 
<iframe width="270" height="170" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;time=&amp;date=&amp;ttype=&amp;q=1600+Amphitheatre+Parkway,+94043&amp;sll=37.388891,-122.075212&amp;sspn=0.011781,0.010321&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;om=1&amp;s=AARTsJp_83qfLjgMbgZ7nNcJmn8mr0FA9Q&amp;ll=37.423685,-122.081022&amp;spn=0.011588,0.023174&amp;z=14&amp;output=embed"></iframe>
<br />
<small><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;time=&amp;date=&amp;ttype=&amp;q=1600+Amphitheatre+Parkway,+94043&amp;sll=37.388891,-122.075212&amp;sspn=0.011781,0.010321&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;om=1&amp;ll=37.423685,-122.081022&amp;spn=0.011588,0.023174&amp;z=14&amp;source=embed" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map</a></small>
 
[2] Doctored URL to get KML:
 
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=1600+Amphitheatre+Parkway,+94043&sll=37.388891,-122.075212&sspn=0.011781,0.010321&ie=UTF8&om=1&s=AARTsJp_83qfLjgMbgZ7nNcJmn8mr0FA9Q&ll=37.423685,-122.081022&spn=0.011588,0.023174&z=14&output=kml
 
[3] Resulting KML:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<kml xmlns="http://earth.google.com/kml/2.0">
    <Placemark>
        <name>1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043</name>
        <address>1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043</address>
        <styleUrl>root://styleMaps#default+nicon=0x304+hicon=0x314</styleUrl>
        <Point>
            <coordinates>-122.081785,37.423127,0</coordinates>
        </Point>
        <LookAt>
            <longitude>-122.081022</longitude>
            <latitude>37.423685</latitude>
            <range>1621.619141</range>
        </LookAt>
    </Placemark>
</kml>
 
[4] referencing HTML:
 
<iframe width="270" height="170" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http:.../maps.kml"></iframe>
 
[5] referencing HTML with "embed":
 
<iframe width="270" height="170" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http:.../maps.kml&output=embed"></iframe>
           
         

Open in New Window

01.02.2008 at 07:13PM PST, ID: 20570065

rweil:

I suspect the <style> has to do with the style of the individual points, polylines, etc.

See http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/kml_tags_beta1.html#style

I also suspect that to get what you want, you will have to go with the google maps API. If you keep it simple I would guess that it will work for a long time.

Accepted Solution

01.13.2008 at 05:29PM PST, ID: 20650143

DCraft99:

I've ended up using the API. I think you (rweil) are correct that, with simple usage, I will diminish the probability of being hit with an incompatible update to the API, so the solution will continue to work.

I ran into problems with locations mapping to different map positions via the API compared to the main GoogleMaps. This is not the commonly-encountered geocoder (f(streetAddr)=latitude,longitude) issue. The locations for a particular latitude and longitude actually show up several hundred yards apart in the Tele Atlas data (which GoogleMaps uses for embedding and API access) compared to the NAVTEQ data (which they use at the main GoogleMaps). I will specify the latitude and longitude differently as required by each system (yech; problematic as they improve their mapping).

I've summarized my findings and solutions at http://SeizeTruth.com/Tech/GoogleMaps.

Thanks, rweil!

--Dan

rweil

01.14.2008 at 02:19AM PST, ID: 20652042

>> The locations for a particular latitude and longitude actually show up several hundred yards apart in GoogleMaps API access and GoogleMaps).

Is this true for all addresses?

If you are feeding it the address it is probably caused by someone moving the marker. See http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=68474&query=move+marker&topic=&type=#modify

If you are feeding it the address it might be caused by different base data/algorithms for translating house number to distance along a street.

I wonder if that is caused by each system using different datum? For an example of the difference see: http://www.adaweb.net/devserv/survey/verifica/thirteen.htm - doubt it, but compare the amount of shift caused by datum change. See lower corner of USGS topgraphic quad for the area.

I wonder if it is caused by different registration of the mapping to the aerial photography? I have noticed that streets that used to be missed aligned with the aerial photography are better aligned.

Not only that, but as they update their mapping the picture under the lat/log might change.

DCraft99

01.14.2008 at 10:35AM PST, ID: 20655296

>> The locations for a particular latitude and longitude actually show up several hundred yards apart in GoogleMaps API access and GoogleMaps).
>
> Is this true for all addresses?
>
> If you are feeding it the address it is probably caused by someone moving the marker.

I am specifying latitude and longitude, so it's neither the geocoding (mapping from address to lat/long) nor someone moving an address marker. I really am trying to avoid as many possibly-error-inducing components as I can!

I suspect it's a registration issue, but also wonder about precision. How precise is lat/long given by hours to six decimal places? I can't imagine them choosing a standard too imprecise for the intended use, but do notice many of the differences in the thirteen.htm you reference are several decimal places down in the seconds. Anyway, that's curiosity.

Practically, mapping of lat/long differing by several hundred yards on the two systems puts my customer's site half way down the next block, which is not acceptable. I will manually enter the correction for my customer's address so it's correct at Google Maps (when looked up by address), but that won't affect the embedded map marker location (which is specified by lat/long).

> Not only that, but as they update their mapping the picture under the lat/log might change.

What I meant by "yech; problematic as they improve their mapping" is that any compensation I make for the discrepency will backfire as their lat/long locating improves. If there are registration problems, they're going to have this issue anyway (with all the address locations people have "corrected") as they improve registration, though they could update algorithmically their database of corrections to reflect the new locating with each improvement.

Sigh. I am so far past the three hours I had allocated for this task :-).

rweil

01.14.2008 at 11:12AM PST, ID: 20655635

Apparently a known bug, I mean feature :-) Google says

Why does the API Geocoder provide different locations than Google Maps?

The API geocoder and Google Maps geocoder rely on two different data sources. This is because the API tiles use a different data source than the main Google Maps, and we wanted to make sure the points returned from the geocoder would match up with the tiles displayed. The API geocoder occasionally gets updated with new data, so you can expect to see results changing or improving over time.
See http://code.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=60738

I think what that means is that you need to Geocode (determine lat/long) in the same system (API or Maps) that you plan to use for display. i.e. you can not use maps.Google.com to determine lat/long to be used in the API,

Sigh

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