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Map Scripting 101: An Example-Driven Guide to Building Interactive Maps with Bing, Yahoo!, and Google Maps
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| List Price: | $34.95 |
| Price: | $23.07 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details |
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Average customer review:
(12 customer reviews)
Product Description
Websites like MapQuest and Google Maps have transformed the way we think about maps. But these services do more than offer driving directions—they provide APIs that web developers can use to build highly customized map-based applications.
In Map Scripting 101, author Adam DuVander delivers 73 immediately useful scripts that will show you how to create interactive maps and mashups. You'll build tools like a local concert tracker, a real-time weather map, a Twitter friend-finder, an annotated map of Central Park, and much more. And because the book is based on the cross-platform Mapstraction JavaScript library, everything you create will be able to use nearly any mapping service, including OpenStreetMap, MapQuest, Google, Yahoo!, and Bing.
You'll also learn how to:
- Create, embed, and manipulate basic maps by setting zoom levels and map boundaries
- Show, hide, and filter location markers and info-bubbles
- Customize your maps for visitors based on their location
- Use common data formats like GPS XML, Google Earth's KML, and GeoRSS
- Create graphical overlays on maps to better analyze data and trends
- Use freely available geodata from websites like Yelp and Upcoming—and public domain geodata from the US government
Map Scripting 101 is perfect for any web developer getting started with map scripting, whether you want to track earthquakes around the world, or just mark the best coffee shops in Dubuque.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #85314 in Books
- Published on: 2010-08-22
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: .92" h x 7.06" w x 9.34" l, 1.59 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 376 pages
Features
- ISBN13: 9781593272715
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Adam DuVander writes about geolocation, web development, and APIs for Programmable Web and WebMonkey, Wired.com's web developer resource. He has presented his work at SXSW and O'Reilly's Where 2.0 conference. He lives at 45° 33' 25" N, 122° 31' 55" W (otherwise known as Portland, Oregon).
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
Helpful to understand general concept...flawed code
By Seus
I've gone over different aspects of this book a few times now, and was really looking forward to it showing a few things with ease, that I was looking to complete for a site I'm working on. Needless to say, I'm rather disappointed with the code issues within the book. I've compared the code in the book itself to the code on both the books website and the code on the Mapstraction website, and it varies much from both. So much so that it doesn't even work correctly...I believe that it's partially due to the lack of clarity on the Mapstraction website. The book does excel in describing techniques used for map scripting without a reliance on any one particular service, but after the issues described above, I feel that sticking to one service (such as google maps) would make your life a lot easier.
Pros
- Good read for basic concepts
- Easy to read and understand
Cons
- Flawed code and examples
- Book site code doesn't always match books code
(site code appears to be outdated! How this is possible I don't know)
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Timely, practical and fun
By Charlie Loyd
This book couldn't have come at a better time: everything to do with mapping and location awareness is just hitting the mainstream, from NASA cartography to geotagged tweets. If you want practical tools for putting this enormous flood of data to use on the web, this is by far the best starting point, and an excellent reference guide to boot.
Honestly, when I first opened it, I wasn't that interested. I'm a web guy with a chronic interest in mapping, and I figured anything with "101" in the title was beneath me. But after a few chapters to bring beginners up to speed, it was introducing stuff I'd never thought of, and by the end there are ideas that you could easily turn into the basis for a major site. That's pretty amazing for a book that assumes no previous knowledge of the topic.
(In fact, now that I think about it, if someone told me they didn't know where to get started with web development, I would point them to this book among others. The practical projects would make it much more rewarding than the usual "now let's turn the
It's also just plain fun to read. DuVander's writing style is warm and engaging without talking down to the reader, and most of the example projects are interesting in themselves, even if you're only using them as exercises.
If you want to work with maps on the web, this is easily the best all-around resource.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Painless, nay, *enjoyable* guide to building online maps
By Jon C. McNeill
I know enough about the web to not call it the "Internets," but beyond that I know next to nothing about programming, coding, Java... the list goes on. I began reading this book after struggling to set up my first website and I think that DuVander has done something that I didn't know was possible: he's created an approachable guide to creating complex online maps for readers of any experience level--even me.
The hardest thing for someone like me to do was crack open the book. Once I had, the author captured me with his conversational style. He's written Map Scripting 101 almost like a workbook: you learn through doing something small, then adding a bit more to it, and a bit more... and before long, you have mastered something surprising in its complexity. And maybe most surprising at all: none of it was the least bit painful.
Recommended.
