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first published week of: 12/21/2015
Google Maps has proved to be a highly successful Google service, incorporating a range of invaluable tools such as Street View, Route Planning and Google Traffic. Many companies and organizations rely on Google Maps to provide their services – and it’s thanks to the Google Maps API that they’re able to do so.
Google introduced the Google Maps API in 2005. This allowed developers to create custom applications with Maps. Google subsequently launched APIs for Android and iOS application development.
As useful as the Maps APIs are, they take a bit of knowhow to utilize. That’s where GMaps.js comes in. GMaps.js is an open-source, MIT-licence JavaScript library. Written by Gustavo Leon, GMaps aims to simplify the original Google Maps JavaScript API. It takes care of the extensive API code and provides appropriate methods to deal with Maps. It’s cleaner, more concise and hence easier to use.
In this article, we’ll look at map components like Markers, Polygons and Overlays. We’ll also discuss Static Maps, and the use of Geolocation and Geocoding to operate on a user’s location. All of this will be in reference to GMaps. It helps you create map applications with easy-to-use methods. I’ve used it to create a sample application (Mapit), which I’ll discuss further at the end of the article. continued…