VBGooglemap Member Edition

I'm proud to announce that the new version is currently available to you all !!!


You can now nominate hacks yourself for hacks of the month. There is a link on the right of hacks on top of the files.



Function
This will display the members of the Bulletin Board based on their lattitude and longitude coordinates on a googlemap.

Don't forget to hit install !!!!!!!
Please read the guide before asking for support !!!!!!!

Feel free to support this mod and make a paypal donation to admin@stonyarc.com

INSTALL

HOTSPOT EDITION AVAILABLE ON : https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=114149
Detailed installation instructions and screenshots in the included pdf file.

Current Features



NOTE:
VBGooglemap 3.0.0 contains the vulnerability fix. Please upgrade immediately. Version 3.0.0. also contains all features from 2.5.X

As always you use modifications at your own risk.

VBGooglemap Member Edition 2.5.1 brings you a lot of new features. It?s vital that you uninstall any previous version before upgrading/installing version 2.5.1.

Upgrading from version 2.5.0 is easier. Instruction are available in the guide.

As the uninstall function will not remove your googlemap data in the database but only the templates and files you can safely remove an older version. As a precaution you should always take a backup. This should be done on each major change you make to your bulletin board.

IF YOU ARE RUNNING VERSION 1.0.3, 2.0.X AND YOU CHANGED TEXT DIRECTLY IN THE TEMPLATES YOU NEED TO SAVE YOUR CHANGES AS VERSION 2.5.0 REQUIRES YOU TO UINSTALL PREVIOUS VERSIONS.

This has taken quite some work and still will take a lot more. Please give credit where credit is due. You cannot remove any notice without prior written permission.

Changes in this version

SEE FIRST POST FOR FULL ROADMAP AND HISTORY

Planned Features
- TBD

Volume warning

high volume of users may slow down the load. Currently a load counter is included.

Languages

Thanks to Wachtmeister there is a German translation available to you all. Feel free to use it.

The translation will be updated on each new version.

Special

- Read the attached PDF for more information. The pdf is also included in the zip file.
- You'll need a googlemap key for your domain. Get your own key for your domain view http://www.google.com/apis/maps/signup.html for more information.
A googlemap key is only valid for a specific domain. You'll need a specific google account to create one.
All is explained on the googlemap link indicated above.
- Set the file permissions on the marker.xml file to 777
- The googlemap script can handle non-registered users. They will only see the main map and won't be able to enter information. This is reserved for logged in users (detected automatically)
- usergroup permissions are available in the backend
- To change location just drag the map while holding the left mouse key or by using the zoom and key functions on the left
- First time loading of the map may take a few seconds longer because of Google API hosting


Special Xbox Live version
http://www.xboxlivenation.com/community/gamermap.php

Credits

This has taken quite some work and still will take a lot more. Please give credit where credit is due. You cannot remove any notice without prior written permission. Instructions are included in the pdf file (vbgooglemap2.5.0_guide.pdf)
Special credits to Google, Pyg for the javascript tips.


FAQ

The FAQ is included in the pdf file.

INSTALL



Feel free to support this mod and make a paypal donation to admin@stonyarc.com



(c) 2007 Stonyarc

[StarBuG]

Originally Posted by Rabbitoh Warren

No worries. Where do I look to make the changes... templates or...?

It is in the templates. I would edit the xml file and reimport it

[LincolnForums]

This site will give exact cordinates. dont know if it was mentioned in here anywhere or not

http://www.maporama.com/share/

[stonyarc]

Originally Posted by LincolnForums

This site will give exact cordinates. dont know if it was mentioned in here anywhere or not

http://www.maporama.com/share/

maporama was not mentioned here but other simular sites.

Problem is I cannot bother everyone with a huge more geocode database on every install.

To give you an example only to service Belgium the data is about 798 Mb. So as long as nobody has a spare Oracle DB server or something this is just not feasible.

If we have a webservice fine, I could also leach on google servers and parse an address string from them but that is illegal.

So can I solved, yes. by creating a commercial one where you buy a webservice license for geocoding. But not just of the top of my hat, voodoo magic. The coding itself is "relatively" simple.

zipcodes alone won't do the trick because all your users in the same region will have the same marker. In maporama terms you need a PointAddress Web Service (Convert a physical address into latitude/longitude coordinates). I'm looking for a good free one but haven't found a good one yet. Moreover this causes privacy issues and coppa problems. So you have to be really careful when creating such a map.

[GrendelKhan{TSU]

Originally Posted by stonyarc

I can go as far as going on address but this is in direct violation of privacy law (certainly in Europe).

FYI, this is not illegal in the US depending on how its implemented, certainly not if its volunteered info. (I mean, you can already mark you HOUSE with this so........ )

zip+4 is as far as its allowed from a marketing perspective (eg: direct mail).

zip codes would be a great addition, but yah...globally implemented you'd need partners for infrasturcture (and I'm in korea, so I'd love it but don't expect you to be able to cover db info here... ironically though..I HAVE ACCESS TO THIS!!--being in a related job field---in fact...maybe we should talk. heh. webservices etc etc. I could maybe get you start with this data in Korea...its VERY VERY advanced here for this stuff (more so than in the states actually. just a thought)

in anycase, the business implications of this kind of program could be HUGE btw. I'm alllll for seeing this go as far as it could.

keep up the great work.

(and don't forget whatever you do...please keep it fully phrased!! I'd much appreciated THAT )

[GrendelKhan{TSU]

sorry..I know I'm getting WWAAAAY ahead here but.... you know what would absolutely RULE and be fun!!??!!

if you could do a smugmug maps type thing... (http://maps.smugmug.com) and have it work with vbaGallery (or attachment pics). that would .....well....... kick soooooo much arse and create a very "sticky" site.

just a thought.

[Yorixz]

First of all; great hack.

Secondly; after I installed the hack worked for like 10 minutes but after that everything disappeared; you can't see a single pin on the map anymore and you can't add new either (well, it says you can add and it was successfull and such but it doesn't show up). Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

[stonyarc]

Originally Posted by Yorixz

First of all; great hack.

Secondly; after I installed the hack worked for like 10 minutes but after that everything disappeared; you can't see a single pin on the map anymore and you can't add new either (well, it says you can add and it was successfull and such but it doesn't show up). Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

Yorixz,

Please post a link so I can check the XML file. It's probably a bad character in someone's textfile.

That is for all of you. If you want me to check please include a link.

[Yorixz]

Originally Posted by stonyarc

Yorixz,

Please post a link so I can check the XML file. It's probably a bad character in someone's textfile.

That is for all of you. If you want me to check please include a link.

I've opened it myself and it looks like it doesn't handle <'s and "s real good; maybe make it so they're replaced by their HTML-code?

[stonyarc]

Originally Posted by Yorixz

http://otfans.net/markers.xml

I've opened it myself and it looks like it doesn't handle <'s and "s real good; maybe make it so they're replaced by their HTML-code?

Hello,

It's the jinto line that is causing the problem "<" character.

I'll fix this in the next version.

For now just go to phpmyadmin / your vbulletin database / googlemap table and just remove the < character from the line of Jinto

or ask the user to edit his entry.
Don't forget to restart your browser after the edit to see if it worked.
It should be fine after that.

/edit

The version now online should fix it on first entry

[Yorixz]

Thanks a lot, I'll upgrade.