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

[JohnGBSA]

Originally Posted by tamborinegal

I am having this same problem but it only started happening recently.

If I use firefox (and other browsers) it works fine. If I'm a guest using IE, it works fine, BUT if I'm logged in as a member using IE, then the markers are there but it just centers on the map when clicked, I don't get the information popping up. Any idea why this would be happening Stonyarc?

I just love this hack and so do my members but unfortunately now the majority of them are no longer able to use it

Clancy

Strage that I have the exact oposite problem. It works perfectly in IE 6 but not in Firefox.... Strange. If anyone has an idea please let me know.

Also, at present I am just testing on a link to vBGooglemaps.php instead of embedding it into the navbar. Could someone tell me exactly where in the navbar I should put the code?

Thanks,

John

[Gizmo999]

A lot of my users are having problems with this, the pin doesn't locate to the location they set. rather than spend hours doing browser tech support on it I'd rather alter the location myself, I've found the markers.xml file but changing that doesn't update the pin so it looks like I must also alter the googlemap table in my database??

is anyone using this method to correct misplaced pins?? if so are there any problems doing it??

[ronoxQ]

ERROR: CAnnot open XML File

I posted this up a while ago, but nobody gave any ideas. Not even a "no clue" reply.

Can ANYBODY help me? Or is this doomed to fail for my site, for some unexplainable reason?

[Gizmo999]

I've been trying to work out why my users keep screwing up their pins, reading the instructions it seems there is one small error

Welcome to the Member Map page. This feature is in beta development. To insert your entry just click on your entry and center the new map on your location. The latitude and longitude will change automatically. Don't forget to enter your user name to accompany your marker. For security we do not advise entering your exact location. Once entered clicking your entry will load an update page. If your marker doesn't show directly, just close your browser and restart it or clear your browser cache.

I think the correct way is to centre the location first, zooming to do so, then click "your entry" so it inputs the lat and long from the centre of the screen.

I'd suggest altering the default googlemap_intro phrase and adding the FAQ I posted earlier. Mine now reads

Welcome to the Member Map page. This feature is in beta development. To insert your entry centre the map on your location by clicking and zooming to it then just click on the "your entry" button. The latitude and longitude will change automatically. Don't forget to enter your user name to accompany your marker. For security we do not advise entering your exact location. If your marker doesn't show directly, just close your browser and restart it or clear your browser cache. <a href="http://www.mysite.com/forum/faq.php?faq=vb_board_usage#faq_add_member_map" target="_blank">More Details </a>. If you need to edit the pin, click and zoom to the location so it is in the centre of the screen, then click "your entry" again, close and restart browser.

[MythoLogy]

Thx so much for this and the support thus far! *clicks install

[JohnGBSA]

It is still not working in Firefox for me. I can not see any of the markers at all, but if I go into IE, they are all there.

Any ideas?

[toytaco99]

Originally Posted by JohnGBSA

It is still not working in Firefox for me. I can not see any of the markers at all, but if I go into IE, they are all there.

Any ideas?

I just noticed that one of the forums I frequent (newbeetle.org) already has a good Google maps thing up and running on vb 3.5. Aparently, it's something they custom programmed. Anybody think it would make sense to ask them about how they did it, or ask if they are willing to share with the community? Just an idea. Here's their implementation:

http://www.newbeetle.org/apps/member-map/

They make it look so effortless, IMHO.

[JohnGBSA]

Brilliant site!

Lets nag them for their code!

[toytaco99]

Originally Posted by JohnGBSA

Brilliant site!

Lets nag them for their code!

Here's his (the site owner) response when asked about sharing their info:

Obviously, we're using Google maps API for the map display. The trickest part of that is that Google doesn't provide a geocoder to convert addresses to latitude/longitude, so we had to build our own. We were able to find data for this from the census bureau. We found two very text large files -- one for the US and one for everywhere else. The US one has zip codes and lat/long and the international one just have names of cities and lat/long. So, we imported those into MySQL and turned them into databases. Then, we wrote a script to compare the user address info aganist the geocoding databases and write the results to an XML file. we run that on a cron job every 30 minutes so that the XML file is updated with new users and address changes.

From there, it's pretty simple. Google maps API is prepared to take in an XML file, so it's pretty much straight from their example javascript on their site.

And that's about it.

He says the geocode databases are somewhere around 400MB. Woweee!

(I don't want to hi-jack this plug-in's thread, so should we start a new thread on this?)

[JohnGBSA]

Call me a n00b (which I am when it comes to PHP and MySQL), but that seems like an awful lot of work!

A good idea, but geesh!