Question

I’m attempting to create a dynamic map using the latest Google Map API. Everything is going smooth so far. I do have a question of course:

How would I/you go about saving my current map?
Let’s say you build a map with dynamic markers: Since everything is done via JavaScript, I need to get/set those values from a file/database.

I was thinking about outputting the entire google.map.Markers as a JSON and send it to a database as a string, but then if I have around 100 places, I’m not sure how well it would go and I’m worried about efficiency.

Is this the only way to do it and am I thinking properly? Basically your website users are allowed to place a marker on the map, which then are subject to confirmation of course. Once it’s confirmed, that marker must be in the latest “version” of the map, so I must get that info from/into a database/file.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

I’m creating similar application and I implemented it this way:

I have a Marker table which has columns for each attribute that I’m using in markers (e.g. latitude, longitude, name, description, type, etc.) When someone adds a marker I’m just saving the attributes of the marker to the database. Next time I want to show the marker I’m just getting the attributes from database, encode them to JSON and attach to the page. Inside page I have the JS that grabs those attributes and creates the markers inside the map. Pseudocode:

//this is generated dynamically from DB.
var markers = [
                {lat:115416,lng:26411},
                {lat:115416,lng:26411}
              ];

//this is static, just grabs the dynamic bit and puts it on the map:
for (var i = 0; i < markers.length; i++){
   //creates a marker object
   var marker = new Marker({lat:markers[i].lat, lng:markers[i].lng })
   //displays it on the map
   map.addMarker(marker);
}

the benefit of this is that your data in the database is independent from map implementation, e.g. if in the future you decide to move to apple maps and it has different implementation you can just write different JS to handle the data. Also you can query over it, e.g. you can query for places that are close by looking at lat and lang, etc..