Question

I’m creating a Google Earth tour and I’d really like to be able to make this interactive so users can choose where they go.

I was thinking I could create each “scene” as a separate tour each ending with a decision (most likely through a placemark with a balloon containing a question and links for each possible answer).

However I’m having difficulties finding a way to load the next tour like this. Each tour will be available in a KMZ format and I’m open to if the new tour should be loaded from within the existing tour or from an external eventListener in the Google Earth API.

Any help or pointers would be gratefully received.

Dave

Answer 1

I presume you have already worked out how to play a tour using the plugin.If not, check this link

then you need to open a balloon at the end of each tour, which is two steps. Determine when the tour is ended, and then open a balloon which has a button or buttons to choose next tour.

To determine if the tour has ended use this function

    function checkTour() {
      // checks to see if it can read the time of the tour
      // if it can it completes rest of function
     try {
            var duration = ge.getTourPlayer().getDuration();
            var cTime = ge.getTourPlayer().getCurrentTime();
     } catch (e) {
            alert('error');
            return false;
     }  

     if (duration == cTime) {
            // tour is over
            tourOverSoOpenBalloonFunction();
     } else {
            // wait 1 second and check again
            setTimeout('checkTour()',1000);
     }

}

then use this example page of creating a balloon with a button in it that executes some javascript to load the next tour

essentially you would be changing this line

       balloon.setContentString(
    '<a href="#" onclick="alert(\'Running some JavaScript!\');">Alert!</a>');

to

     balloon.setContentString(
    '<a href="#" onclick="loadTour('tour1');">Tour 1</a><br/><a href="#" onclick="loadTour('tour2');">Tour 2</a>');

I might have missed something, but this should get you going in the right direction