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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-30T17:29:19+00:00

I’m interested in adding a Google Maps feature to a program I’m writing. I

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I’m interested in adding a Google Maps feature to a program I’m writing. I would start with a historic GPS log file containing a record of my changing GPS location and date/time – for example as I drive along the road. Later on I would like to feed this log file into a windows program which would display the GPS position as a marker in the center of a Google Map that is displayed in a window on screen. The Google Map would be automatically scrolled horizontally or vertically in historic “real time” as the GPS position changed so that the marker always stays in the center of the map.

Below is a YouTube video of an existing program which already does exactly what I want, so it must be possible (it’s the pane in the bottom right of the video frame)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=r4rwMV7hhaY#at=840

Effectively the user would be playing-back their recorded movements in real-time from days or months ago. It would not be for tracking current movements.

I don’t know much about the Google API yet, but I think that the Google maps would have to be running in a desktop program, and not on a web site.

Are there any pre-built modules which already do this (perhaps just feeding it a list of coordinates and times)?

If not, what API would I need to use to reproduce the map behavior shown in the video?

Also are there any licensing issues with doing this in a desktop program which would only be seen by 1 user rather than on a publicly available web site?

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  1. Editorial Team

    I have used the Google Maps API for creating an embedded GPS window like the one you referenced in your link, but basically it was embedding a browser window and linking it up to Google Maps. You can manage the data yourself and pump it over to the browser. This can be done locally.

    You’ll need to do a few things.

    1. Define the map scripts (with an html/Javascript file). These scripts will allow you to update the location you are displaying on the map which you will hook into code side to control.

    2. In your GUI define a browser object and set it to navigate to the html file you’ve made and then use the document portion of that object to invoke scripts.

    You should be able to control the GPS location once you’ve done that. The Google Maps API is referenced in your html file. That html file is key, it will need to have all the functions you want to use to update the GPS location and display it on the map.

    As per pre-built modules an/or licensing I do not know.

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