Beginning Google Maps API 3

I've sometimes hesitated to buy Apress books because they can cost a little more at times, but I have never regretted the purchase when I did. This book is no exception.This is by nature a difficult book to write given the wide range of skills amongst likely readers - from the wide-eyed novice new to Javascript let alone mapping, to a map-API wizard just wanting to upgrade to the new 3.0 standard. Svennerberg did a great job of serving the full range of his audience. For the experienced Google mappers he offers chapter 2 which is basically how to convert to the new commands and how to manage the changes in timing, etc. Good stuff. For the rest of us, he offers one of the best intros to Javascript I've ever read and a novice could probably wing it based on that. The progression of thought is generally well planned and it serves well as a reference afterward.Some of the book's success comes from the author's ability to organize things in topics that come up as you progress in your abilities. The basic map stuff first, for example, vs. a later chapter on ways to manage maps with a gazillion points at once. Hundred of points turns out to be a common problem once you get excited about what you can do and start applying it. Unless you're willing to learn actionscript and go to Mapquest it can be a real problem. Svennenberg's memory management tips alone were worth the price of the book.There are a few minor typos in the writing, but nothing significant and the code seems to work well. The author mentions his editor beta-testing chapter 5 and I believe it: The book reads like someone actually thought through whether or not it communicates and whether people can track the logical progression. The one serious error in the book is the assertion that G-maps 3 is free and the developer ID is not required anymore. That did not turn out to be the case in the final roll-out of the 3.0 product. You can find examples of how to insert a developer ID on the book's website or the online documentation for the Google mapping API. Once you do that, the code examples will run.If you're halfway clever and you haven't done online maps before it might take you two weeks or so to get something worthwhile up and rolling. Along the way you'll break down and install a browser like Chrome or Firefox to help with debugging. It will be a little longer before you're fully satisfied. From there you'll pobably keep tweeking and may spend another 2 to 8 months learning Javascript, CSS and HTML in other books to really tune up the things you produce. That's assuming you've also got `real' work to do during that period. If you're experienced with other mapping APIs you'll get something working with a day or two of digging through the book, and a day and a half of tinkering. Another week of finetuning and you'll be sending things out to colleagues. During these early uses you'll appreciate the author's simple simple, juicy tidbits about timing, formats and Javascript. There is a great section on how to handle hundreds of points and I was able to fold in data via externally provided JSON data, based on the author's clear writing on the javascript and JSON...... Good stuff.FOLLOW-UP NOTE: If online mapping is a new skillset for you, you may not be focused on which book to buy, but which platform to invest your time in. Google Maps are great but they do bog down to unworkable if you try to plot more than 1000 points. If you are wanting to use online maps for analytic purposes involving lots of points, you'll need to use a system that harnesses Adobe's Flash. Flash uses local resources to plot the points and thus can handle a hundred thousand points quite quickly. Google Maps no longer talks to Adobe's Flash, Yahoo quit the mapping business so you'd want to use Mapquest which has a good Flash interface. Learning a mapping language (API) is not nearly as time consuming as learning a full blown programming language like C++ or SAS, so deciding you need to learn a different mapping API won't ruin your year, but you may want to consider your end uses before diving in.

I'm sometimes tasked with creating web mapping applications for my job, so I'm constantly visiting the Google Maps API group for help with any problems, or just to search for interesting web mashups posted by others. Last year, I somehow followed link after link after link and found myself looking at Gabriel Svennerberg's blog. After reading several entries pertaining to the Google Maps API, I bookmarked his blog because I knew I would refer to it in the future - everything he wrote was not only useful but easy to understand. When he announced he was writing a Google Maps v3 book, I was excited - an entire book written in the style of the blog posts that I found so valuable! The only problem was that the blog posts slowed to a trickle, as Gabriel was spending most of his time writing for the book.It's been over a year since Gabriel announced he was writing the book, but it's finally here and I can easily say it's been worth the wait. I don't come from programming background - I kind of fell into the Google Maps API while studying Geography - so it's been a constant struggle for me to find accessible Google Maps API resources that not only cover the capabilities of the API, but also explain the JavaScript concepts behind them in a way that I can understand. Gabriel's writing style is very easy to read and understand and the examples found in each chapter are immediately useful for all sorts of applications. It almost seems like this book was written specifically for me.This was a great read, and it's a book that I'm sure I'll consult many, many times. I've bought a ton of programming books that have been an absolute chore to read, and those books usually end up on my bookshelf unread. This book is going to stay right next to me on my desk. Hopefully this book sells well enough that Gabriel decides to keep writing.

January 9th, 2013...I decided I wanted to learn the Google Maps API. I've been a software developer for 30+ years, so I appreciate the fast start on learning a new tool by buying a book(s) on the subject.I bought a book on the Google Maps V2 API. A good book, but I soon realized that the V3 API was quite different, so about 30% into that book, I put it down and I bought the book being reviewed here.The first 9 chapters of the book were great, all the examples worked and the explanation of the code was excellent.Then we get to chapter 10 were it kind of all comes together and at least for me, I couldn't get the examples to work and the supplied source code bears nothing to what is in the book.It felt a little like the author took a break after writing chapter 9 and then came back an wrote chapter 10 as quickly as possible just to finish the book.That's why I gave it a 3 instead of a 5.

This book is OK but doesn't give up enough to build a complete solution. This book will help you build your maps basic user interface. The issue of managing data to place on the map is not addressed beyond hard-coding the data in the html.I would have preferred a more holistic approach.

This was the most useful of three books I bought about Google Maps API, and the only one to be up-to-date with version 3. (This saves a lot of time "translating", as there are a lot of differences between the two.) It's well organized and easy to follow, taking you step by step from displaying a simple map, to adding markers, to geocoding and beyond. It addressed all the main topics I needed to create a solid application. It's clearly and conversationally written, but the proofreading could have been better - there are semi-frequent minor errors in the text. Overall, if you're starting out with Google Maps API or need a refresher, I would highly recommend it. And for those who have been using version 2, there's also a helpful chapter on the major changes and how you need to update your code.