README.TXT

Google Maps Component.

Installation:

1. Install via the Joomla component installer

2. Configure the component
(Components, Google_Maps, Configure)

the key item here is the Google API Key which is configured from http://maps.google.com/apis/maps

The key needs to refer to the url root used by your mambo installation:
ie: http://joomla.somesite.com or (joomla configured as a subdomain)
http://www.somesite.com (joomla installed as root)
http://www.somesite.com/joomla (joomla in a subdirectory)

The Title field will appear above the map, the Misc field will appear below it.

3. Sorry, but you need an update to your template that is being used to display this component.

(site, template manager, site templates, select template, edit HTML)

3A: Set The DOCTYPE and style info from the API documentation:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml">

3B: Modify the <body> tag as follows *REMOVE CODE*:

I have added code that no longer requires editing of the body tag. So if you are upgrading from a previous version then you
will need to REMOVE the code below.

4. Create a menu item

On your main menu, add a menu items (Link - URL type):

The Name should be the name of your category (ie Parks, Malls, etc) case is important here.

the Link: index.php?option=com_google_maps

optional tags include [category=], [marker=], [center=], and [open=]

Setting the category or marker by id will only show those points which are in that category or marker.
So having &category=x will only display the markers in the "x" category.
It is now possible to display multiple categories by seperating each category by a comma.
For example category=x,y,z will display the categories x,y,z (note those must be numbers).
Also, the community builder category is set at -3. If you do a combination of category
and marker level filtering then the markers will have to be in BOTH the category and
the marker id range.

Setting the center by id will set the center of the map to the point with the corresponding
id. This will override any center set in the configuration.

Setting open to 0 or 1 (or true or false) will automatically open the info window for the
center point. This is also overrides the configuration.

a full example:

index.php?option=com_google_maps&category=102,103¢er=5&open=1

This will create a map that only maps the points within the 102 and 103
categories, and will center the map on the point with an id of "5" and
the info window will open automatically.

But remember the most basic map and the url you should use for testing is:

index.php?option=com_google_maps

5. If you like: Create a menu item (on the user_menu for logged in users

add a menu item (Link - URL type) off of the user menu (the function will not allow non-logged in users to submit

The Name can be set to what you like ("Submit Park")

The Link: index.php?option=com_google_maps&task=new

6. Display of information in the popup window is formatted via an xsl file (minipage.xsl).

Feel free to format this as you would like (www.w3c.org for information on xslt transformations).
You can edit this file directly from the component configuration. Remember to use well
formed XML and XHTML. This is where you add links and driving directions to the info window.
Go to the component configuration under the XSL tab to edit this file.

7. Polylines.

There is now rudementary support for Polylines. To create a polyline just create a normal marker and follow these steps.

First: Select the Marker Type as "Polyline".

Second: In the Miscellaneous field list the coordinates in order that you want the line to be made up of in
([lat],[lng]) format. If there are 3 or more points the polyline will follow the path of the points
in the order they are listed.
I.E. (40.714167,-74.006389), (34.053659,-118.47926) will draw a line from Los Angeles to New York.

Third: In the Polyline field, put your desired color and pixel width of the line in the following format:
[color],[pixel width]. This is optional and the default values are as follows. I.E. #FF0000, 10 which
gives you a red line with a pixel width of 10.

8. XML File.

The newest component loads an external XML file with the data from the database. This should lower the number
of hits to the database and possibly take some load off of the server. The XML file is updated each time you add
a new marker or polyline to the database or if you edit either type of marker. If you want automatically update the
XML file then set the auto-update number in the configuration to a positive number. The automatic update feature is
a bit erratic so unless you have a CB site that maps online users I suggest not using it. To manually refresh
the XML file go to:

index.php?option=com_google_maps&task=xml

9. Example websites. To see the latest version of this component go to
http://www.atlspecials.com/index.php?option=com_google_maps

10. Sidebar Module

The sidebar module should be used with the lastest version of the component. If you have any problems with the module
please post them to the message board at the Joomla developer site. (forge.joomla.org)

11. Yahoo Local Search Module

The Yahoo Local Search module uses the Yahoo! Local Search API to plot points onto a Google Map. The search module only
works in the United States. The search radius is about the size of the viewable map area.

12. Backing up Data *NEW 2.5*

To backup your data you must save your XML file to your hard drive before unistalling the old component. When you reinstall
the component you'll see a place to upload an XML file to restore your data in the "Advanced" tab of the configuration.
Find the XML file and upload it to the server. The category data may not work correctly if you are uploading an XML
file from one installation of Joomla to another. To get your XML file go to http://www.yoursite.com/components/com_google_maps/google_maps.xml.

13. Custom Icons

Custom Icons for category. To use this feature simply put a number in the description field of the category that
corresponds to the baseicon in the gicons.js file. By default you can use numbers 0-10. To add your own icons just edit
the gicons file appropriately.

14. Component in content/wrapper/iframe

The latest version of the component can now load in an iframe or wrapper so you can put a map on any page you like. The
way to do this is to link to http://www.yoursite.com/index2.php?option=com_google_maps. You can use all the url parameters
availible to the component in that url (category/marker filtering, etc) as well as two other url parameters. [mapWidth=]
and [mapHeight=] will change the width and height of the map dynamically so you can have a different width and height from
the main component page.

15. Common Problems

Your MIME types aren't set correctly for .xsl files. Common symptoms of this are clicking markers and no info window showing.

***** Important Note ********

If you are using this component for commercial uses or as part of an intranet application you should look at the Google Terms of
Service. You may have to apply for a Google Maps Enterprise API key.