As promised last week, I'm continuing the discussion about Google Mapping in FileMaker.  As enticing as the title of this post is, I'm not discussing the origins on Google Maps (try the Google blog) but rather the origins of my use of it within FileMaker (that explains the asterisk in the title).

It wasn't like I'm the only one who's ever had this idea.  Heck, the FileMaker Web Viewer has a built-in calculation defined for Google Maps. Anybody ever use this:

"http://local.google.com/maps?" & "q=" & /*Address=*/ "" & "," & /*City=*/ "" & "," & /*State=*/ "" & "," & /*Zip Code=*/ "" & "," & /*Country=*/ ""

Show of hands?

Now, Google keeps changing the design of their site, but within a 640x480 Web Viewer at the time I'm writing this, the result looks like this:

I don't want to go as far as to say it's unusable, but imagine this embedded in your application.  How much room can you really give it (even a whole 640x480)? If the Web Viewer is any smaller, the results can't be any better.

Here it is embedded in the Sample Contacts file from our popular fmSpark product (can you even see the map tucked in down there?):

That's where I began.  I was looking for a better implementation of a single-point map within FileMaker. It was a simple reaction to the deficiencies of the default calculation.

To solve this problem and to take control of the map, I decided to turn to the Google Maps API.  This is a JavaScript-based API for the generation of maps. With it, you can literally draw smiley faces on your map if you'd like (with great power comes great responsibility). Step One would be to sign up for a Google Maps API Key. Step Two...is to follow this blog for a continuation of the details...

See you next time.

Continued: Basics of the Web Viewer