jGoogleBarV3

For some time, I've been working to port a large project that I did utilizing the Google Maps API v2 to the new version 3. This work has been slowed by learning curve, scheduling, and the fact that I decided from the start that, rather than simply port the existing code I would re-engineer the application from the ground up in an effort to improve its performance and learn some new tricks (e.g., GMaps v3, Closure Compiler).

As I worked, though, I soon realized that I would eventually run into a couple of roadblocks to completing my project. The first of these was that the application incorporated the Google AJAX Search API to allow users to search the map for cities, neighborhoods, etc.

Now, to be clear here, the Search API will work with GMaps v3. The Maps dev team has cooked up a few examples to demonstrate this. But it will not integrate as tightly with v3 as it did with GMaps v2. Namely, you cannot hand a v3 map as an argument to a LocalSearch object without causing some interesting fireworks in the error console.

This is an unfortunate thing because the LocalSearch object (in my opinion) did a better job of finding relevant results when paired with a GMap than in any other mode (e.g., using a "near..." or GLatLng center). And I absolutely wanted that capacity in my application.

So I ran into problem 1: I needed a LocalSearch object which would integrate with my GMap v3 application.

But once I stumbled across that realization, I also knew something else. One of my favorite little toys from the AJAX Search API dev team is called the Local Search Control (LSC). GMaps aficionados will know it by its alias, the GoogleBar. In my humble opinion, a map that you can search for cities, businesses, etc., may be the most obvious and universally useful application of the GMaps APIs there is. But without a solution to problem 1, there could be no LSC.

Well, I guess you could make one if you really wanted. But it just wouldn't be the same. So I ran into problem 2: No Local Search Control (aka GoogleBar) in GMaps v3.

So, since (a) I needed a solution to problem 1 for my project at hand, (b) a solution for problem 2 wouldn't be all that much more work, and (c) I have a hard time resisting Ben Lisbakken when he's batting his eyes at me (okay, not that hard a time), I thought I would sit down and come up with something that would benefit the whole GMaps ecosystem.

The result is an open source project on Google Code, which you can check out at http://code.google.com/p/gmaps-api-v3-googlebar.

Since this is my soapbox (aka blog) and I can say anything I want here, I will point out three things about this project.

First, it was not my intention to duplicate every aspect of the LSC. The original LSC was a brilliant piece of coding which included multitudes of options, etc. It was my intention merely to duplicate its essential functionality and what I thought were likely its most-used options.

Second, I wanted to make it more consistent with the GMaps v3 syntax model, which is (I believe) cleaner and more efficient than v2 ever was. Therefore, there is no need for 53 lines of code (okay, that's an exaggeration) to initialize and set up the options for this control. You can initialize it and specify all the options you'll ever need in one line of code.

And third, I am not an ads fan. Furthermore, since I'm not on Ben Lisbakken's list of Facebook friends, I'm not allowed access to the API that Google used to implement AdSense support in the original LSC. In other words, my GoogleBar has no AdSense. Before you stone me or something equally extreme, please know that I am not particularly opposed to implementing this support in the future. It's just that I built this thing to allow webdevs like me to build searchable maps. Not revenue streams. So it won't be all that high on my priority list to work this out.

So, my version of the LSC has been tested successfully in current versions of FF, Chrome, Safari, Opera, and (much to my own chagrin) MSIE 7 and 8. My own aversion to MSIE means that it has had the least testing of all platforms. And I have no intention of testing it in MSIE 6. So if you fire that dinosaur up, you're on your own.

As always, thoughts, comments, issues, suggestions, and contributions are more than welcome. Otherwise, until next time!