2011/12/03

Google Maps plugin with lines and areas

Version 3.1 of GoogleMaps plugin

Finally after all a very long wait I can say that the Google Maps plugin for CKEditor is ready, it includes all the previous features and uses the latests versions of both CKEditor (3.6.2) and Google Maps (3.7)

As I explained in previous posts the main missing feature was the ability to create and edit lines (paths) and areas and recently Google added this missing API. So after founding a little free time I've included these features as well as checking and testing everything fixing some little problems along the way. (One such problem is that previously I think that CKEditor managed to automatically resize the dialogs to fit their contents, but now they are shown beyond the dialog boundaries. Some people have reported such problems when they try to add a lot of images to the Smileys dialog).

A summary of features

The plugin allows to insert a Google Maps into your pages easily without any previous knowledge.

It's possible to use any size for the map, while you're in editing mode a static preview of the map is shown (if the size is bigger than 640x640 px the image is scaled because that's the maximum size for static maps)

A preview/edit dialog is used to move the map as desired as well as setting the zoom level or various features like map types or available controls.

A search field is available to find the location that you want.

It's possible to add several overlays on the map like markers, text, lines and areas. It's also possible to use a KML or KMZ file to add complex sets of features after creating it with Google Earth for example.

The plugin can generate either static images, normal javascript maps or static images with the option to turn them into normal javascript maps. (the static image doesn't support the same set of features than the full map: texts and Kmls won't be shown)

How to get it?

Please, use the main page of the Google Maps plugin for CKEditor.

Deprecation of old browsers or bad pages

I would like to use this message to announce that from now on this plugin as well as any other that I develop won't support pages in Quirks modes and versions 6 and 7 of Internet Explorer.

This means that I won't test any plugin in those cases, and if someone reports a problem with such situations then the output might be that I add a check so that the plugin refuses to load instead of spending several hours to find a workaround for such problems.

Of course, the visitor of the page will be able to view the map correctly with any browser (until Google decides to pull the plug for those browsers), but when the admin is trying to edit the content he should use a modern browser and your administration should use a Standards rendering mode.

Edit 6-december-2012:

A summary of new features since 3.1(like compatibility with CKEditor 4) can be found in this post.

6 comments:

Eco Adventure Travel Guide said...

Where is the download link? I just purchased and can't locate the link. Thanks.

Alfonso said...

Sorry for not making this clearer, but there's nothing automatic here. I just added the paypal button to help a little but on my side I still get the mails and send back the current version of the plugin when someone makes a payment.

So please, be patient and wait a little after your payment. In a few hours you should get it back in your inbox with full instructions included about how to use it.

I guess that most of you would prefer that I spend the time improving this or other plugins instead of finding out how to automate the sending of the plugin :-)

Unknown said...

Is there a place that I can try is plugin before paying for it? Thanks

Alfonso said...

Sorry, not at the moment. I have to finish first a bunch of other tasks before publishing a demo for this plugin.

In this case (as oposed to other plugins that are just features of CKEditor) I'm afraid that people might think that the demo is a place to generate their own maps as other people uses the ckeditor.com/demo to clean HTML from Word or other strange things.

Alfonso said...

Here's a first demo of the plugin, I have to verify that all the new changes are working fine and I'll publish a new Post about the latest features.

Unknown said...

I purchased the plugin yesterday. This morning I had several emails from Alfonso with attempts to send the plugin. While he received bounce backs of all the emails he sent, I did receive the emails and the plugin. He also refunded the purchase because he thought he could not get me the plugin.I of course re purchased it since I had received it. I had seen negative comments concerning communication and just wanted to let others know he does respond and you will get your plugin!!!