Subscribe to Google Maps EZ

Email:

Browse Archives at groups.google.com

To ask a question about this site or browse ongoing discussions, see the discussion group, or use the box form to the right to get news about GMapEZ delivered as email. RSS and Atom feeds are another good way to stay on top of the discussion. .

Discussion Group

The news below is made up of official announcements, new features, and notification of site updates, but is less traffic than the discussion group. Also available as an RSS feed.

Tue, 28 Oct 2008GMapEZ 2.5 fixes recent breakage

Google made changes to their API in the last day or so that caused GMapEZ maps to quit working, leaving just a logo where the map should be.

GMapEZ 2.5 fixes these problems. It also disables the mouse scroll wheel zoom feature by default -- you can turn that feature back on by including the word ScrollWheelZoom in your map div's class attribute.

If you're hosting the JavaScript yourself (which is recommended), just grab the new JavaScript file, put it on your server, and update your pages to point to gmapez-2.5.js.

Sun, 26 Aug 2007Hosting issues

For a few months this summer, my hosting company was charging me quite a bit extra every month for bandwidth overages. Due to series of poor decisions on my part, this problem didn't get fixed very quickly and resulted in an unexpected bill of hundreds of dollars, a precipitous shutdown of bluweb.com, and therefore the breakage of some sites that use GMapEZ.

The site has now been moved to n01se.net/gmapez, where it shall remain for the foreseeable future.

If you're using any online GMapEZ script, you'll need to change your <script> line to start with http://n01se.net/gmapez/ like this. If you're using your own copy of the JavaScript, you'll need download a new copy or change the imgBase to http://n01se.net/gmapez/.

Fortunately, the generous donations of GMapEZ users and ad revenue from the site have now completely covered the unexpected bill, and even provided a little more for some of my other hobbies.

Thanks to everyone for your patience, understanding, and support. The transition to n01se.net has not been perfectly smooth, so I really appreciate everyone's magnanimity. I want to again thank people who have donated money or helped out answering questions in the discussion group. It's good to see GMapEZ users depending on each other.

Wed, 14 Mar 2007GMapEZ 2.4 is the new default.

In celebration of Pi Day, I'm releasing GMapEZ version 2.4. This is now the default version for "gmapez-2.js".

Pages that haven't been updated since version 1 of GMapEZ have been broken since Google stopped supporting version 1 of their API. However as of this version, these older pages should be working again.

Otherwise, this version just has a couple minor features and some bug fixes. For more details, see the GMapEZ 2.4 release notes. Thanks to everyone for your continued use and support of GMapEZ, especially to those who have donated money or contributed helpful answers or code snippets in the discussion group.

Sun, 18 Jun 2006GMapEZ 2.2 is the new default.

Starting now, pages that use "gmapez-2.js" will use GMapEZ version 2.2. That version has been available for a while, but it is now the default.

Tue, 30 May 2006Tabbed info windows, bug fixes, and more...

GMapEZ 2.2 is now available. It has a few new features and several bug fixes. You can try out this new version by changing your <script> tag to use gmapez-2.2.js. Please report any problems or weaknesses in the documentation that you find.

If you're using gmapez-2.js in your <script> tag, your page will continue to use the older version 2.0 for now. If I hear no major complaints, this new version will become the default for gmapez-2.js in a week or two.

Thu, 25 May 2006Progress bar while loading.

A new version is available, but it is not yet the default. If you're using gmapez-2.js in your <script> tag, your page will continue to use version 2.0 for now.

Try out this new version by changing your <script> tag to use gmapez-2.1.js, and let me know if you like it. If I hear no major complaints, this new version will become the default for gmapez-2.js in a week or two.

The tutorial pages are using this new version already, if you'd like to see how it looks.

Fri, 19 May 2006GMapEZ 2.0 released

GMapEZ 2.0 has been released. It's identical to 2.0 beta 4, but now there's updated documentation and the site's been redesigned.

This is now the recommended version of GMapEZ. If you're still using any older GMapEZ, you should switch to this version. It only requires changing a couple lines.

Thu, 11 May 2006GMapEZ 2 beta 4

This version requires yet a different way to specify the Google API key, as well as various bug fixes. For details, see this discussion topic.

Wed, 3 May 2006GMapEZ 2 beta 3

Use "gmapez-2b3.js?key=<your key here>" to try out this latest version. Clicking on a map should now close any open infoWindow on that map (just like version 1 GMapEZ maps did). Also, this version uses the GUnload function automatically to help prevent memory leaks in the browser (especially IE).

This version uses the same script tag format as gmapez-2b2.js. If the explanation in the previous post didn't make sense, see if this helps. As always, report problems in the discussion group.

Sun, 30 Apr 2006One less script tag.

Version 2 beta 2 of GMapEZ is now available. To use it, update your gmapez script tag to "gmapez-2b2.js?key=foo" where "foo" is your Google API key. Then you must delete the maps.google.com script tags.

I expect to release this as version 2 in the next few days. If you're currently using GMapEZ, please try out this new version and if you have any problems (or success you'd like to report), please put a note in the discussion group.

Sat, 29 Apr 2006Version 2 support.

There is a new version of GMapEZ that uses Google Maps API version 2. To use it, you will need to change both script lines in your HTML file: in the maps.google.com line, replace v=1 with v=2, and in the gmapez line, replace gmapez.js with gmapez-2b1.js.

There are a few more changes I need to make before this is ready for everyone to use, but all current GMapEZ pages should work if you'd like to try it out. If you have any pages that behave incorrectly after make the 2 changes named above, report the bug in the discussion group.

The examples on this site are using this new version, although the documentation hasn't yet been updated to reflect the changes. For now, the old version remains unchanged, but depending on how and when Google turns off support for version 1 of their API, you may see problems in the near future. I hope to have a stable new version of GMapEZ before that happens.

Sun, 18 Dec 2005Fixed again.

Thanks to everyone who responded so rapidly to the previous update. It had a bug that broke all maps that had a correct Google API Key, in both IE and Firefox and probably others as well. Unfortunately I had done all my testing without a valid key, so I missed the bug. Thanks again to all of you who caught it. Let me know if it's still broken in any browser you have access to.

Sat, 17 Dec 2005Better behavior on older browsers.

Browsers that support JavaScript but not Google Maps should now show a friendly message on pages that use GMapEZ. Before this change, older browsers would break in various unhappy ways. Please help me test this feature in all the various unusual browsers out there. Report any problems to the discussion group.

Sat, 12 Nov 2005New Gallery entries.

I've added several sites to the Gallery, including Denver Coffee Spots and a PHP system for mapping data from XML files.

Thu, 10 Nov 2005Website redesign.

The site has been redesigned. The how-to is now split up into several pages so that each loads faster. An RSS feed is now available so it will be easier for you to stay up to date on new features. Also there is now a Google Group so that the community of EZ users can help each other out more easily. I'll be monitoring the group discussion to help answer questions and to announce new features.

This site has always included links to sites that are using Google Maps EZ, but now I'll be featuring a new one of these on the front page periodically. So welcome to the new site -- I hope you like it.

Mon, 24 Oct 2005Speed increase for large number of markers.

Fixed a bug that was dramatically slowing down maps with a large number of markers. There should be some speed improvement for any map with more than one marker, though the benefit will be most pronounced when you have many. One of my test maps with 100 markers used to take almost 12 seconds to load, but with this fix now loads in under 2 seconds. You should see this improvement without making any changes to your HTML, although of course the actual speed increase you see will depend on your particular map data.

Thu, 6 Oct 2005Fixed IE polylines and preload messiness.

Apparently I broke the GMapEZ's automatic CSS a while ago. This has been preventing the new line drawing support from working in IE for most sites. It has also been causing the textual contents of your maps to be displayed prior to the map fully loading. I believe I have now fixed these problems. Let me know if you see any issues with this.

Thu, 29 Sep 2005Added line drawing support.

Several people have asked if it's possible to draw lines on the map (a.k.a. Polyline support). Now it is. Sorry that docs page is getting rather large and slow; I'll have to find a sensible way to split it up in the near future.

Mon, 26 Sep 2005New "warnings" button.

Some of the most common mistakes that you can make in the HTML syntax are now detected by GMapEZ. When this happens, you will see a button labeled "Warnings" appear in the bottom-right corner of your map. Click this button to see a description of the detected mistakes.

Mon, 19 Sep 2005Added new Katrina relief site.

The "gallery" now has a link to new ShelterFinder and PeopleFinder sites for Katrina victims.

Fri, 16 Sep 2005More icon symbols and colors.

You may now choose from well over two thousand different icons for your map markers. Now instead of the letters A through J, you may choose any capital or lowercase letter, or any of a few symbols. And instead of 5 colors you may now choose from among 9. See the "how to" for details.

Thanks to Jay Smith (gladwyne.com) for suggesting this feature and for his generous donation. If you have a feature request of your own, a gift would be appreciated.

Wed, 14 Sep 2005More sites use Google Maps EZ

I've added more sites to thegallery. Keep them coming, they look great.

Tue, 6 Sep 2005New post-Katrina imagery of New Orleans.

Google added new satellite imagery of New Orleans. GMapEZ supported this automatically, but now you can have your map use this mode by default by adding G_KATRINA_TYPE to your class attribute instead of one of the other Map Types. Here is Google's Katrina imagery announcement.

Mon, 22 Aug 2005Added colored marker icons.

A variety of colored marker icons are now available.

Also added another example site.

Wed, 17 Aug 2005More documentation updates.

Added even more FAQ entries, some more examples of GMapEZ in use, and even a couple minor updates to the how to.

Also added a work-around to this Google Maps bug.

Tue, 9 Aug 2005Added page of links to other sites.

Some people who are using Google Maps EZ have sent me links to their sites. Some of these look really good, so I've added a page: Sites that Use Google Maps EZ.

Added some more FAQ entries.

Sun, 7 Aug 2005Added "Changing the Map Type".

Before now the only way to change the map type to satellite or hybrid was to specify an extent. Now there's a much easier way.

Also added some new FAQ entries.

Sat, 6 Aug 2005Added "links" feature.

You can now have a menu or other links on a page that open info windows for specific markers. An example is at the bottom of the how-to.

Thu, 4 Aug 2005Reorganized web site

Created a faster-loading front page and a new FAQ.

Sat, 30 Jul 2005Added Auto-open Info Windows

In response to a user request, the auto-open feature was added.

Fri, 29 Jul 2005Initial release of EZ

Initial version of Google Maps EZ is released and announced on the Google Maps API Group.