Google Maps (for a time named Google Local) is a free web mapping service application and technology provided by Google that powers many map-based services including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder and embedded maps on third-party websites via the Google Maps API. It offers street maps, a route planner, and an urban business locator for numerous countries around the world.

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I welcome everyone to download this plugin and use it for free. However, I also encourage you to donate $10.00 to help support future development.

Requirements

MovableType 3 or greater is required to use this plugin.

Before using the plugin you must sign up for a Google Map API key. A single Maps API key is valid for a single “directory” on your web server, so if you sign up for the URL http://www.mygooglemapssite.com/mysite, the key you get will be good for all URLs in the http://www.mygooglemapssite.com/mysite/ directory.

Browser Compatibility

Google Maps is not compatible with every web browser. Google Maps currently supports recent versions of Firefox/Mozilla, IE 5.5+, Safari 1.2+, and sort of supports Opera. IE 5.0 is not supported.

MTGoogleMaps currently supports the following browsers

Installation

Open your FTP program and navigate to the directory where you have Movable Type installed. Upload the folder “MTGoogleMaps” to your plugins directory. If there is not a directory called plugins, create one inside your MT directory.

Configuration

First you will need to configure the system level settings. By default the plugin allows you to use a different API key for each of your blogs. You can disable this feature by unchecking the option “Permit blog owners to use their own API Keys”.

If you allow each blog to have it's own API key, these can be configured at the blog level plugin settings. If the adminstrator has disabled this feature, the plugin will not show in the plugin's list at blog level.

Using MTGoogleMaps

You must always provide either an address or set of coordinates (longitude, lattitude) or gps argument for this tag. Info is optional, but if you do not specify a width, height and zoom the plugin will default to width = 500px, height = 500px and zoom = 15. For example:

<MTGoogleMaps address="548 4th Street, San Francisco, CA 94107" info="About this address" width="500px" height="500px" zoom="15">

<MTGoogleMaps coordinates="37.778940, -122.397144" info="About this address" width="500px" height="500px" zoom="15">

The plugin can take gps degrees, minutes, seconds format and convert it to a decimal longitue lattitude format.

<MTGoogleMaps gps="33:31:12.90:130:32:10.57" info="About this address" width="500px" height="500px" zoom="15">

It is also possible to use any of the MTEntry tags to enter the address and information window data, as shown in the example below.

<MTGoogleMaps address="[MTEntryExcerpt]" info="[MTEntryMore]">

Geocoding

This plugin is able to convert US, Canadian and Japanese addresses into lattitude and longitude coordinates. The default is set to convert US addresses.

To display Canadian addresses, add country="CA" or country="ca" to the tag. As shown below (This is not required when using coordinates).

<MTGoogleMaps address="An address in Canada" info="About this address" width="500px" height="500px" zoom="15" country="CA">

Please note that for Canadian addresses a comma should be placed after each part of the address, for example "59, King Street North, Waterloo, Ontario".

To display Japanese addresses, add country="JP" or country="jp" to the tag. As shown below (This is not required when using coordinates).

<MTGoogleMaps address="An address in Japan" info="About this address" width="500px" height="500px" zoom="15" country="JP">

I've had limited sucess with geoding addresses in Japan, please email me if you have problems. Thanks.

Map Types

You can now also choose what type of map to display; map, hybrid or satellite. All you need to do is add either maptype="hybrid" or maptype="satellite" to the <MTGoogleMaps> tag, and if want the standard map, just omit the maptype= from the tag.

By default the overview map (the small map found in the bottom right corner on the Google Maps page) is enabled, it can disabled by adding the following argument to the MTGoogleMaps tag.

<MTGoogleMaps address="548 4th Street, San Francisco, CA 94107" info="About this address" width="500px" height="500px" zoom="15" overview=“off”>

Traffic

The Google Maps API now allows you to add traffic information to your maps. All you need to do to add traffic information to your map is to add traffic="on" to your <MTGoogleMaps> tag.

<MTGoogleMaps address="548 4th Street, San Francisco, CA 94107" info="About this address" width="500px" height="500px" zoom="15" overview="on" traffic="on">

Email us for support

Common Issues

Maps do not show in posts. This is normally the result of adding the <MTGoogleMaps> tags into an entry. This is possible so long as you have the Process Tags plugin installed.

Want to Help?

If you are a developer, with experience in Perl and Movable Type plugins, you can help out with the development of MTGoogleMaps.

If you are interested,

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how you can help.

Featured

MTGoogleMaps was featured in the April 2006 edition of the Japanese magazine Web Designing.