Wasn't it jgordon who wrote: > >Ok I got to the bottom of what they are doing but it will not be easy >to replicate. They are dynamically generating transparent tiles with >the markers in the correct positions and then overlaying those tiles >onto the map. This is easy on the browser as it is one object to drag >around as opposed to several hundred individual ones. Then they must >be using an image map to manage the click events to decide which >marker has been clicked, etc. I have not found any API documentation >that references this technique at all. I assume due to the overhead >of server side image processing this is something they may not want >everyone using their servers for. Additionally it now requires server >processing and can not be done 100% on the client and therefore adding >another layer of complexity.
It's a type of GLayer() but not one supported by the API GLayer() code. I suspect it might be a GLocalContents() layer. The code for GLocalContents was present in the API between v2.133 and v2.152, but was always switched off by the loader token _mF[159]. The GLayer servers create the tile images dynamically, and as well as the tile images, they also return a list of bounding boxes for the hotspots. The client code doesn't seem to create an image map from the hotspot info, perhaps it directly compares the mouse position with the hotspot boxes. I imagine that it would be possible to write code that did such hotspot detection that would be significantly more efficient than using hundreds of image maps, by using a quadtree. You could steal the imagery from Google, if the legality and lack of futureproofness of such action doesn't bother you, and create your own GTileLayerOverlay with tiles that have URLs like this: http://mlt3.google.com/mapslt?lyrs=lmq:hotels&x=2013&y=1318&z=12&w=256&h= 256 But obtaining the list of hotspots from the server and implementing them is going to be extremely tricky. -- http://econym.org.uk/gmap The Blackpool Community Church Javascript Team --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Maps API" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Maps-API?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
