Annoucing Phoogle Maps

Google Maps APIs are great, but you need to have longitude/latitude data of locations that you want to display. That’s the problem for me and for many others. Well in order to fix that I created what I call Phoogle Maps. Phoogle (pronounced like foogle) Maps is a PHP class that uses the nusoap libraries [...]

Google Maps APIs are great, but you need to have longitude/latitude data of locations that you want to display. That’s the problem for me and for many others. Well in order to fix that I created what I call Phoogle Maps.

Phoogle (pronounced like foogle) Maps is a PHP class that uses the nusoap libraries to connect to the geocoder.us service to create an array that can be passed to the Google Maps API. What does this mean? It’s a PHP script that can map whatever address you pass it. The address can be from a database or hardcoded.

update Nov 21: VERSION 2.0 RELEASED. VISIT www.systemsevendesigns.com/phoogle/ FOR ALL THE INFO
About the class

–For more information about the project, go to http://www.systemsevendesigns.com/phoogle/

The class is very easy to use it requires that you have the nusoap libraries (which is just a simple php file that I’ll link to in a moment) and PHP running on your server. (Note: This has been developed on PHP 4.3, if someone wants to check it out on version 5.0 and give me some feedback that would be great.) You’ll also need a so that you can pass data to the Google Maps API server.

Once you include the class file you can display a customized map in less than 10 lines of code. I’m offically calling this release a Beta release. On my final release I plan on having error checking, more custimization of the actual map, customization of what’s displayed in the info window on the map, generation of multiple points on a map, and the ability to just return an array of Geodata.

How to Use the Class
1. You’ll need these files: phoogle maps (note: I take no credit for nusoap.php it is an open source project)

2. phoogle.php and nusoap.php need to be in the same directory

3. Open template.php and change the following lines:

  • Line 3: Change the include path for the Phoogle Class
  • Line 9: key=12345 –change 12345 to your Google Maps API Key
  • Line 17: change the $myAddress variable to your data. (This can be static or from a database)

I’ll provide as much source as I can for these files. If you notice any bugs or would like to suggest improvements, please post in the comments or email me directly.

Enjoy.

Update: July 11 2005, 9:15 AM
Special thanks to for linking to this blog post. Thanks guys! You rock.