π Introduction
Google Maps spans a broad suite a web mapping services. Among other things, it offers:
- satellite imagery
- 360Β° panoramic views of streets ( Street View )
- real-time traffic conditions
- route planning for traveling by foot, car, bicycle, or public transportation
- and street maps.
This handbook primarily focuses on street maps via the Google Maps Javascript API with a few sprinkles of related APIs and services such as:
- the Static Maps API
- the Routes API
- the Places API
- and the Geocoding API .
You'll benefit from this handbook the most if you have at least rudimentary knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript/TypeScript.
The presented materials aren't designed for marketing professionals, sales people, and no-code folks. You will need to write code to apply the learnings from this handbook to your application or website.
All code examples in this book are written in TypeScript , a superset of JavaScript .
TypeScript offers type safety and intellisense (+ code editor autocomplete) and plays along well with the Google Maps Javascript API.
Each chapter in this book is dedicated to a separate topic and can be read independently. However, the chapters frequently reference one another.
Each subchapter starts with a brief summary, followed by a description of the challenges that you will likely face.
Next, a real-world scenario is presented, followed by the approach the author would take to address it.
Tips π‘, key pieces of information π, and caveats β οΈ are scattered throughout the text.
| Term | Interpretation |
|---|---|
| GMaps; Maps | The Google Maps Javascript Version 3 API (unless stated otherwise) |
| GCP; Google Cloud | The Google Cloud Platform |
| console | The GCP Console ( console.cloud.google.com ) |
| docs | The Maps Javascript API documentation or its technical reference |
| dev tools | The browser developer tools (e.g. Chrome's dev tools ), esp. the console |
| SO | Stackoverflow.com , the online Q&A forum for developers |
π a key piece of knowledge
π‘ an idea / a tip / a good-to-know
β οΈ a caveat / a warning
βοΈ deeper knowledge of the subject matter is required
βΆοΈ an expandable toggle list