Forum Index > Trail Talk > Policy change at Google likely means the end of Gmap4
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Joey
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Joey
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PostTue May 15, 2018 4:38 pm 
Thanks for the kind words everyone. Still waiting to hear back from Google on my request for a larger allocation of free API downloads based on the disaster maps (wildland fire, etc) I produce and other public service mapping that Gmap4 can do (mainly political districts and the (beta) GIS surfing feature.

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patrickb87
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PostTue May 15, 2018 4:57 pm 
Yikes, I would hate to see GMAP4 go.. Its been a hugely helpful resource. YUGE.

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Justus S.
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PostTue May 15, 2018 9:28 pm 
Gmap4 has been a great tool for looking at maps to following the summer fires, etc... Hope you can keep it going.

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Sore Feet
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PostWed May 16, 2018 7:43 pm 
I was wondering what might happen to Gmap4 because of this. I've had to strip out dynamic maps from a majority of my websites in order to try to fall within the free monthly usage quotas, and I'll see if my changes make it work when the first billing cycle kicks in next month. Definitely look into using Leaflet as a replacement. It's a far more customizable library than the Google Maps Javascript API is, but it's just the library itself - you can style just about everything using pure CSS, which is a huge plus, and it has a massive plugin library. You have to incorporate your own tile servers manually though, which is where Google Maps had the advantage in the past. Given that you've used image tiles from multiple different sources, and don't seem to rely heavily on the Google Maps tiles directly, you should be able to port over the majority of the function of Gmap4 to Leaflet with relative ease - you just won't be able to use the Google Maps tiles. If you need replacement map tiles, Mapbox allows 50,000 loads per month using their tile sets, and that's I believe the most generous free offering available now that Google has gotten greedy. This is likely the route I'll have to take. I have no idea how intense rolling a custom OpenStreetMap tile server is (I suspect it wouldn't be cheap), but that's also another option.

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cdestroyer
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PostWed May 16, 2018 7:55 pm 
google maps no longer works with my firefox browser.. it may be older and thus an excuse but it worked 6 months ago.

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Joey
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Joey
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PostWed May 16, 2018 8:34 pm 
Current Firefox works fine with Gmap4. If I do have to learn a new API it will definitely be Leaflet. The feds have a free seamless basemap. It is their digital topo map. See it below. As you zoom in more detailed data appears. They are building this in part with crowd source data.
View larger size in new window

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Sore Feet
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PostWed May 16, 2018 11:54 pm 
Very nice, that might solve half of the problem I'm running up against. Will have to play around with it this weekend.

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Joey
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Joey
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PostThu May 17, 2018 4:29 am 
Here is info from the feds encouraging people to provide crowd-source data for the basemap I posted. https://nationalmap.gov/TheNationalMapCorps/index.html

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thunderhead
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PostThu May 17, 2018 9:28 am 
That terrain basemap looks pretty solid... just eyeballing it quickly. Hopefully that will be a pretty seemless replacement for google maps!

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Joey
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Joey
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PostThu May 17, 2018 4:30 pm 
Here is a one of Google's demo maps. You can view the source code. https://mappingsupport.com/test/google_traffic.html I used Firefox and opened the map. Then I did: 1. Click 3 bars in upper right 2. Click web developer 3. Click network 4. Reload the page. For the reload, a display below the map shows what is cached and what is not cached. The second line in that display shows that a good chunk of Google's API is not cached. I am convinced that reloading the map will be counted by Google as another load of their API. Since it is important that I not be at risk of pissing Google off, I have no plans to cache their API. The next thing I need to do is read up on how to do my own server-side application logging. That seems to be the only way I can count how many times Gmap4 is opened or reloaded. Each such event is 1 Google map API download. I have been using StatCounter but it turns out that for various reasons that software is likely undercounting the number of times Gmap4 starts and thus undercounting API downloads.

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Sore Feet
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PostThu May 17, 2018 6:58 pm 
Doesn't have anything to do with the API itself, it's the call to the Quota Service at
Code:
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js/QuotaService.RecordEvent?(your-domain-and-api-key-and-related-uri-params-here)
It used to be that it was registering an impression based on the call to your API key itself, so as long as the map window remained open it would still count as just one use toward the quota. Could probably easily confirm this by blocking requests sent to that API - the map probably won't load or will error out because it's expecting a callback.

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Joey
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Joey
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PostThu May 17, 2018 7:02 pm 
Thanks Bryan.

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Navy salad
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PostTue May 22, 2018 9:39 am 
cdestroyer wrote:
google maps no longer works with my firefox browser.. it may be older and thus an excuse but it worked 6 months ago.
I use Firefox and Google maps currently display just fine.

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puzzlr
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puzzlr
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PostFri May 25, 2018 10:15 am 
Joey wrote:
Here is info from the feds encouraging people to provide crowd-source data for the basemap I posted. https://nationalmap.gov/TheNationalMapCorps/index.html
I'd definitely contribute to this to keep the maps up-to-date. But for hikers the crowd sourcing isn't going to help much. The only things that can be added are structures
Quote:
TNMCorps is an online crowdsourcing mapping project with volunteers successfully editing structures in all 50 States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. As part of The National Map, structures include schools, hospitals, post offices, police stations, cemeteries, and other important public buildings.
So far there's no way to add or modify trail heads, trails, roads, peak or lake names, etc. And I'll make my usual complaint -- the road data for the Middle Fork is way off. It still shows an old railroad bridge that hasn't been in existence for 60 years. I complain about that because I know what it's supposed to be. I can only assume other areas also have extremely outdated road and trail data. I would put in time to fix it if that was supported.

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cdestroyer
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PostFri May 25, 2018 2:34 pm 
so for those of youse that posted your version of firefox works with google maps that is just so peachy keen, BUT as I said the version I have does not work with maps even though it did work about 6 months ago and I could even get a street side view. so if it means I must upgrade (shiver) and youse that have a working version of firefox have upgraded to a new computer can you send me your old computer so I can upgrade? or maybe a donation for a (garsh) new computer!

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