Google & IM: Probably The Most Popular Mod In The World!

[spaniel]

Lots of users are accustomed to using the ingenius [url=http]Phoogle (Google) Maps[/url] on another site and are shocked to discover it's not built into IM141. By shocked I mean they're staying on the other site until it's available on IM!

I'd go ahead and install it for them but it seems to have been made for the standard profile on phpbb 2.0.22 and not those of us with ptirrhiik's PCP system.

My question is, how difficult would it be to modify [url=http]Phoogle (Google) Maps[/url] to make it compatible with IM141, and approximately how many hours would it take?


Many thanks.

[obiku]

It looks very nice, but it is also a risky MOD I think. A had a Mod like that, called Map_Mod. Every user could place a marker on the town or city where he lives. That way the users privacy was still a bit there. With this Phoogle_map, a user can put a marker in the street and maybe number where he lives. That way everybody around the world almost exactly knows where a user lives.

Here in the Netherlands is already some investigation being done against sites like Hyves and other profile site. This because these site show to much private information about there users, which is not aloud.

Yes I know the user it self must be smart enough, not to put to much private info in his profile. But I think the board also has to take his responsibility to defend the users of his board.

Than in answer of your question, yes this mod can be modified to work with IM. But you have to have some knowledge about the Profile Controle Panel.
Unfortunately I do not have the time to help you with this

[spaniel]

I agree - putting in a full address right down to house number would be very risky, but I think BassFace's mod mostly works on postcode and area. Perhaps it could be modified to exclude very private info. I'll see what BassFace says about the point you raised.

It's other great use is that it can be used for location information regarding clubs, organisations, businesses, as richiebgood has done on his Im site:

http://www.paintballer.ie/portal.php?page=6

If we can prevent people giving away their full address, it looks like it could be a very versatile piece of php indeed.


I hope you're not working too hard, obiku <img>

[richiebgood]

I am currently looking into it. I am no expert with it so it may time time before I get it right, but I will post up a the code when I get it done.

The whole security issue really depends on the use of your site i suppose. Like spaniel pointed out on my site, i use google maps to point out locations for paintball venues around Ireland.

[spaniel]

Thanks Richie - i just think it's excellent that all your members can easily find maps of paintball centres all over Ireland.

Perhaps if people's profiles were also plugged into it, the map could calculate distance from the centres and map driving routes.

Now that would put IM in a whole different league - enabling us to liaise with these businesses bringing them clients/customers, which will financially benefit us and help us pay for all that CPU and bandwidth.


It seems like a win-win situation so can't wait for it to be IntegraModised

[spaniel]

Having used BaseFace's Phoogle map on his test site

http://phooglemapv3.bassface3d.com

It doesn't require very personal information to work - you add yourself to the map just by clicking on it.

Very versatile indeed

[richiebgood]

Ya i see that. I wounder is it possible for users to add more than one location......

[spaniel]

Perhaps they could add their own places of interest / clubs / pubs etc. Is that what you have in mind?

[richiebgood]

just to allow people to add other paintball places rather than me having to enter each place via html like i currently do.

[spaniel]

I think ultimately that's the only way it could really grow as a "find location" map. An administrator can't kno where everything on the planet is after all <img>

It might also speed things up if members are added to it automatically at sign up, e.g. by adding their postcode.

Also as your site is so far geared towards members in Ireland, wouldn't you prefer it to open on a map of Ireland or at least Europe rather than a map of the world?

[richiebgood]

It does open up on a map of ireland.... well it should

[spaniel]

How did you get it to open on Ireland - is there a setting for that in the ACP ?

[richiebgood]

the map i have at the moment is all just normal html and i use the 'insert webpage' funtion in the bbcode box to insert it.

http://www.econym.demon.co.uk/googlemaps/

[spaniel]

So to summarise, we'd like Phoogle Maps IntegraModised with the ability to allow members to add a host of locations (perhaps by category) in addition to where they live.

It would also be good if the popup bubbles also contained distance info between the member's location and the location on the bubble they're looking it.

So you in Dublin looking at a paintball centre in Limerick would see in the bubble that it's 120 miles from you but the paintball centre just outside Dublin is only 10 miles from you, for example.

Also the list of profiles/locations on the list next to the map should probably be arranged according to distance, too so the closest ones to you are first on the list.

I think that's important cos you're more likely to look for places/members in your own part of the globe than the other end of the country.

[richiebgood]

I am not too worried about getting the distances etc. That sort of thing is more about knowing how to use the google code, which can be done later i think.

The main thing is to just try and get phoogle to work with PCP, and then we can see how to edit the phoogle code to make things such as extra tabs, info windows and distances.

[spaniel]

I'll ask BaseFace if he wants to join us in IntegraModising it once he's done his phpbb3 version.

How can he not love IM ? It's a developer's dream <img>

[Angelus]

Hi all,

I'm also very interested in the Google Maps Mod. I would like to use it with my 141 (at the moment I update from 140 to 141).

I do not need any integration in the profile. The users sould only have the possibility to set their pointer on the city they live.

How can I integrate it? Can I use the link in the first topic or do I have to modify anything for 141? I think some of you still have made the integration right?

Greetings
Thorsten