How to make an interactive city map without Flash
So, I went through all the previous questions asked and found that something was not answered, which most of them ask, and I would like to rephrase the question about creating interactive maps.
The idea is to have a map of a specific US city so that I can use jquery to delineate the cities within the specified city. Then I would like to be able to delve into the details of cities such as shopping malls, parks, street names, affordable housing, etc.
I could use the map details I got from the city to draw / highlight all these small sections from a vector file I have.
It doesn't have to stay on the same page, but it would be nice if it did.
If it might be too expensive, hiring someone, or sitting and writing too long for one person, then my next option would be to use Google Maps. Now I know that Google Maps doesn't have the most up-to-date visuals, so I was wondering if it is possible to customize all my own markers and possibly images of places if they don't exist on Google?
Result. A custom map that somewhat resembles Google Navigation Maps, no problem with Google Maps, and if a Google Maps search map was used as the last search tool, I wouldn't want the search results to show everything but locations within a city.
Or should I just use DreamWeaver for a map hotspot with each link to their respective location data?
These are similar examples I've found, but most of them are just hover and click, but nothing else. http://davidlynch.org/projects/maphilight/docs/demo_usa.html
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there is a great plugin, this is jvectormap:
it's very lightweight and cross-browser (vml is used for non-svg support) & very easily extensible (which imo is better than a full option plugin you don't need, it has a minimum here, then you add what you need) via a click on the mouse over the call back to start with is enough for most cases.
easy if you transform the map correctly (limit the maximum level of detail). now converting a vector map for use by a plugin can be tricky, but there is a wiki about it:
https://github.com/datag/jvectormap/wiki/Map-converter-notes
I have edited the wiki part on using GIS software on ubuntu. using SAGA-GIS is really a lifesaver and a good thing to learn to publish any map to a plugin in no time.
I'll add that I have tested anymap from anychart and fusionmap from fusioncharts and that imo jvector is a winner without any cross-browser / lightweight / flexibility / bandwidth / execution efficiency tweak ... and last but not least , is free!
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