Hacking Google Maps and Google Earth (ExtremeTech)

(Dana P.) #1

Chapter 9 — Using Overlays 167


You can see the resulting information window in Figure 9-4. The information displayed is
much more extensive, and you could add and extend that information even further simply by
updating the database with more data, the XML with that data, and the XSL with a suitable
transformation to turn it into the structure you want.

FIGURE9-4: Creating information windows using XML and XSLT.

Everything is now in place to extend the example and make the map truly interactive and
dynamic.

Making Your Example Truly Dynamic.


The examples in this chapter have made use of static, dynamic, and ultimately XML genera-
tion techniques to allow the information within a map to be controlled through the data stored
within a database. However, the map is still static, from the perspective that although markers
and points are being generated dynamically from XML, they are being generated when the
page loads, rather than in true response to user requirements. To make the system truly
dynamic, the interface to the database needs to be adjusted so that you load specific informa-
tion based on the user requirements.
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