Would you like to launch your own google map mashup? Need a way to easily get data onto a map, but don’t want to have to dig through piles of poorly documented Google Maps javascript code?
The Map Rails Kit allows you to deploy a map mashup instantly. It extracts all the Google Maps implementation details, organizes all the customizations into an easy to use config file, and reimplements the map controls, bubbles, and markers so your app looks unique.
Populating your map with markers consists of working with a few simple ActiveRecord models so it’s amazingly easy to get started. Create marker records with titles, bubble content, and location. If you specify just an address to your markers, your markers will be automatically geocoded for you. You can even add tens of thousands of markers to your maps easily, and they’ll dynamically load onto the map only when they are currently in view as your users navigate the map.
The Kit includes all the usability polish that your users would expect in a commercial map mashup. Their current map settings are always saved via session so when they come back to the page later on, they’re right where they left off before. For new visitors, we support hooking into an ip2location service in order to initialize their current position. So they immediately see their current spot on the map, and can begin interacting with it.
This Kit was authored by Jacques Crocker.
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2This is kind of subjective, but I don't find the Google Maps API nearly as daunting as the blurb makes it out to be. I don't think I'd pay half a grand for an API to the Maps API — especially since you can buy a whole book on the topic for like $15 even if you find Google's docs lacking.
This guy doesn't even make it clear what it is he's selling. He makes the features of using the google maps API with Rails sound more difficult than entire feature set of Google maps itself.
There are plenty of other plugins and/or gems available that do more or less the same thing with slightly more effort involved and the book of course (possibly more than one at this point).
If you want a turnkey solution for stacks of money, .NET or some more commercial platform will have more options. I would avoid using this guys solutions out of selfishness, if he does well they'll be others with more colorful marketing making such grand solutions. After which Google will be clogged with them and we'll have to wade through dozens of such spectacular offerings to find the better, albeit less polished (less advertised) open source versions.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/427819/are-there-any-good-googlemaps-plugins-for-rails