Using the Google maps API with JavaScript or PHP?

Question

i've read that you can use either javascript or php with google maps api. so what are the pros and cons for each of them?

and if i got the geocodes stored in a database. should i get them with ajax and process them with javascript or should i use php?

it says in the FAQ that 15000 requests are allowed per day per ip. does this mean that EACH user has to run 15000 requests a day if im using javascript? sounds a lot. but if im using php instead, is it from the server's ip only, and thus 15000 for ALL users?

would be great if someone could shed a light on this topic.

Answer 1

I think you are confused. The only part of the API that you can use PHP with is the geocoding api - http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/geocoding/index.html

Assuming you are asking whether you should do your geocoding with javascript or a server side language like PHP, best practice is to cache whatever geocoding you can into some sort of persistance layaer (xml/db/whatever) and minimise the number of client side geocode requests (because of the delay it will introduce)

Answer 2

The Google Maps API is a JavaScript library. However Google offers its Geocoding Services through a client-side API in JavaScript and though a server-side web service.

This is an example on how to use the JavaScript geocoder:

function initialize() {
  if (GBrowserIsCompatible()) {
    map = new GMap2(document.getElementById("map_canvas"));

    geocoder = new GClientGeocoder();

    geocoder.getLatLng(
      "London, UK",
      function(point) {
        if (point) {
          map.setCenter(point, 13);
          var marker = new GMarker(point);
          map.addOverlay(marker);
        }
      }
    );
  }
}

The following is an example showing how to get the latitude and longitude of an address on the server-side using php:

$url = 'http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?q=London,+UK&output=csv&sensor=false';

$data = @file_get_contents($url);

$result = explode(",", $data);

echo $result[0]; // status code
echo $result[1]; // accuracy
echo $result[2]; // latitude
echo $result[3]; // longitude

You understood the free geocoding quota correctly. Server-side geocoding is limited to 15k requests per day per server, while client-side geocoding is limited to 15k requests per day per client. You would need the Google Maps API Premier to increase these limits.