Saving Long/Lat as kml (track)

Question

So, I've got a class with contains a NSMutableArray of CLLocation's, and a name.

Now I want to save them to KML, ideally as a track (or , so I can use the file to display the locations traveled.)

How would I go about this?

I don't expect code, more guidance (I'm new to Objective-C and KML, so got a lot to learn! :) )

Answer 1

KML is just XML. I'd suggest you create something like what you're looking for using Google Earth. Save it as KML and open it with a text editor to get an idea of what you need to output.

You can generate XML using libxml2 or KissXML

Answer 2

I haven't used either of these, but here's a couple of libraries that turned up in a search:

http://github.com/incanus/Simple-KML/

http://developmentseed.org/blog/2010/aug/12/kml-parsing-library-released-apples-ios-platform

Edit: it looks like both those libraries are parsers, not writers. You may have to create your own writer.

I'd say that using either of these libraries would save you a lot of time. That said, have a look at how KML is formed. It's just XML and making a track is really easy. Here's an example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<kml xmlns="http://earth.google.com/kml/2.1" xmlns:trails="http://www.google.com/kml/trails/1.0"&gt;
  <Document>
    <name>RK_Running.kml</name>
    <Placemark>
      <name>Running 12/9</name>
        <Style>
          <LineStyle>
            <color>ff0000ff</color>
            <width>4</width>
          </LineStyle>
        </Style>
      <MultiGeometry>
        <LineString>
          <tessellate>1</tessellate>
          <coordinates>
138.968309,35.716577,17.0
138.967998,35.716859,17.0
138.967526,35.717252,20.0
138.967055,35.717494,20.0
          </coordinates>
        </LineString>
      </MultiGeometry>
    </Placemark>
  </Document>
</kml>

Save this as a .kml and it will open in Google Earth