Maps Platform
Product updates, customer stories, and tips and tricks on Google Maps Platform
Do you like the new look of the Maps APIs tutorials?
Monday, February 20, 2017
Until recently, our docs have focused on describing features rather than telling a story. We chatted to some developers and came up with a new design for our tutorials. We’d love to know what you think of them.
Developers tell us they want quick, straightforward guides on how to integrate the Google Maps APIs into their app. The most common thing people want to do is to add a map with a marker.
Just show me how to do that
.
Developers are also looking for complete, step-by-step tutorials for the most common use cases.
Guides that go all the way from a to z, with no deviations
.
And they want code. Front and foremost.
All the code
.
Here are some examples of the new-look tutorials:
Adding a map with a marker -
web
,
Android
and
iOS
.
Styling your map -
web
,
Android
and
iOS
.
Showing the business or other point of interest at the current location -
Android
and
iOS
.
All the redesigned tutorials for the
Google Maps JavaScript API
.
Each tutorial provides the entire development project, especially useful for the native mobile APIs. The doc page goes hand in hand with a new sample app on GitHub. For example, here’s the code for the
current place tutorial on Android
.
Each page includes a visual illustration of what you’ll achieve by following the tutorial. A working demo is ideal (such as the
visualizing data tutorial
for the Google Maps JavaScript API), otherwise a screenshot (as we’ve done for the
native mobile APIs
).
We want to make it easy for developers to find the guides. So, we’re adding tutorial showcases to the API overview pages. To date we’ve created the showcases for
Android
,
iOS
, and
JavaScript
. We’re also collecting together
all the tutorials
for the Maps JavaScript API in one place.
We’ve made a good start, but there’s plenty of change still to come. What would you like to see more of? Are we on the right track? The tech writing team would love your ideas—please add comments to this post.
Posted by Sarah Maddox, Technical Writer, Google Maps APIs
Styling and custom data for polylines and polygons in the Google Maps Android API
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Polygons, polylines and ground overlays are useful tools to make your maps work for your users. Today we are rolling out even more custom styling and data object association features in the Google Maps Android API to further help you customize your maps.
Style your shapes: polygons and polylines
We brought
custom map styling
to mobile platforms last year to help you match your map styles to your brands, apps, and more. We've seen hot pink, cool silver (shown in screenshots below), and everything in between, helping users feel at home and see what's relevant in your maps. Now we're expanding styling options for polygons and polylines, allowing you to use new stroke patterns for outlines, different caps and joints, and more, on Android devices.
Your shape, your style. Now on Android
Now you have plenty of options to customize your shapes. You can change the stroke patterns in polylines and polygon outlines from solid lines to custom dashes, dots, or gaps. In polylines and polygons, you can use a bevel or round joint type rather than fixed miter joints. You can also change the cap at each end of a polyline to a square or round cap, or even specify a custom bitmap for the cap. Have a favorite fancy arrowhead you've always wanted to put in? Do it–let your imagination run wild!
Get your styles in line. Now on Android.
Learn how to set and customize these new styles in our new
polyline and polygon tutorial
or dive straight into the documentation to get started—check out the
stroke patterns
, for example. Note that these new styling features are available in the full Google Maps Android API only, not in lite mode.
Store custom data with polygons, polylines, and ground overlays
Until today, you could only store data objects with markers. We're extending this functionality to polygons, polylines, circles, and ground overlays. This means you can extend your geometry objects to have any kind of data or properties you want. You no longer need to manage your data associations to your mapping visualizations–nobody enjoys writing that code anyway. For example, if you supply a set of ground overlays showing home floor plans you could store a database reference with each one. The database can contain anything! It could hold real estate listings, and you could open one of those listing URLs on click.
For further information, review our
release notes
.
Thank you for using the Google Maps Android API! Be sure to share your feedback or any issues in the
issue tracker
.
Posted by Joel Kalmanowicz, Product Manager, Google Maps APIs
Labels
5 Great Maps
ads
advertising
africa
Andorra
Android
App Engine
art
Australia
Autocomplete
Boston
brazil
Bruce Springsteen
Bulgaria
Campus Map
Chrome
City 24/7
Code for America
COM API
Computerlogy
creative advertising campaigns
Custom Map Types
design
developer
Developer Challenge
Developer stories
Directions API
Drawing Tools
Driving Directions
Earth
Earth API
Elevation API
environment
epungo
Estonia
Europe
Fab Friday
flash
Fusion Tables
GAE
games
GDAL
Gears
geo
Geodesic Lines
Germany
Gibraltar
GIS
Global Economy
gme
Google Analytics
Google App Engine
Google Earth
Google Earth API
Google I/O
Google Maps
Google Maps API
Google Maps Engine
Google Places API
Google Places API Developer Challenge
Google Street View API
government
Hackathon
Hamburg
heat map
heatmap
hiking
Hungary
iOS
JavaScript
jQuery
kenya
KML
Latitude API
Latvia
launch
Lithuania
local search
London
Mac
Map of the Week
maps
Maps API
Maps API for Flash
Maps Data API
Maps Zen
Marker Clusterer
Marketing
Mars
meetup
mobile
moca
modern art
More Than a Map
Morethanamap
Movies
Neighborhoods
New York City
Office Hours
Olympics
Panoramio
photos
Place Summaries
Places API
Plus
polygons
Premier
public transit
public transit layer
Python
real estate
rock
sao paulo
screencast
SketchUp
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Spatial Data Files
Static Maps API
street view
Styled Maps
Sydney
Track
traffic layer
Transportation
Tripline
Twitter
UN
United Nations
V3
Vancouver Olympics
visualizations
Volkswagen
VW
web
youtube
Archive
2018
Nov
Jul
Jun
May
Mar
Feb
2017
Nov
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2016
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Feb
2015
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Feed
Follow @GMapsPlatform
Follow
Google Maps Platform Website
Give us feedback in our
Product Forums
.