I am currently developing a web site for my thesis which features my City's tourist spots (e.g. malls, parks, restaurants) with Google Maps API that shows the current location of the user and the destination point and all the possible routes to said destination. But sadly, with the Billing system I am limited to load a few maps before it says "OVER_QUERY_LIMIT".
I have researched few free Maps API and I have found some, like MapBox, HERE Api... What would be the best free alternative for Google Map API?
P.s. I am still a student and can not afford to pay $200. If there are any other possible ways in handling this, please do let me know. Thank you!
Check Freemium Plan from HERE Maps, 250.000 transactions/months for free, no need for credit card.
You can use JS, REST and Native APIs.
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I am new to google analytics and mobile testing and got a task of testing google analytics on one of our in-house application. could you guys please help me by understanding that how can I proceed doing so. I have no idea about google analytics.
Thanks in advance.
Just perform the actions that you are actually tracking and check if a corresponding entry is recorded in the analytics database.
As a starting point, first check if your UA tracking ID is implemented. Secondly, make some interaction with you mobile application and check if the data is available in Google Analytics (e.g. real time report).
Is there anyway to track the location (as precise as possible) of a user of a mobile web site?
I am aware that the best way to locate someone is via GPS, but I'm not sure if that is possible through a mobile web site? I also know that you can roughly track a users location via the device's IP address, but I'm not sure if this is the best method?
Looking at Google Maps as an example, the Google Maps website can track my current location pretty much precisely using an iPhone or an Android device. Is this because these sites are activating the device's GPS capabilities, or is there something else going on in order for them to achieve this?
The website I am planning to create will ideally be capable of running on Smartphone devices (such as Android/iPhone/Blackberry/Windows Phone etc), but also be capable of running on non-smartphone devices, which may not have GPS technology built in to query the current location.
Can anyone suggest the best way this could be achieved please? I know that some existing location libraries such as GeoLocation are widely recommended, but again, are these compatible with devices which don't necessarily have GPS technology available?
Thanks in advance.
You can use the HTML5 Geolocation API on devices that support it. It will return the most accurate location that is available which might be A-GPS or wifi location.
See for example this tutorial on how to use geolocation with JavaScript.
Basically you test for geolocation support and request the position:
if (navigator.geolocation) { // device can return its location
navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(function(position) {
console.log(position.coords.latitude);
console.log(position.coords.longitude);
});
}
Please note, that this code will prompt the user if they want to share their current location or not.
I need my users to be able to regularly geocode their addresses, but NOT onto a map - I simply need to be able to translate an address into a set of lat/long coordinates so my site can react accordingly.
It seems like Google doesn't want you to use their geocoding service unless you are actually plotting on a map. On the other hand, I want to make sure that the service is reliable and will last a long time.
I'd also consider downloading some kind of address database and running the requests myself if I knew where to find it.
Any ideas?
A good alternative to the Google Geocoding API is SimpleGeo (no affiliation). They are more liberal when it comes to the Terms of Service, meaning you have fewer restrictions of what you can do with the data.
On the other hand, I remember a quote from their founder saying their non-US data is not on the same level (or better) than, for example, the data from Google.
Note this answer is incorrect, but retained for posterity.
If you are under 2,500 requests per day, you should be fine using Google's geocoding API:
http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/geocoding/
Are you basing your assumption about what Google wants on this?
This document is intended for website and mobile developers who want to use geocoding data within maps provided by one of the Google Maps APIs. It provides an introduction to using this API and reference material on the available parameters.
That's describing the audience of the document, not the audience of the API itself.
I'm trying to integrate Maps to my Bada application. I've tried deCarta but unfortunately it comes with an ad. There is an ad on each form that displays a map and it's not pleasant.
So, can you please recommend me another maps API that will work well with the Bada platform. Does Google Maps API or Yahoo's service go along well with Bada? Or is there a way to remove the ad on deCarta's maps (on the free version)?
Any help, comment and such will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks =)
Please don't remove the ad - that would be a violation of the terms of service. You could always pay to use the API and then you will never have to deal with ads on your application.
What is the part of the advertisement that you don't like. It would be great if you could give suggestions on how you would like to see the advertisements presented in the application.
I have looked into Geopy and googlemaps (http://py-googlemaps.sourceforge.net/) and they both do not work for Chinese addresses. My app is stored on the Google App Engine. What I want to do is to parse a file containing addresses of restaurants in Hong Kong, and then Geocode the addresses and store the Lat and Lng in the datastore. How do I do this?
Try the Chinese language version of GoogleMaps ditu.google.cn. It is better than the China coverage in the English Google Maps (at least it was a couple of years ago when I last looked into it).
Be aware that the Chinese government restricts foreign use of GIS data, so there may not be a good geocoding solution available if you are based outside China.
I am not sure the API provides geocoding in China. Are you also saying that even with the google maps interface you can not get the geocoding to work. If that is the case then you better try to move on to a different service since there is quite a bit of functionality in the gmap website that is not in the API. So if the website doesn't work it is probably a darn good bet the API won't work.