Apress - Beginning Google Maps Applications With Rails And Ajax

Google Maps and Rails

The last year or so has been an incredibly exciting time for web developers. New tools have come out that make web development easier, more productive, and more fun. A slew of new APIs are available that let you glue together data and services in interesting ways. As developers, we are more empowered with new and interesting technologies than ever before. This book focuses on one API that has had a particularly profound impact: the Google Maps API. Since you have this book in hand, you’re probably already convinced of Google Maps’ importance. In case you need a reminder, however, visit Google Maps Mania (http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com) for a view into the sprawling culture of innovation that Google Maps has fostered in the development community. The Google Maps API has spawned a whole class of web-based applications that would have been impossible to create without it.

You’re going to use the Google Maps API on a platform that has inspired an equally fervent following: Ruby on Rails. The Rails framework facilitates radical improvements in productivity within its niche: database-backed web applications. Rails is intuitive, powerful, and free. Together, Rails and Google Maps enable you, the developer, to build impressive web-based applications that would have been difficult or impossible two years ago.

Over the course of the coming chapters, you’re going to move from simple tasks involving markers and geocoding to more advanced topics, such as how to acquire data, present many data points, and provide a useful and attractive user interface.

There are many reasons why Ruby on Rails is an ideal platform to work with Google Maps. Rails makes it trivial to produce and consume XML, which Google Maps uses extensively. Rails also has built-in support for JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), a concise format for passing structured data from server to browser. Finally, Ruby has some excellent libraries for screenscraping, which we will employ in later chapters.

We are assuming that you are coming to this book with a certain amount of Rails experience. You probably already have Ruby and Rails installed in a development environment and know how to get an application up and running. If not, don’t fear: we list some resources in the sidebar “Just Getting Started with Ruby and Rails?” near the end of this chapter to help you get rolling on Rails. Whatever your current skill level vis-à-vis Rails, this book will get you in the mapping game and tell you everything you need to create killer maps applications. With the power of the Rails framework, the Ruby language, and the Google Maps API, you will command a development toolkit to be reckoned with.