CS4 Google Maps Project – a money maker!

Intro

It seems like most sites like mine give you basic examples of how to do things but never take you to the next level – the level that makes money. This project, though not complete, closed the deal on a contract and is great starter code for any one doing Google maps.

It ‘s an air project, and the code is a little disorganized due to the short time frame. Basically, I had written the same project in Papervision3D but my buttons were off, but in CS4 everything is right on. So in about four hours I transferred this project from Papervision3D to CS4.

Code was flying everywhere and by the end of it I had to spray my keyboard down with liquid nitrogen … it was smok’n red hot …

The contract crew walked into the meeting with a good working prototype, where others were not even close, and guess what … they got funded … and that’s the way to do it. Give your clients something that works (a few bells and whistles) … not just a design … and you’ll win every time (unless the other contractor is the boss’s brother – it happens.).

Landmark Covington Air Project

The original Papervision3D code was Wii controlled and I left the Wii code inside the project just in case I needed to reactivate it. Check out my Wii Post to learn how to create a Wii controlled project.

Source 200+ Megs

YouTube

Discussion

Here are the highlights of its development.

1. Use of Flex custom mxml components and Cairngorm to control pop-ups with images and audio

Flex Popup Component

2. removedFromStage trick to close audio after clicking the close button of the maps pop up (same component can be used for video pop-ups as well).

MXML

<mx:Canvas xmlns:mx=”http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml&#8221; width=”482″ height=”222″ creationComplete=”MyImageBox()” removedFromStage=”leaveStage()” horizontalScrollPolicy=”off” verticalScrollPolicy=”off” fontSize=”12″ backgroundColor=”#FFFFFF” alpha=”1.0″ backgroundAlpha=”0.0″>

ActionScript

private function leaveStage():void{

if(soundChannel){

soundChannel.stop();

SoundBtn.label=”Play Audio”;

}}

3. Primitive swapping using remove and add child

//movieParent.
movieParent.removeChildAt(0);
movieParent.addChild(tunnel);

4. Location navigation using a Combo Box including animated map directions

Navigation Menu

5. Application.application.map trick to add Google Maps to Flex

movie.addChild(Application.application.map);

Map in 3D

6. XML data file to hold pop-up info including audio location.

XML for Marker Pop-up Box

I could spend 1 week going through every detail, but the stuff above was the stuff I had to think about! Hope it helps…

Sorry about the messiness of the code. Like I said, it was pretty short order. Once the project was completed, I didn’t have time to rework it. But if you’re working on a project like this one…this code will be very helpful to you. The real key to making this thing work was creating custom Flex components and using Cairngorm to talk to them. Google maps pops them up, and you can put anything in them: audio, video, or 3D.

I’m off to the next job. This coming week one of my programs is being presented in Austria (I haven’t written it yet…of course). But my graphic designers have been working like crazy building the assets for it.

I write about 5000 “working” lines of code a week now (that’s about two projects a day)…but that’s because my code base is growing. The more code I have, the more I can write…that’s right…this number includes cutting and pasting code from one project to another.

Once the Austria project is completed, I’ll post it so you can see how these larger (money making) projects go. Have a great week…