Plugin Name: googlemaps

Purpose: To display event locations on a map. This plugin can display a map location for a single event (event display) or for a group of events (monthly, weekly, upcoming and static list of events display)

Configuration:

If you have not done so yet, sign up for a Google account and get a Google Maps API key from this URL: http://code.google.com/apis/maps/signup.html . If your site is accessible as either www.domain.com or domain.com, then you will need a separate key for each name.  The plugin allows for up to 4 different domain names to allow for alias site names.  Add each hostname and corresponding key in the plugin settings, available from the Plugin Manager.  Use only the name; do not include the "http://" prefix.  The same key will work with either "http://" or "https://" prefixes.

After enabling the plugin and entering the API key from the Plugin Manager, you will need to go to the Admin Tools section under the Zap Calendar administration panel to complete the install. From the Admin Tools section, select the "Complete Install" option for the Google Maps plugin if requested to do so.  This step only needs to be done once.

The map display is controlled from a Zap Calendar view's plugin settings.  When viewing a single event, no map is displayed if the event does not have a location specified.

The plugin automatically converts locations to latitude/longitude coordinates. When creating a new event, the plugin settings allow for an alternate location to be used for lat/long purposes.  For example, the location McDonald's" by itself will not be locatable due do the many possible locations; however, an alternate address can be entered to determine lat/long coordinates while still keeping the location description as "McDonald's".

Known issues:

Only one map can be displayed per page. The map will not be displayed if several Zap Calendar modules are being used on the same page with the Google Maps plugin enabled. Disable the Google Maps plugins from these modules/views so that only one view on the page has it enabled.

Events with the same location will have overlapping markers, however, only one of the markers will be clickable.

The plugin automatically converts locations to latitude/longitude coordinates and caches them as it finds them.  Google has a limit on the number of geocode conversions per day, however, the plugin's caching feature effectively prevents this limit from ever being reached.  These locations may not appear on the map the first time they are found, but will be displayed in subsequent map displays.  For new installs, it may be useful to page through the monthly map to allow the plugin to cache these locations.

Sometimes the locations are not automatically geocoded for various reasons.  You can display these "missing" locations from the Admin Tools area under the Zap Calendar control panel and retry the geocoding again from this screen. If the retry fails, then you can edit the corresponding event and either manually enter the lat/long coordinates or enter an alternate address for lookup.