View Demo»
To Do List
- Create two custom map, one is the original ryerson map and another as hybrid of the original ryerson map and the google map
- Show relevant info in the map such as: parking lot, restaurants or snack store etc.
- Get a proper category list for each buildings. For example, whether the Book Store should be under information buiildings or relevant or other category.
- If the user is viewing the map in less than 10/12(untill we see the whole toronto area), show a marker on the map.
- If the user is viewing from 10/12 to 14 level zoom, then draw a transparent colored rectangle as an overlay over the campus area
- When the user moves to zoom lever 15+, automatically switch to custom map type. If it's 15-, then switch to google map type.
- If the user switches back to custom map type and was previously at a different zoom level, then change the zoom level to appropriate level.
- In the info window, show a Form for getting driving direction and redirect this info to google map website where the driving direction will be displayed.
- In Classroom Building sidebar, make a tab for offered programs or departments, which will list those departments and load the associated buildings from another xml file.
Journal
Version 2.5 aim
Well... the aim for version 2.5 is basically layed out on the To Do List. When jumped from version 1 to 2, the only thing that was done was the search engine. The reason why I decided to make another separate version was that I am pretty confident that I can update a lot in this version, specially most of what was not finished in version 2 of the map, after making the search engine
Organize my work - Monday, September 25, 2006
Before I start doing any actual update on the map, I need to reorganize my codes. I will probably separate the CSS and the javascript codes appropriately.
Time: 7/8 hour
No..., it didn't take that long to organize my work. I'm not that disorganized. It probably took about an hour to sort all the codes. For the rest of the time, I was trying out new layout for the page to make it more user friendly and look nicer. However, I didn't change a lot in terms of the layout from what I had in the previous version. Most of the changes were made in the page header section and added more white space in the layout.
Switch Map Type - September 29, 2006
Now I'll be working on the zoom control of the map, which I wanted to do since version 1 of this project. My custom map type starts from zoom level 15. That means from zoom level 15 I'll be using my own map images to show the campus instead of default google map. So, if the user moves to zoom level below 15, then I'll automatically switch to default map type and vice versa.
Time: 10 min
Done... the map type now switches back and forth based on the new zoom level, when the user changes the zoom level. Next I'll need to work on displaying a default marker if the user zoomed out too far. In order to add this feature, I needed to change the zoom level of custom map type to start from the beginning. This created a new requirement. While the user is in zoom level below 15, they'll be taken to a different map type; either a google's defalult map or satellite map, whatever was choosen. However, if the user changes the map type to my custom map at this stage, then the user will only see the "zoom in required" tile. So, I'll need to add another event listener when the map type is being changed. Shouldn't be too difficult.
On the other hand, I may not implement this map type changed event. The reason is, if the user is viewing the map at zoom 10 and clicks on the custom map type, it'll take him to zoom level 15+. The user may not want that. I guess, I'll leave this in the To Do list and deal with it later.
Display Marker at Low Zoom Level - Saturday, September 30, 2006
Right now I'll be working on displaying a marker at the Ryerson University's Location, if the user is at zoom level below 12. The reason is, below zoom level 12, Toronto area doesn't show up anymore, since it's covering more of the world region. So, the marker will tell the user where Ryerson University is located even if the user is viewing from zoom level 0. I tried the basic functions of this before, so, hopefully, I'll be able to finish this task soon.
Time: 35 min.
Another task completed. It should've been done in 15 minutes. The proble is that the map wasn't removing this marker because I.... well.... misspelled the marker name. And I was constantly googling to see why my method wasn't working. damn damn damn...
Ooops... while writing this feedback, I just discovered a bug that I introduced with this new feature of displaying marker at low zoom level. The marker shows up and hides based on the zoom level, only if the map doesn't have any other markers present. If I click on some other marker from the search result or the sidebar, then this main marker starts behaving oddly. First of all, it won't be removed, when it is supposed to and secondly, it gets pushed down to a different location. May be I'll just remove this from the task list, because, even if the user does view the map from a low zoom level, they got the sidebar right in front of them, from where they can simply click on building names and it'll show up even at a low zoom level.
Switching To Campus Map - Saturday, September 30, 2006
Previously, when I was working on the zoom changed event, I changed the map type to google map, if they weren't in the range of my custom map. However, if the user switches back to my custom map, and the zoom level is still out of range then they will only see the tiles that shows that the user needs to zoom in more. This is what I'll be working on now. Instead of keeping the user at that zoom level and show that message, I'll simply change the zoom level appropriately when the user switches to my custom map.
Time: 30 min
Well... that didn't work out. Since I already have an event listener for zoomend which changes the map type based on the zoom level, the maptypechanged event also kicks in because of changing map type. So, I'll need to find out another way of doing this. I posted a question about it in Google group, hopefully, someone will be able to help.
Revamp The Sidebar - Sunday, October 1, 2006
One of the many reasons of jumping to version 2.5 of this project was to include the Programs being offered by Ryerson University. Later I thought why not add other departments as well; such as different student centers, admission office, registration office etc. Using these, as one of my friends Fahad mentioned once, the user can find prof's or staff's office in the campus. Because the data is starting to be quite a lot, I need to redesign the sidebar so that the user can find informations effectively, without browsing through a lot of contents and scrolling down a lot. That's why, rite now, I'll be working on the UI design of the reorganized sidebar. Basically, classroom buildings and other buildings will be under one group as two different tabs. The same will be done for the departments group.
Time: 4 hours
It was a really painful. I was having so much trouble with this simple tab interface. I think I will make separate test regarding this tab feature but for now, everything is okay. When I first started this project, it was mainly for learning Google Map API. But now that I'm keep adding new feature such as a complex sidebar that I have, I think it should've been object oriented. I'll keep that in mind when I work on my TTC Map project again.
Gather Campus Information - Before November 14, 2006
Actually, I have already started to work on this, but didn't log it in here. So far, I collected the information for all programs under Faculty of Arts and Business Management in Ryerson University, which includes all the staff and prof.'s in those programs. Now I need to do the same with rest of the faculties.
Time: 1 week
It was a pain to type all those people's information in my xml file. Unfortuanely, I still have a lot more to finish. While at it, I also, made a tab system in the sidebar to organize the contents better. Simple css tab was giving me problem with cross browser issue, but eventually I found a tutorial and used that to solve the problem.
Gathering Campus Contact Information - December 31, 2006
Finally, I finished typing all those contact informations. Contacts for almost every departments completed and the xml files for those are done as well. The xml files have been already used in the map. That was a lot of typing. However, if I ever do want to move on to the next version, where I would like to improve the search engine so that it could search into those contact information, I will have to use some sort of database, since there's a lot of contact information. But by looking at my calendar, I don't think, that update is gonna happen any time soon.
