How to create a Googlemap mashup site in hours using Drupal or Joomla!

A Google map mashup site will typically permit content , profiles etc to be linked to a specific geographical location and displayed as a marker on a Google map . Such a website can be extremely useful for real estate marketing and also for social networks of moderate size. When clicked each marker will display the content that generated it. A page teaser can also be displayed on hover.This type of site is the basis of Pimp My Pizza a personal project which I am working on and which will enable users list and rate restaurants all over the UK. Another example is at World Adrenaline (www.worldadrenaline.com) for which I also developed the back end. In my book Drupal 6 Site Blueprints , I show you how to build a basic Googlemap mashup site from the following fictional brief:

When Winston Groovy returned home to his wife Rita in Kingston, Jamaica, after being missing for two days, Rita was not amused. This was the third weekend in a row that Winston had claimed to have been abducted by aliens. But Winston really did seem quite sincere and sober ("Yeah man! Dem mash me up", he claimed), and Rita was, as usual, very forgiving and quite happy to have her Winston back home. However, to save other people from the heartache of having their loved ones permanently lost to extra-terrestrial kidnappers, Rita Groovy has decided to create a web site called Alienspotting to aggregate occurrences of alien sightings all over the world. The web site will consist of:

• A description of encounters with aliens including photos, if available
• A means for the site users to comment on stories and recent comments to be shown on a side bar
• A front page world map, with each documented encounter showing on it as a marker

The sample map shows two posts describing alien sightings and marked by pegs on a Googlemap. Now Rita Groovy know where to start looking for Winston when he finally goes missing permanenly !!.

When developing with Drupal this type of site can be quite easy to build and can be completed in less than a day without even using a developer.The essential contribution modules are the Gmap and Location modules. The CCK module however gives more flexibility in creating of new content types and fields. I am not giving a freebie tutorial on this one however. I've gotta eat too. Get the book. :)

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