Crystaldawn.net

UPDATE: This has now been fixed. The auto google key service is back online now. Google thought they would be sneaky and try to break Curl browsers from accessing the key generation API but I've coded a workaround for their sneakieness and it works once again.

The previous method to create google keys has recently changed and my google key generation service doesnt work at the moment because of this recent change. I am updating my service API and it should be working again sometime today. So for now, you have to manually put in your google keys for new installs until the autogeneration api is back up.

Some more pieces of the PHP version of phpGoogleStore Locator have been released. There are now 5 new modules that will eventually be used to put together the Drupal version of PGSL. Currently they dont make up the PGSL installation just yet, but they are still very useful on their own. These are:

Queryable Variables a replacement storage system for Drupal's variable_get/set/del functions. Very powerful, very flexible. This is the storage engine that PGSL will use rather than using it's own tables. This project was part of the original PGSL that was used in the Settings portion.

Parsing API is another extremely powerful module that has become very popular over at drupal.org. It allows module developers to parse things easily using readable code. It provides many functions such as before(), between(), after(), etc. This project was built using the PGSL geocoding engine, PGSL drupal will use this module to duh, do it's geocoding ;)

Module Template System is a template system for Drupal modules. It allows drupal modules to define their own templates that can then be overriden in any themes directory. Drupal 5 lacked the ability for modules to define their own templates so I wiped this up based on the PGSL 3.0 template system. This module is only available for Drupal 5 and thus the drupal 5 version of PGSL will use it. The drupal 6 and 7 versions of PGSL will use the built Drupal template system since those versions of Drupal allow modules to define their own template files.

Drupal Function Override is a SUPER powerful module that I developed to allow COMPLETE control over Drupal. The Drupal hooks system is great, but sometimes it just doesnt allow you to dig deep enough. Using this module we can even re-write how the hooks themselves function. This module has amazing capabilities and will probably be used in PGSL Drupal somehow. I used this module to give Drupal jQuery a compatibility mode so that mootools modules could be built for Drupal. Before this module existed, it was NOT possible to write mootools modules because they would conflict with the built in jQuery installation which was developed WITHOUT using jQuery compatibility mode, a HUGE mistake that Drupal made and was not and will not be corrected in the 4/5/6 versions. The only Drupal version that has jQuery compatibility mode is Drupal 7.

jQuery Compatibility Mode is a module that allows you to install Mootools or any other JS library app for that matter, right along side built in jQuery apps/modules. If you had tried this before without using this module, your jQuery apps/modules would simply not function at all and give JS errors. I will probably use this to add some snazzy mootool applications to Drupal and then use those in PGSL Drupal.

The Drupal version of PGSL is taking a while to produce because I am piece mealing it out into separate modules as I have free time, but it's progress is still moving forward.

Download here: 3.0.0 Beta
I'm not finished with the 3.x branch but it's been in production long enough that I think its to the point where I can at least release it to the community to gather bug reports, take new feature requests, etc. It should be in good enough shape for anyone with some php knowledge to put into production use but if you know now php at all, I'd probably stick to the 2.x version until I release the production version of 3.x which will be version 3.1. 3.0 will be a beta release. Here is a short list of features that can be found in 3.0 This is NOT a list of everything but its a list of the larger changes. There are more features that are not finished quite yet such as Location Profiles (a location can have it's own "profile" page, useful for Realty websites, dating sites, social networking sites, whatever). Locations will also be able to have multiple images associated with them and on the profile page they can rotate as seen below in the example site. I'm still working on pulling all of the custom code out of execnet and putting it back into 3.x, so everything you see here will eventually be in the beta version as well.

This is an example website of a working 3.x site: http://execnetproperties.com/googlemaps/
Yes, lots of neat stuff to look forward to in 3.x ;)

NEW: AUTOMATIC GOOGLE MAP KEY GENERATION!!! No app out there has anything like this 'yet' until they swipe my code that is ;)

NEW: Real Template System using Smarty Templates, this will allow me to take submissions from the community for new themes because we all know I suck at Eye candy design hahaha.

NEW: All code has been seperated from the actual output (see template system above) which is going to allow for integrating into any CMS or custom made website so much easier. You no longer have to edit any php files to get the app to work in your website. Now all you do is edit a smarty template file instead. Editing such file CANNOT cause you to break the application in any way! So now all the people who have little php knowledge can muck around with the app and not worry about breaking anything. This also makes using IE much easier as well and should help eliminate the IE problems from before. IE still sux so its still possible to break, but the likelihood is now lowered just that much more.

NEW: A real Autozoom based on the map SIZE rather than some calculations. This will result in the furthest location always being shown on the map no matter how far from the center of the map it is.

Change: Administration login session no longer has a built in timeout. Many people asked for this to be removed and to use the built in php Session timeout engine instead which is to simply close the browser. It also fixes the "Someone is already logged in" error. This also has the affect of allowing multiple people to login to the admin panel at the same time. Which shouldnt be an issue according to 99% of the feedback I've gotten.

Change: Autozoom levels have been depreciated, they are no longer needed.

NEW: I no longer use gxMarker because it is no longer in development. I've since replaced it with pdMarker which has the same abilities as gxMarker but also has a couple new features as well. To get a full list of pdMarkers you can go here: http://www.pixeldevelopment.com/pdmarker.asp

NEW: Inherited from pdMarker: Hover over icon for map markers. You can now have 2 marker images per location. 1 Hover off image and 1 Hover ON image.

NEW: Inherited from pdMarker: Marker icons can now blink on the map making them more visible, maybe useful for paid advertisers.