Google Maps Guestbook - How It's Made

See the Google Maps Guestbook in action

Description

This set of files can be used in conjunction with Google Maps to produce an interactive Guest Book for visitors to your website.

Instead of a list of name/email/comments, Google Maps Guestbook has a visual interface where entries to the Guestbook are indicated by a 'Marker' on top of a map of the world.

Requirements

• Web hosting capable of compiling PHP files
• MySQL database

Download

Please download the following two files:

• google-maps-guestbook.zip
• guestbook-table-schema.sql

Installation and Setup

(1) Setup MySQL Database

Use the contents of guestbook-table-schema.sql, or the script below to create a table "guestbook" on your MySQL database:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `guestbook` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`lat` varchar(30) NOT NULL,
`lng` varchar(30) NOT NULL,
`comments` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
    

(2) Edit Files

Unzip the files in google-maps-guestbook.zip to a new folder. Edit the contents of the following files:

• addgbentries.php & findgbentries.php: Add the details for your MySQL database to replace the asterisks below

$server = "********";
$user = "********";
$password = "********";
$database = "********";
    

• google-maps-guestbook.js - No edits required
• google-maps-guestbook.php - No edits required
• GXml.js - No edits required

(3) Upload Files to Web Server

Upload all files to your webserver in the following relative structure:

(4) Test

Browse to google-maps-guestbook.php and ensure you see a map of the world with no markers ... yet.

Test the guestbook by clicking on the map and adding an entry.

How To Use

Google Maps Guestbook is intended to be used by visitors to your website.

The interface has a minimal set of options to make the new entry process as simple and as quick as possible.

How It Works

Guestbook entries are stored in the MySQL database.

Relevant Links

https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript

Version History

• Version 1.0 (15/12/2005) - Allow visitors to add their comments and save them in a MySQL DB
• Version 2.0 (14/04/2011) - Some updates in between, but finally updated to match the current version
• Version 2.1 (31/07/2011) - Update to addgbentries.php ... $doc = preg_replace("/\\\\/","",$doc);
• Version 2.2 (02/11/2013) - Minor updates. Add debug option in google-maps-guestbook.js