Drupal 7 and google maps v3. Which is the module to use ?

Question

I need to store lat/lng into a content type for the obviously normal thing: display a google maps. But for the moment I have see that the better modules for google map integration using v2 that it is deprecated.

In my content type I request the others data (street, city, country, county) so I do not need a module that need to insert this data. This because I need to insert this data into a SOLR server.

So, which is the best module for Drupal that use google maps v3 ? Or I need to create one custom that use (for example) gmap3.net's js script ?

Thanks.

M.

Answer 1

The approach should be map agnostic. You need to break things in two parts:

1. Storing location data
2. Displaying this data on a map

1) Data storage.

You'll need three modules here:

• Address field to store addresses (http://drupal.org/project/addressfield)
• Geofield to store latitude/longitude (http://drupal.org/project/geofield)
• Geocoder to geocode addresses from addressfield into lat/lon for geofield (http://drupal.org/project/geocoder)

It may look difficult, but it is really easy to configure these three modules to play nicely.

2) Data display.

Now having data stored in database we can choose any display approach we want. Here you have two+ choices: - GMap (http://drupal.org/project/gmap) - OpenLayers (http://drupal.org/project/openlayers) - As a third option, you can have a custom js code which plays with Google Maps

Everything depends on your final goal. OpenLayes plays with different map engines and to me it looks a bit bloated. If you go with GMap you'll get Google Maps V3 support which is better to stick with instead of Google Maps API V2. Google Maps API V2 development has stopped, no new features are being rolled and it can be abandoned at any moment, so why to risk?

Go with custom js maps code if GMap module doesn't give you what you need. But I do really suggest you to look at GMap module a little bit closer.

Answer 2

Getlocations Module (https://drupal.org/project/getlocations) has been the first to bring the GMAP/Location Module (Google Maps V2 Api based) to Google Maps API 3 version. It has rapidly developed and extended its functionalities and is still actively developed … At the same time I would recommend the IP Geolocation Views & Maps (https://drupal.org/project/ip_geoloc) that integrated with the Getlocations Module and that is able to nicely work with Google API 3 Maps …