Friday, March 19, 2010

GoogleMaps Api problem and alternatives

There is a problem with the authorization system of Google Maps API. It requires a domain name to activate the product. In the web site it is said that

"For most applications we recommend that you simply register your domain name. Your key will be valid for that domain, its subdomains, all URLs on hosts in those domains, and all ports on those hosts.

For example, if you sign up for a key using http://www.mygooglemapssite.com/, your key is valid for:

  • http://www.mygooglemapssite.com/
  • http://www.mygooglemapssite.com/mysite/

However this key will not be valid for:

  • http://mygooglemapssite.com/
  • http://host1.mygooglemapssite.com/
  • http://host2.mygooglemapssite.com/mysite

If as recommended you request a key for http://mygooglemapssite.com/ your key will be valid for all of the URLs listed above.

Note that a key for http://www.mygooglemapssite.com/ will only be accepted when the site is accessed using this address. It will not be accepted if the site is accessed by IP address (eg. http://10.1.2.3/) or by a hostname that is aliased to www.mygooglemapssite.com using a DNS CNAME record"

Therefore, we need to search other alternatives to Google map or find a solution to that authorization problem. JXMapViewer can be an alternative to Google Maps API. The JXMapViewer is an open source (LGPL) Swing component created by the developers at SwingLab. It is used for displaying maps on swing panels. On the other hand, Google Earth application already uses Google Maps API as a native PC program, so there should be a way to use it without a domain. This fact encourages us to search more about this problem.

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