The GMap.module is really great and I love to use it on my website.

But on mobile devices unfortunately the maps are not showing up. The space where they should appear is left empty.

Is there anything I can do to make them show up?
What is the reason, that they are not showing up? Is this a problem of the GMap module or of Google Maps?
Is there anything that can be done to use Google Maps for Mobile instead?

Comments

Antoine Lafontaine’s picture

Antoine Lafontaine commented

Google Map API relies on javascript to do it's magic... although I can't give you any precise details on what version is needed and so on, I would suspect that the mobile device you are using might not support the basic requirements needed to support Google Map. (That would not be a Gmap.module issue)

If you give more details about your mobile device, maybe someone else might be able to give you even more info on the subject.

Hope this helps.

smitty’s picture

smitty commented

Thank's for your suggestion about more details. Here they come:

Until now I tried it with

- Palm TX (http://euro.palm.com/de/de/products/handhelds/tx/specs.html) with the integrated Blazer-webbrowser and
- Nokia N81 (http://www.nokia.de/A4610117) with the integrated webbrowser.

Both devices/browsers support Java Script. But you may be right: perhaps it's the wrong version.

Is there anybody who can tell us something about the server-sided requirements of Google Maps and the GMaps module?

By the way: using http://maps.google.com the maps do not show either.

tom_o_t’s picture

tom_o_t commented
Status: Active » Closed (works as designed)

The Google Maps API used by the GMap module has the same browser requirements as maps.google.com - so if those maps don't show on your mobile platforms then Google Maps created via the GMap module won't work either.

More info at http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/#ProgrammingNotes - links from here to discussion of different platforms and issues.

smitty’s picture

smitty commented

Thank you tom_o_t for this helpful information.

Please forgive me such a stupid question; but I do not know anything about Google Maps for Mobile (yet) and it would be a great feature:

Is it possible to use Google Maps for Mobile to display a location instead?
Is it possible to integrate Google Maps for Mobile in Drupal?
Or what else could be done to use the information of the GMaps module and the Location module on a mobile device?

smitty’s picture

smitty commented
Category: support » feature
Status: Closed (works as designed) » Active

Google offers the Static Maps API (http://code.google.com/intl/en/apis/maps/documentation/staticmaps/) to include Google Maps into a mobile website.

Wouldn't it be a great feature to include this API into the GMaps/Location module?

Then it would be possible to use the JS-API for a conventional browser and the static API for a mobile device, depending on the domain name (.mobi) or the browser-detection.

Is there anybody who has similar ideas and/or knows where to start implementing this? I would like to support this but I don't know where to start.

tom_o_t’s picture

tom_o_t commented

This would be a fantastic ad-on module for gmap. I've been thinking about trying to start a module to do this, but am not going to have time to do so any time soon. If anyone does make a start could progress be posted here? Then I (and hopefully others) can help out.

smitty’s picture

smitty commented

Huh, this is great news! So I'm not the lonely cowboy any more.

But I need some ideas where to begin.

I imagine it could be a block which displays the static map. Afterwards we could use the block configuration to display the static block with the mobile theme and the dynamic block with the theme for the big screen.

What do you think? Do you have a better proposal?

tom_o_t’s picture

tom_o_t commented

Definitely sounds like a good approach.

I've not had time to look at the code or the API in detail, but if it's possible to just create a block that works the same as the current gmap 'dynamic' map block, but outputs the static map, that would be great. And if it can be done as a separate add-on module with minimal patching to the gmap module (ideally none) then it's got more chance of being adopted. I don't know how realistic that aim is though!

Thomas

smitty’s picture

smitty commented

Well, I will try to get something ready. But I think this will take some weeks because I am very busy with other tings at the moment.

I will post my results her.

cradha’s picture

cradha commented

Is there any update on this? I also have the same scenario to be implemented. I surfed google and drupal forum, but I didnot get any info.
We developed JS API Gmap + drupal site for normal browsers. The same is not working in mobile phones. The Gmap displays blank area. I need to implement GMAP+location site on mobiles. Not sure where to start. Any help would be appriciated.

Did you get any work around for the mobile+ Gmap application?

smitty’s picture

smitty commented

Hi cradha!

Sorry. I hadn't any time to work on this topic. Please keep me informed if you get something to work.

poli’s picture

poli commented

+1