Nils Lande: June 2014

Friday, June 27, 2014

Google Earth Part 2 - Where are you?

Introduction

The Geolocation API enables a web-page to get the current position of the user, provided that the user has given the browser permission to disclose the position.
This post prints the position returned as latitude and longitude coordinates as well as the accuracy of the position.

The post also uses the position returned to place the camera in Google Earth.

I was actually a bit suprised (scared?) when the camera zoomed in exactly on my house (the accuracy returned by the Geolocation API is 30 meters). My laptop does not have a GPS, so how does it now my position so accurately?

While writing this post I got into trouble with my first Google earth post. While it looked OK when the post was shown alone it did not work correctly in the main window any more. In the main window all all my posts are shown and there my first post had two instances of the Google Earth plugin, instead of one. It took a while before I realized that the id-attribute of the div-element was identical in the two posts. When both posts are shown in the same page this causes a problem since the id-attribute is no longer unique on the page. Reading this is also a good idea: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1841916/how-to-avoid-global-variables-in-javascript

The Geolocation API

Most of the code used for this sample is copied directly from here.

Press the button to get your position, your browser will prompt you for permission. I have included some screenshots from the Google Chrome browser below.

- position will appear here -

When a page tries to get the current position the browser will ask for the users permission trough som kind of prompt or through some privacy seting.

In Chrome a location icon in the address field shows that the page has requested you location. A red cross is shown if permission was denied.

Using the location in Google Earth

The button below sets the camera in Google Earth using the position returned by the Geolocation API.
It can actually be a bit scary; the geek in me said 'wow', while the citizen thought: 'what the ....'.

Furher reading:

Mark Pilgrim has written this excellent article on the Geolocation API: “You Are Here (And So Is Everybody Else).”

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Google Earth Part 1

The Google Earth plugin. This will only work on a PC or a Mac, no tablet or phone. This test only includes built-in functionality. Try to double click left and right mouse button, drag using the mouse, click '+' and '-' buttons, etc. The code is included in the textarea under the globe, 'down-under' so to speak.

The code (minus the text):

Monday, June 23, 2014

The second..

The second...

The second post must be to test if I can run JavaScript in a post.
Lets try a button

Here is the complete code for this post (inside a HTML ~~pre-element~~ textarea-element):
<head> <script type='text/javascript'> //<![CDATA[ function sayHello() { window.alert('Hello world!'); } //]]> </script> The second... </head> <p>The second post must be to test if I can run JavaScript in a post. <br> Lets try a button <button onclick="sayHello()">Say hello!</button> <br> </p> <p> Here is the complete code for this post (inside a HTML <strike>pre-element</strike>): <br> </p>

The first...

writing HTML on the iPad is not ideal. Better stick to text.

Well, editing on the iPad turned out to be completely impossible, so I had to rely on M$ to get the serious work done.

I'll add my LinkedIn profile as well Nils Lande on LinkedIn