Map Application Development Using Google Maps API , SQL Database , and ASP . NET

Recently, there has seen increasing interest in developing online map services using Google Maps Application Programming Interface (API), Yahoo! Maps API, Microsoft Bing Maps API, Nokia Ovi Maps API, and ESRI ArcGIS API. Application developers utilize Maps API as a platform and combine spatial data from multiple sources to create new customized services – a buzzword commonly called map “mashups”. The use of Maps API has revolutionized online mapping applications on the Internet. However, there are two major drawbacks in the map “mashups”. First, the application developer utilizes open source methods such as XML, Fusion Tables, CSV, or KML for the preparation of limited amount of usually non-secured spatial data, which are not suitable for data sources in the format of a commercial database stored on a secure data server. Second, map “mashups” is focused on the use of the Maps API platform for the fast delivery of the customized services or data, so they usually lack of sophisticated functionalities and intuitive user interfaces that can offer the user the capability to manipulate the data. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate an online mapping application that requires the access to data sources in the format of a commercial database stored on a secure data server and that offers sophisticated functionalities for the user to manipulate the data. A case study of developing an online map service to display tens of thousands gardens on the Internet for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) People's Garden Initiative is presented. Google Maps API, Google Geocoderer, Microsoft SQL database, Microsoft aspx.NET, and Spry Framework for Ajax are employed to develop this online map application. It is also anticipated that the online map application can be used in major web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 7.0+, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari.