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Geocoding

2000 September 18

Some extensions make use of geocoding to plot location data on a map, such as the location of event venues and events themselves within the EventList calendar component. The AlphaContent plugin will also place popup maps in articles and within AlphaContent index/search results if you turn on its geocoding function.

You will need to provide latitude/longitude coordinates to extensions that do not automatically mapped written addresses, or if the automapping feature of an extension proves inaccurate for certain addresses. Use theLatitude/Longitude Finder link in the admin user menu to quickly find coordinates for any address or location. (This is an external website "wrapped" by Joomla into the Sailing website template.)There are many other free tools like this available online.

Map Links for AlphaContent: To create a map link to any location within an article with AlphaContent, you must use a tag in the form [ALPHAGMAP=longitude|latitude|marker]--but use curly brackets {} instead.Latitude and longitude are digital, and the "marker" is the message that will appear in a balloon above the marker pin for the location on the map. (The marker can include HTML, but do not use any quotation marks.) Example for Paris: [ALPHAGMAP=45.86418|-84.62958|Mackinac Island]

It does not matter where you place this tag in an article. Even if it's placed in the introtext, it will always result in the word "Map" appearing as linked text at the very end of the article. (See example output below.)

{ALPHAGMAP=45.86418|-84.62958|Mackinac Island}

Most scripts or applications using Google Maps will require use of a unique API Key.
SAILING's Google Map API key is:

ABQIAAAAwuvUFhSkaWGf0Mk3hiGS6hTwaocZq_kE9N5hHPgXXGA1Ww1SvxT1wSjJncWihCsuPWNUnI9Ef2dhpw