Show Tracks on Maps

In principle this is an easy task: to show a track that was recorded by a GPS, onto a Google map. But my search for a suitable applet did not result in anything, so again I did write such a little widget. The term "widget" here might be slightly misleading: the components shown here are not self-contained applications, but pieces of code which anyone could implement in their web site.

The principle is to use an IFRAME, for accessing the script and showing it in a clearly defined region of the web page. The Iframe calls the scripts that I have written - they are hosted on our server.

The widget for showing a track is based on the following:

• a GPX file exists which has the track stored. GPX appears to be a standard XML file, which is used by the OpenStreetMap Community. The Garmin software "MapSource" provides an easy way of exporting recorded tracks into GPS files; and since I use a Garmin GPS, this was the most straight-forward method for me to implement. The GPX file can be accessed with HTTP - this needs then to be included in the parameter URL.


• The GPX file has the track points in the tag . Segments within the track are disregarded - they are simply merged into one track.

The Javascript file that is called by the IFRAME, expects simple the filename of the GPX file (usually given as a URL; tracks can be hosted on OpenStreetMap, and the URL of these tracks can directly be used). This filename is given as a parameter in the URL, together with the optional parameter of track color and track heading.

The script then reads the GPX file. In order to do this, a separate PHP file had to be written which adds the 'text/xml' content-type header before the GPX file is actually loaded. The Javascript file then evaluates the XML file and extracts the points. Start time and end time are recorded too, but no further evaluation takes place. The route is then made into a polygon and is drawn onto the Google Map.

Here is an example how this looks:




This is the code for the above map:

<iframe width="100%" frameborder="0" src="http://creativetech.inn.leedsmet.ac.uk/_Track/ShowMapTracks.php?h=400&tr=tracks/080626_RB.gpx,Red,Bicycle%20Ride" height="400px" >
</iframe>


There is no real reason why these two widget (showing places, showing tracks) need to be in two separate files. In fact, they share a common script file and are basically identical, so either of these files will support all the GET parameters handed over in the URL. The two files may in the future be merged, but for now they will remain separate.

The track display allows to click on the track: a text balloon appears then, indicating start and end time as well as total length of the track. This latter function uses Google Maps function for computing the polygon length.