Maps: Support for drawing markers and regions on the same map.

140 views
Skip to first unread message

Nathan Meryash

unread,
Mar 6, 2016, 12:28:06 PM3/6/16
to Google Visualization API
It would be great if the chart.draw() method supported arrays so that one could draw regions and markers on the same map. It seems necessary as one needs to call different options arguments for regions and markers. Especially the displayMode.

Example:

chart.draw([
  [regionsData, regionsOptions],
  [markersData, markersOptions]
]);

You called the draw() method with an Array rather than a DataTable or DataView

It's also not clear why Google Maps Javascript API and Charts aren't consolidated into one full featured API?

There are also partially featured custom Maps in Google Maps and Google Sheets, it would be great to have more features by combining these two.

Sergey Grabkovsky

unread,
Mar 7, 2016, 9:56:44 AM3/7/16
to Google Visualization API
Hi Nathan,

We have talked internally at length about combining the different ways of rendering the GeoChart, and have thought long and hard about how to do this. We eventually chose to punt on this issue.

Personally, I don't like the idea of passing an array of things to chart.draw very much, since that results in an inconsistent API, and this is one of the things many of the users of our API (including our own Controls and Dashboards) depend on. Adding a new form of arguments to chart.draw would make things more complicated and confusing in that respect. Our preference would be to either specify this information in one DataTable or via options, but we were not able to decide on a consistent way to do this.

The Goole Maps API vs Charts is a much deeper issue than I'd like to get into here, but suffice it to say that these two APIs are developed by different teams, that ultimately have different goals and use cases.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Visualization API" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to google-visualizati...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to google-visua...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/google-visualization-api.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/google-visualization-api/a9a2de6c-3014-4952-acc6-2c49fca4188d%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
--

unnamed.gif

•

Sergey Grabkovsky

•

Software Engineer

•

Google, Inc

•

gra...@google.com


Nathan Meryash

unread,
Mar 7, 2016, 4:23:53 PM3/7/16
to Google Visualization API
Hi Sergey,

Thank you for the quick and comprehensive response. It's encouraging to know thought has been made here and to understand the challenges you face balancing a number of objectives.

Have you considered adding support for layers, perhaps as children to a chart object? Syntax wise, something like the following with the ability to define layer order and blending properties (not shown):

chart.layer1.draw(regionsData, regionsOptions);
chart.layer2.draw(markersData, markersOptions);

Regards,

Nathan


On Monday, March 7, 2016 at 9:56:44 AM UTC-5, Sergey wrote:
Hi Nathan,

We have talked internally at length about combining the different ways of rendering the GeoChart, and have thought long and hard about how to do this. We eventually chose to punt on this issue.

Personally, I don't like the idea of passing an array of things to chart.draw very much, since that results in an inconsistent API, and this is one of the things many of the users of our API (including our own Controls and Dashboards) depend on. Adding a new form of arguments to chart.draw would make things more complicated and confusing in that respect. Our preference would be to either specify this information in one DataTable or via options, but we were not able to decide on a consistent way to do this.

The Goole Maps API vs Charts is a much deeper issue than I'd like to get into here, but suffice it to say that these two APIs are developed by different teams, that ultimately have different goals and use cases.

On Sun, Mar 6, 2016 at 12:28 PM Nathan Meryash <nat...@keenhome.io> wrote:
It would be great if the chart.draw() method supported arrays so that one could draw regions and markers on the same map. It seems necessary as one needs to call different options arguments for regions and markers. Especially the displayMode.

Example:

chart.draw([
  [regionsData, regionsOptions],
  [markersData, markersOptions]
]);

You called the draw() method with an Array rather than a DataTable or DataView

It's also not clear why Google Maps Javascript API and Charts aren't consolidated into one full featured API?

There are also partially featured custom Maps in Google Maps and Google Sheets, it would be great to have more features by combining these two.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Visualization API" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to google-visualization-api+unsub...@googlegroups.com.

Sergey Grabkovsky

unread,
Mar 7, 2016, 4:48:36 PM3/7/16
to Google Visualization API
We did in fact consider layers. However, if we were to do layers, we would have to do it in a way that is applicable for all charts (so that we maintain a consistent API). One of the issues that your API design has is that it would make layers inaccessible via ChartWrapper and Dashboard. Another issue is that we wouldn't know how many layers to create without another signal to the chart (i.e. chart.setLayers(2)), or always provide some N layers. This also makes the chart not serializable, since there exists some state that is defined outside of the DataTable and options.

Generally, we try to steer away from adding new functions/properties to our charts (although we've made compromises in this direction with adding getImageUri() and setAction()).

In my opinion, the most sensible way to add what you're asking for would be to have fully composable charts (i.e. have a polygon layer and a markers layer, but this could be applied to any chart). We've been pondering this approach, but it's something that would require a complete overhaul of our implementation.

The next most sensible option (in terms of fitting into the constraints of the existing API) is to have a combined DataTable Format that allows you to specify either a region or a lat/long, something like:
[Region Code] | [Latitude] | [Longitude] | [Location Name] | [Value 1] | [Value 2] | [Display Type]

With certain columns being optional (like "Location Name", "Value 1" and "Value 2"). This would allow you to specify 'null' for the region code where you specify lat/long, or "Region Code" could be an address if "Display Type" is 'markers' or 'text'. "Location Name" would apply to either lat/long or region code. "Value 1" would map to the color of the data, and "Value 2" would map to the size of the marker/text. "Display Type" would be one of "region", "marker", "text", or null (to take the current 'displayType').

I feel that this approach allows the best interoperability with our current APIs and utilities, without adding too many new features, and still maintaining clear control over how things are rendered. This method would also allow users to draw marker data from both addresses and lat/long coordinates.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to google-visualizati...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to google-visua...@googlegroups.com.
--

unnamed.gif

•

Sergey Grabkovsky

•

Software Engineer

•

Google, Inc

•

gra...@google.com


--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Visualization API" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to google-visualizati...@googlegroups.com.

To post to this group, send email to google-visua...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/google-visualization-api.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

Nathan Meryash

unread,
Mar 7, 2016, 5:03:10 PM3/7/16
to Google Visualization API
I like the DataTable concept you've presented a lot; this is simple and flexible.

-Nathan
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to google-visualization-api+unsub...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to google-visua...@googlegroups.com.
--

unnamed.gif

•

Sergey Grabkovsky

•

Software Engineer

•

Google, Inc

•

gra...@google.com


--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Visualization API" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to google-visualization-api+unsub...@googlegroups.com.
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages