Google Maps data

I've been manually posting vendor locations into Google Maps using address info from receipts. On the screen, just above the map graphic, is a tantalizing link labelled "View in Google Earth." But instead of seeing some spiffy Google Earth magic, when I clicked it, all my browser did was download a file named Art610 Magee.kml.


So what happened?

Well, I have Google Earth installed on this computer but it didn't automagically launch. I'll have to fix that. In the meantime, I'm installing the Google Earth browser plug-in to see what happens when that's in place.

The cool part: Give me a file and I need to know what's in it. So, I opened the .kml file in Notepad and learned that it's just an XML data file that uses a data format that Google Earth recognizes.

Here's the DTD that I can discern from the file:

<kml xmlns="http://earth.google.com/kml/2.2">
<Document>
  <name></name>    /* the map name */
  <description><![CDATA[]]></description>
  <NetworkLink>
    <name></name>  /* the map name */
    <Link>                  
      <href></href>  /* URL to location on map */
    </Link>
  </NetworkLink>
</Document>
</kml>

That means a couple of things:

1. I can generate my own .kml files automatically from data so that they can be opened by Google Earth.


2. I can continue to map my vendors in Google Maps and upload all the URLs and other data shown below into my database using batch processing. This simplifies data collection dramatically.

Unfortunately, it appears only to export one data point at a time. I have to see if it's possible to download the entire set of map points all at once.