Google Maps API Tutorial

Some Recommended Tools

Venkman Javascript Debugger

Venkman is the Javascript Debugger for Firefox and Mozilla. Venkman forms part of the standard Mozilla package and is available as a Firefox extension. You can get the Firefox version here. It's got a pretty steep learning curve.

I now recommend Firebug (see below) rather than Venkman.

Tidy HTML Validator

There are several HTML validation routines around. I happen to like this one because it's not overly pedantic about tiny details, and it gives a neat concise explanation of the reasons why it thinks your HTML is incorrect.

It comes as a Firefox extension, and puts a little green tick on the status bar when it considers your code to be valid, so you don't have to keep remembering to send your page to an external validator whenever you change something, you just watch to see if the green tick turns into a yellow triangle or a red cross.

I don't think it's always 100% right, but I recommend it for the neatness and convenience.

The Windows version is here. There are Linux, MacOSX and FreeBSD versions here.

Web Developer

An indispensable Firefox Extension for general web development.

For Google maps API work, its "Information:View Javascript" facility is very useful for instantly collecting together all the Javascript contained in the webpage and in all the files that it loads. And the "Disable:Disable Styles:Disable Individual Stylesheet" comes in handy for spotting if any of the strange behaviours of your map are due to CSS settings.

Download the Firefox version here.

Javascript: The Definitive Guide

By David Flanagan. This is the book to read if you want to learn more about Javascript.

It's part of the O'Reilly series of Definitive Guides, which are all excellent resources for their respective topics.

The fourth edition is getting a little old, and it is to be hoped that the fifth edition is on its way, but it's still the only book to consider if you want to get seriously involved in Javascript programming.

w3schools

w3schools is an excellent resource for finding details of almost any web-related technology. Of particular interest to API programmers are their Javscript Tutorial and their Javascript Reference, but their information on other topics can be very useful. If you just want to know about how to use one or two features of a technology like XSLT or CSS, you'll find comprehensive information and clear examples.

The technologies covered are: HTML, XHTML, CSS, TCP/IP, XML, XSL, XSLT, XSL-FO, XPath, XQuery, XLink, XPointer, DTD, Schema, XML DOM, XForms, SOAP, WSDL, RDF, RSS, WAP, Web Services, JavaScript, HTML DOM, DHTML, VBScript, E4X, WMLScript, SQL, ASP, ADO, PHP, .NET, .NET Microsoft, .NET ASP, .NET Mobile, Media, SMIL, SVG and Flash.

And it's all free.

MS Visual Web Developer Express

msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vwd/

Some people have recommended this Microsoft tool. I can't comment since my computer falls short of the system requirements in almost every category, so I've not tried it.

Debugbar

Provides a facility within MSIE that mimics Firebug.

It contains a DOM inspector, HTTP inspector, Javascript Inspector, Javascript console, HTML validator.

It's still in beta, and performs very erratically on my machine, and interferes with the behaviour of Google Maps, but it's an awful lot better than nothing.

www.debugbar.com/

Companion.js

Javascript debugger for MSIE.

www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/CompanionJS/HomePage

Requires Microsoft Script Debugger.

I've not tried this out yet.

ieTab

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1419/

Embeds a copy of Internet Explorer inside a Mozilla/Firefox tab.

Works with Firefox 1.5 - 3.0, Mozilla 1.7 - 1.8 amd SeaMonkey 1.0 - 1.5

I think there are only versions for Windows.

This is a great tool for web developers, since you can develop your code in Firefox. Then, with a single click of the ieTab icon, you can see what sort of mess MSIE makes of it, and still be in a Firefox environment.

Firebug

www.getfirebug.com

Firebug is an extension that integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.

Unlike Web Developer, Firebug works on the dynamic version of the page, so, for example, you can look at the way the html elements that contain the map change as you make calls to the API.

To get the best out of Firebug, you need to install the Firefox DOM Inspector. The DOM Inspector isn't an extension, it's an optional component of Firefox. To install the DOM Inspector you need to re-install Firefox and choose the "Custom Setup" option instead of "Standard".

There seem to occasionally be severe conflicts between Venkman and Firebug, when Venkman tries to handle errors that are thrown by the Firebug code. I've ended up uninstalling Firebug for now, because I've already invested a lot of time learning Venkman. If you're starting out from scratch, I'd suggest learning Firebug rather than Venkman plus Web Developer.

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