Incorporating Google Maps Into Scoop

Copyright © 2006 Kelly Black (kjblack at gmail.com).
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

Table of contents:

• Overview
• Licensing
• Create New Database Tables
• Creating a New Op
• Creating New Blocks
• Creating New Boxes
• Changes to Existing Boxes
• A New User Preference
• Notes and Problems

Overview

We introduce one way to incorporate the Google maps API into a scoop site. It requires the addition of two new tables into the database, the creation of a new op, the creation of new blocks, the creation of new boxes, the creation of a new user preference, and changes to some existing boxes. An example of a site that has this can be found at cyclismo.org.

The text and code that is required for the new items is given in the pages linked above, but explicit directions on how to add them to your site is not provided. It is assumed that you have some familiarity with scoop and terms like op, block, and box are familiar to you. If you are not familiar with these terms or are not sure please read the Scoop 1.1 Administration Guide. It is likely that one small mistake could cause significant harm to the appearance and functionality of your site. Moreover, I do not provide any guarantee for the code and this set of instructions. It is likely that I made a mistake in the code or in the instructions that result in significant harm to the appearance and functionality of your site.

The first thing you should do is check out the Notes and Problems section. Prior to making any changes that are listed here you should make a backup of your database. This can be done with the mysqldump command. If you do not know how to use this command or do not know how to look up how to use it to make a backup of your database, then you probably should not be doing this. Get some other help before making any changes to your site.

This description of the process is done in the order that I used to create the necessary components so it is the way that is most intuitive for me. I understand that it may not be so obvious from your perspective, and I can only apologize up front for any confusion you might experience.

Licensing

The code itself is licensed under the GPL, version 2. I personally prefer the BSD license, but the code base for scoop is licensed under the GPL. It seemed like a better idea to keep them under the same license.

This document is copyrighted, Copyright © 2006, by me, (kjblack at gmail.com). It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

Copyright © 2006 Kelly Black (kjblack at gmail.com). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.