Google Maps Gets a Flash API

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Today Google announced the availability of a Google Maps API for Flash which means you can now use Google Maps right inside of your Flash applications. Big, big stuff. I built an AIR application that used Google Maps and had to go through the HTML control but this will make all of that obsolete.

It’s great to see Google continue to use Flash and at least bring some of their APIs up to parity with Flash. With things like the open screen project Adobe is working very hard to be a friend of the open web. In my mind this is a pretty good example that Flash is becoming just as important on the web as JavaScript. From the Google blog:

So, what do I like about the API for Flash? Smoothness and speed are a big part of it. We’ve designed it so that Flash graphics can be used for each tile layer, marker and info window – opening up possibilities like dynamic shading, shadowing, animation, and video. When the user zooms the map, magnification changes happen smoothly and place names fade in. After the user drags a marker, it gently bounces to a halt. Generally, Flash allows for much greater embellishment, and, well… “flashiness.” I get excited just thinking about the creative ways developers might take advantage of having a Flash API for Google Maps.

And a Flex Component from Igor Costa.

Related posts:

  1. Sweetness on Google Maps
  2. Yahoo! Maps for ActionScript 3
  3. Topo Maps on Yahoo?
  4. Yahoo Maps Wins Tech Crunch Map-Off
  5. Google Isn’t Just Using Flash, They’re Using Flex!
  • http://gfxcomplex.com/blog Josh Chernoff

    Ryan can you really tell me you call this a flash API?
    it’s a flex api it’s uses the flex swc file adn the flex display API. I know you can argue that the swf defines it as flash but if you can’t use it in the flash IDE should you still call it a flash API? to be honest I feel left out and abandoned by the action script community because I use the flash IDE.

  • http://www.igorcosta.org Igor Costa

    Hi there Ryan

    I did a little update on the component, could you link again with the new one?

    Regards
    Igor Costa

    new link http://www.igorcosta.org/?p=141

  • http://funkatron.com Ed Finkler

    The terms of service state that the Google Maps API cannot be used on anything but web sites. I had to drop a Gmaps app from a book chapter on AIR because of this.

    http://code.google.com/apis/maps/faq.html#tos_nonweb

  • http://www.curiousfind.com/blog Jamie McDaniel

    This is great news! I had written a blog post detailing my having to use iframes and dynamically changing the z-index and all that trickery in order to use a Google map inside a Flex application with popups. Now this API solves all of that. I wonder if Google will be updating their SearchMash site?

  • http://www.ibiseye.com Charlie Szymanski

    Ryan,

    Just a note about AIR applications from Google:

    There are both technical and legal limitations on allowing the Flash
    API in standalone SWFs and AIR apps, due to our key checking and
    dynamic loading systems.
    Currently a standalone SWF that has the key information embedded in
    the AS will display, but with debug tiles. So you can use these in
    development but not in production.

    We would like to support both of these techniques in the future, but
    we’ll need more time to work out the various issues.

    - pamela

    Disappointing to say the least, I was really hoping to put together an AIR application. Kind of dulls my excitement of having the maps API, hopefully they can work through these issues quickly.