Hi,

I am running the webfocus 7.6.5.
Is the Google Map an extra module that we have to buy or it is included by default?

Thanks

Majid

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kerry,

Majid,

On questions on product inclusion and/or pricing I would always recommend that you get it straight from the horses mouth and put a call in to IB. That way you'll know for sure.

T

its included. The Developing Reporting Application with graphical tools gives you step by step instructions.

You have to get a 'key' from Google and put it in the client config using the client console. Read the New Features document for a tutorial. That is what I did and, with a few bumps along the way, did manage to create a WebFOCUS/Google page with the HTML Layout Painter.

Google Maps comes with 765 at no extra charge.

Hi Ginny,

I got the key from Google and update the client.
But something is confusing me: to be able to use a report with a Map i need to have the Coordinates: Latitude and longitude in my source file. How can i get them?
Do you have an idea?
Thanks.

For that you'll either have to purchase geocoding of your spatial data or physically get the coordinates you need and create your own table(s).

You must get them yourself. There are lots of services that provide lat/longs. There is a demo file called LOCALE that IBI provides with these so that you can do the demo tutorial. You can join it to CENTURYSALES. Unfortunately, I only have the data on my Unix box and I can't find it on my PC.

If we are talking about Google, why not use Google Earth to get your Lats and Longs, if its a small list.

If you have record sets smaller than 5,000 there are two great free tools that use the Yahoo Geocoding API. The first is Batch Geocode
The second is an Excel app by Juice Juice Analytics

IBI also offers a product called the Geoload Adapter through iWAY Software. The adapter can geocode your data and then load it into ArcSDE (an ESRI spatial database system). You can have it do both or just one piece. It does require you to buy a dataset from TeleAtlas.

I will second MLerner's comments. Batch Geocode has worked well for us. We were even able to get coordinates from non-US addresses which many geocoding sites do not offer.

This is brilliant, I can't wait to try it out.

Only wish I had a business reason to use it.

Hi

First of all thanks to all of you for your comments.
Just wanted to let you know that I found a sql server stored proc that receives as parameter an address and renders an object from which we can extract the LONGITUDE AND LATITUDE and many other information.
This is working fine.
http://sql.geocoder.jetkey.com/default.aspx

Ginny,

I was following the tutorial but i am not able to find all the files used in the tutorial. So it is very hard for me to continue.

Can you please tell me where to find these files.

Regrads.

The files are in the ibidemo folder as long as you have Developer Studio 765 installed. Additionally, for more tutorials, documentation, and demos go to http://ibigis.ibi.com/

Hi,

Thanks i found everything.

Regards.

Just to be clear - "Google Maps" does NOT come with WebFOCUS at no extra charge.

The WebFOCUS INTERFACE and the ability to pull data from Google Maps is free - but -
NOT the REQUIRED Google key.

We verified this with IBI to make sure there wasn't some type of "umbrella" or other type of
agreement that IBI had with Google which would allow us to use it for free.

Read Google's Terms of Service - http://code.google.com/apis/maps/faq.html#tos

More than likely your company will need to fork over $10,000+ per year.

Perhaps IBI should be a little more clear on this in their presentations to avoid any confusion - i.e.
specifically mentioning that it's quite possible that you will need to pay for the Google key.

Rick,

I was able to get a key from Google without forking over any money. I think there is a limit to the number of accesses per day with the free key.

If you want to do something really robust, then no doubt you would have to pay for the privelege.

Rick,

The presentation I attended at Summit did make it clear that there was no charge for the component from IB but if you intended to utilise the Google maps entirely within the intranet then Goggle would want some payment, and we were referred to the Google site for further information.

As with any purchase or usage it is always better to check the suppliers terms etc. to ensure that you don't infringe them.

As per Ginny, I have gained a key (several in fact) from Google to utilise their maps on various web sites that I have created. The keys have cost me nothing because the access is available to all on the internet. None of my sites are WF based (ASP actually) but I have had no problems.

T

Unfortunately, I couldn't go to Summit this year so I have no clue about that presentation.

I just thought it was important to clarify this thread and to make sure people read Google's API.

The confusion we had was we kept hearing "you can use Google Maps for free" or "it's free to use Google Maps" - two very different meanings IMHO.

Ginny, getting a key isn't the problem. We talked with Google and they'll even allow you to get a key for testing purposes. Here's a quote from Google's FAQ http://code.google.com/apis/maps/faq.html:

"As long as your site is generally accessible to consumers without charge, you may use the Google Maps API. For example, if your website is supported by advertising, it likely falls within the Google Maps API Terms of Service. If you charge people to place information on your map (e.g. to list their homes for sale), but you display this information using the Google Maps API on a free part of your site, you'll also meet the Google Maps API Terms of Service.

However, not all commercial uses are allowed. If your site meets any of the following criteria you must use Google Maps API Premier:

* Your site is only available to paying customers

* Your site is only accessible within your company or on your intranet

* Your site will be used to perform vehicle tracking

Remember, Google reserves the right to suspend or terminate your use of the Google Maps API at any time, so please ensure that you read the Terms of Service carefully."

It was pretty obvious to me that's the category my company falls under but I wanted to make sure there wasn't some type of licensing arrangement IBI had with Google.
Fortunately, we have an excellent IBI rep who is very responsive and helpful for all our needs. I'm not trying to bash IBI for this at all - it's an awesome feature and I would love to be able to use this - guess I would just suggest to maybe make this a little bit clearer in the help documentation of "Google Maps API License Key" to the fact that there may be a charge and to read the Terms of Use carefully to ensure that you comply with the service. Is that nit-picky - maybe - but this thread seemed to be an example of some confusion people might have.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: RickW,

Thak-you folks for all your insight into this. After reading the fine print I think, can I assume that if I built an app strictly for my company use only, then I WILL have to pay a fee. Does anyone concur on this?

Would certainly appreciate a response.

Thanka-you

Hi Az,

If this is a WebFOCUS-license related issue, please contact your local branch about the exact cost.

Cheers,

Kerry

I built a test application with the WebFOCUS interface to Google Maps. It is really cool. I plotted the lat/long of fish detections on the Columbia River. Unfortunately because it is for internal use only, I will have to pay for their Google Maps API for Business at $10,000 a year. I just got off the phone with Google to confirm their pricing. If it faced out, it would be free.

That is unfortunately the end of the project. It's back to tabular output for me!

So can you make it external?

No - the data are proprietary. I will just have to wait for a more appropriate application.