The Google Maps API has recently (Weds 21 March 2007) added support for display of KML and GeoRSS.  The implementation is breezily simple, requiring only a trivial link:

var gx = new GGeoXml("http://demo.kml")
map.addOverlay(gx);

Wonderful as qPloneGoogleMaps is, addition of KML support like this would be an enormous leap forward. 

Presumably, the neatest way to implement it would be for map view to parse a folder's contents for KML (and KMZ?) and GeoRSS files and render them in the fashion above, just as map view currently renders markers. 

A tool like this would give Plone a significant edge over rival CMS's, both for those clients wedded to GoogleMaps and for all those GIS users out there who now routinely convert Shapefiles into KML for display in GoogleEarth.  This is quite a broad user base.

There are many competing geolocation products out there now, and my personal feeling is that qPloneGoogleMaps is by far the best available solution at present.  It also seems ideally suited (compared to its rivals) to adding (without much coding) this KML/GeoRSS support. 

Would Quinta care to comment on whether a move in this direction is planned?  If not, is there an avenue for community development of KML/GeoRSS support within qPloneGoogleMaps?

My reason for asking is that as a Plone admin (not my regular job - I'm usually a geophysicist), I worry about the long-term stability of every Plone product that I commit my sites to.  There's nothing worse than investing in a product only to see its support vanish as Plone upgrades, making migration that much harder.  So I'm curious to know whether there is a roadmap (written or unwritten) for qPloneGoogleMaps development, especially as regards KML support.

Cheers,

Colin

Hi, Colin

.

And for now we go back to this question and have plans to implement all needed things for support KML with Google Maps in geolocation . Not all details (what and how to implement) are decided yet, but it will be soon.

So we move qPloneGoogleMaps/geolocation in direction of KML.

Thanks for your questions and feature requests.

Hi Vitaliy,

Very encouraging news!

I wonder if, in the eventual implementation, the add.Overlay var could be either an internal or external link?   Allowing external storage of kml, even kmz, would be quite powerful - e.g., another application could update some kml from a live data feed and Plone could serve it in parallel, thereby avoiding any need for Plone/Zope scripting to suck in the data feed directly.  On the other hand, internal linking would allow browsing and archiving of kml in the Zope database.  So both would be useful.

Cheers,

Colin