Summary

This course will introduce you to the content available through the Google Maps APIs. You’ll be walked through building a real-estate listings site step-by-step, using a beautifully styled Google map, data visualization, street view panoramas, and various nifty location related features such as calculating distance between locations, getting directions, and viewing places of interest data. You’ll also see other examples of Google Maps APIs in action, and understand how to put your new knowledge into practice by creating your own Project in the Google APIs Console.

Expected Learning

As a Web Developer, it can be valuable to add location related features and map visualizations into your websites. Google Maps in a site are engaging, familiar, and reliable for your users-- and the Google Maps APIs make developing with them easy.

Syllabus

You will learn how to use the Google Maps APIs to integrate maps and location features into a website, and how to make in-browser web service calls to various Web Service APIs.

Lesson 1: Getting Started with the APIs

Practice loading the Google Maps JavaScript API and creating a map, styling it, showing markers and infowindows, loading and use various libraries, and creating street view panoramas. Learn about the Static Maps and Street View imagery APIs.

Lesson 2: Understanding API Services

Learn when to use Web Services vs. Services within the JavaScript API. Practice getting addresses from coordinates, calculating the distances, travel times, and directions between multiple locations, obtaining the elevation or time zone of a point, and looking for places of interest around a location/matching a search query.

Lesson 3: Using the APIs in Practice

Learn about monitoring your projects API usage, and securing your identifiers. Check out where to go with questions, how to find information in our documentation. Familiarize with some terms of use and other important details.

Required Knowledge

This course recommends, but does not require, prior experience with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript development. If you’re a scrappy developer, or just want to learn about the functionality without development, go ahead and jump in at any level!