Simple UBB.Frappr wrapper would be cool!

Have ya'all seen what their doing at www.frappr.com ? This looks to be is a really cool AND simple thing to add to a forums site!

Frappr = "Friends Mapper" = based on google maps, lets folks put a marker on a group map for their name and location, and/or share a photo, and/or share a shoutout. If you opt to create a frappr account when you add yourself to a map, then asks for your email and does a listserve digest sort of thing with daily update email that lists new members, photos, and shoutouts

Here's the one we setup for my site that we haven't announced to the public yet:

http://www.frappr.com/dragboatalley

If you see this within one week of the date I posted this message - feel free to play with "Add Yourself" and just put a note in the shoutout that says "test message" and I'll delete those entries out before i show my map to the general public.

Here's another example my hubby found on a very busy forums site that gave me the idea to add a frappr map to my site too:

http://www.frappr.com/performanceyears

So I was thinking it would be kinda cool if we had a simple mod that would allow me to have a wordlet for my Frappr URL. Then add a tweak or two somewheres on the 'edit user profile' pages so that if that wordlet is entered, it would show a hyperlink to that URL (plus the #addyourself bookmark to jump to signup form) so users can easily add themselves to community map from their profile.

Plus might be handly to have a similar link in members directory to 'view community map'. And of course for the non-ubb-savvy folks, the standard main options button addition to put their community map on standard nav links.

whatcha ya'all think?

I played with this myself a bit ( UGN Security @ Frapper ), it's an interesting site...

An interesting idea of this would be to not use frapper at all, instead build an index based on the "location" field and have that drop an index to the google maps code to build a map through your forum itself (all items to acheave this can be blatently jacked from any site using the google maps code, ideally frapper as it contains everything needed); then all one would have to do is go to something like ultimatebb.php?ubb=location or somewat and have a map dropped to them of their memberbase...

It'd be slow as the dickens for large forums though...

wow gizzy - that would definitely be awesome! I was just admiring the frappr service cuz its so KISS, but i love your idea for full google map integration!

fwiw - the frappr FAQ page does mention 2 interesting tidbits thats somewhat related... says their considering both forums integration options and a means of bulk adding people.

I've had a chance to look at the maps system itself, it's fairly basic, I'll post a short example when I get some time...

An example map (Courtosy of Neo from UGN Security):

Code

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  <head>
   <script src="http://maps.google.com/maps?file=api&v=1&key=ABQIAAAA9DTreW2v-JhSGMJK2NR2bxQAwFtDOiz53_k_mZx3HAPw51G00RRSRKXzinstm88neQEBcwX2N5L-Yg" type="text/javascript"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
  <div id="map" style="width: 500px; height: 500px"></div>
   <script type="text/javascript">
    if (GBrowserIsCompatible()) {
     var icon = new GIcon();
     icon.image = "http://labs.google.com/ridefinder/images/mm_20_red.png";
     icon.shadow = "http://labs.google.com/ridefinder/images/mm_20_shadow.png";
     icon.iconSize = new GSize(12, 20);
     icon.shadowSize = new GSize(22, 20);
     icon.iconAnchor = new GPoint(6, 20);
     icon.infoWindowAnchor = new GPoint(5, 1);
     var map = new GMap(document.getElementById("map"));
     map.addControl(new GSmallMapControl());
     map.addControl(new GMapTypeControl());
     map.centerAndZoom(new GPoint(-122.618408,38.255706), 4);
 }
var point0 = new GPoint(-122.639770,38.267571);
var marker0 = new GMarker(point0);
map.addOverlay(marker0);
GEvent.addListener(marker0, "click", function() { marker0.openInfoWindowHtml("<pre>Aboutaleb, Blair 1782 Inverness Dr. </pre>"); });
var point1 = new GPoint(-122.615546,38.236691);
var marker1 = new GMarker(point1);
map.addOverlay(marker1);
GEvent.addListener(marker1, "click", function() { marker1.openInfoWindowHtml("<pre>Abulencia, Jessica 848 Sprucewood Ct 7077626746</pre>"); });
var point2 = new GPoint(-122.603319,38.243735);
var marker2 = new GMarker(point2);
map.addOverlay(marker2);
GEvent.addListener(marker2, "click", function() { marker2.openInfoWindowHtml("<pre>Aby, Charles 1617 San Marino Dr. 7077734516</pre>"); });
var point3 = new GPoint(-122.602245,38.238666);
var marker3 = new GMarker(point3);
map.addOverlay(marker3);
GEvent.addListener(marker3, "click", function() { marker3.openInfoWindowHtml("<pre>Accornero, Michele 1564 Filippini Way 7077628435</pre>"); });
var point4 = new GPoint(-122.612556,38.236996);
var marker4 = new GMarker(point4);
map.addOverlay(marker4);
GEvent.addListener(marker4, "click", function() { marker4.openInfoWindowHtml("<pre>Adams, Domico 1172 Baywood Dr. </pre>"); });
var point5 = new GPoint(-122.621982,38.244116);
var marker5 = new GMarker(point5);
map.addOverlay(marker5);
GEvent.addListener(marker5, "click", function() { marker5.openInfoWindowHtml("<pre>Ahmed, Sabina 1283 McGregor Ave 7077628234</pre>"); });
var point6 = new GPoint(-122.631776,38.244316);
var marker6 = new GMarker(point6);
  </script>
 </body>

</html>

Now, Neo's demo map has 1700 users on it, and it gets quite laggy mapping all these users; but it works and uses google maps directly...

Sorry I missed this... I'd be willing to help in my limited (very) skills

'eh using Google Maps would be better than using Frapper IMHO; code posted above...

keep in mind, having more than a semi big handful of users is goinna lag the page loading...

Mapquest is opening their code:

http://news.com.com/MapQuest+offers+open-source+API/2100-1032_3-6046698.html?tag=nefd.top

Quote

quote:

MapQuest announced Tuesday that it plans to offer Web developers an open-source beta version of its mapping and routing technology.

Might be nice to have more options...