MapCal 0.1 review
DownloadMapCal is a mapping event calendar
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MapCal is a mapping event calendar. MapCal project has the ability to add/modify/delete events and show them on a list like other event calendars. The difference with MapCal is that it also shows your events on an embeded Google Map.
This works great for things like a motorcycle club, or a craft show exibitor. Any place you want to show events and their location. Take a look at the on-line demo. MapCal uses PHP and MySQL. PHP 5+ is required.
It has a built-in geocoder - that is it can look up coordinates based on your event address (Google maps only work with lat/lon coordinates, not raw addresses). Thanks to Eric Angel who offers a web service to do this.
MapCal is free for non-commercial or commercial use, released under the GNU License. Google has their own license for using their mapping service, you'll have to review that and see if it fits with your desired use.
Requirements:
MySQL 4.x
PHP 5.x
Installation:
Extract the mapcal archive in the desired location on your webserver - or extract on your local machine and upload the files.
Create a new blank MySQL database. Optionally you can use an existing database that has other tables in it.
Run the mapcal sql file to create the necessary database tables.
You will need to aquire a google map API key. You can signup for one on google's website.
Edit the app_globals.php config file. You will need to enter your database information and your google API key. You can set the starting center point of the map, also.
Now you are ready to start using MapCal. Just point your browser to the location of your mapcal directory. You can start entering events.
After you enter in your event address on the add event form, you can click the Look Up link to look up the coordinates. Alternatively you can enter the coordinates directly if you know them.
If you are able to enter the exact coordinates of your event, check the 'Accurate' checkbox. This will indicate to users that the location on the map is the exact location, not just the general geographic area.
You should secure the directory where you've placed the mapcal files. Usually this is done with an .htacces file with Apache.
To display the event calendar just include the mapcal.php file on your website like: . You will need to adjust the path to mapcal.php. For example if you have placed your mapcal files in /mapcal, and you want to display the calendar somewhere in the root of your website, you would include it like: < ?php include('mapcal.php')? >
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