Interactive Google Map using the Twitter API

Hey! In today’s tutorial we will create an interactive Google map using the geocoding service. Using the Twitter API we will retrieve the user’s location, and then display the profile […]

By Marcin Dziewulski in Tutorials on April 13, 2011

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Hey! In today’s tutorial we will create an interactive Google map using the geocoding service. Using the Twitter API we will retrieve the user’s location, and then display the profile picture on the map. We will also add the click action, after which we will retrieve the user’s 5 latest tweets.

So, let’s start!

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The Markup

At the beginning let’s write some simple HTML code.

<div id="map"></div>
<div class="twitter">
	<div class="inside"></div>
</div>
<div class="posts"></div>
<div class="get">
	<input type="hidden" value="marcinmobily" />
	<input type="hidden" value="codrops" />
	<input type="hidden" value="onextrapixel" />	
	<input type="hidden" value="smashingmag" />			
	<input type="hidden" value="umutm" />
	<input type="hidden" value="1stwebdesigner" />	
	<input type="hidden" value="chriscoyier" />	
	<input type="hidden" value="marcofolio" />			
</div>

Let’s examine the code line-by-line. The first “div” will display a Google map. Another “div” is the place where we store the description, name and profile picture of the Twitter users. Next, we create a “div” which will display the last 5 tweets.

At the end of the block, we store the Twitter user name, which will be used to download the location. If this is already done, we can proceed to write the JavaScript code.

The JavaScript

At the beginning we should define the global variables.

var map, geocoder, marker, ey, my, mouseDown = false;

Then we create the main object that will incorporate all functions used by us. The most important function in this object is the ‘init’ function.

var map, geocoder, marker, ey, my, mouseDown = false;
var o = {
	init: function(){
		// in this place we will call all needed functions
	}
}
$(function(){ o.init(); }

Let’s create a new object called “map” in the main “o” object. It is an object, where the function initiating a Google Map will be placed. The first function in this object is the “size” function, where we draw the current window size. This is what we need in order to display the map in full screen. Then we create the object entitled “data” with the parameters: “zoom”, “center” and “mapTypeId”. When the DOM is ready we call the init function.

var map, geocoder, marker, ey, my, mouseDown = false;
var o = {
	init: function(){
		this.map.init();
	},
	map: {
		size: function(){
			var w = $(window).width(),
				h = $(window).height();
			return { width: w, height: h }
		},
		data: {
			zoom: 3,
			center: new google.maps.LatLng(52, 23),
			mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP
		},
		init: function(){
			var size = o.map.size();
			$('#map').css({ width: size.width, height: size.height });
			map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById('map'), o.map.data),
			geocoder = new google.maps.Geocoder();
			google.maps.event.addListener(map, 'dragstart', function(){
				$('.posts').hide();
			}); 
		}
	}
}
$(function(){ o.init(); }

The next step is to create an object, where we will retrieve the Twitter user data such as name, description, location and the path to the profile picture. First, we create a function where we will retrieve the value of the ‘input’ fields and we will store it in the array. The next stage is another function where every element of previously created tables is looped. Thus, by using the Twitter API, we can extract the user’s location and using a geocoding service we can convert it to geographic coordinates. At the end, we show the user in the right place on the map and put the name, description and user picture to a blank ‘div’ just called ‘twitter’ 😉

var map, geocoder, marker, ey, my, mouseDown = false;
var o = {
	init: function(){
		this.map.init();
		this.twitter.show();
		this.twitter.click();
	},
	twitter: {
		get: function(){
			var arr = new Array;
			$('.get').find('input').each(function(i){
				var t = $(this), 
					val = t.val();
				arr[i] = val;				
			});
			return arr;
		},
		show: function(){
			var users = o.twitter.get(),
				arr = new Array;
			for (i in users){
				var user = users[i];
				$.getJSON('http://twitter.com/users/show/'+user+'.json?callback=?', function(data) {
					var img = data.profile_image_url, 
						screen_name = data.screen_name;
					geocoder.geocode({ address: data.location }, function(response, status){
						if (status == google.maps.GeocoderStatus.OK) {
							var x = response[0].geometry.location.lat(), 
								y = response[0].geometry.location.lng();
							marker = new google.maps.Marker({
								icon: img,
								map: map,
								title: screen_name,
								position: new google.maps.LatLng(x, y)
							});
							arr.push('<div class="item">');
							arr.push('<p class="img"><a href="#" class="open" rel="'+screen_name+'"><img src="'+img+'" alt="" /></a></p>');
							arr.push('<div class="entry">');
							arr.push('<a href="#" class="open title" rel="'+screen_name+'">'+data.name+'</a>');
							arr.push('<p class="description">'+data.description+'</p>');
							arr.push('<p class="url"><a href="'+data.url+'" target="_blank">'+data.url+'</a></p>');
							arr.push('<p class="count">Followers: '+data.followers_count+', Following: '+data.friends_count+'</p>');
							arr.push('</div>');
							arr.push('</div>');
							var html = arr.join('');
							arr = [];
							$('.twitter').find('.inside').append(html);
							google.maps.event.addListener(marker, 'click', function(){
								o.twitter.open(this.title);
							}); 
						}
					});
				});
			}
		},
		click: function(){
			$('.twitter').find('.open').live('click', function(){
				var t = $(this), rel = t.attr('rel');
				o.twitter.open(rel);
			});
		},
		open: function(user){
			var posts = $('.posts'), arr = new Array;
			$.getJSON('http://twitter.com/status/user_timeline/'+user+'.json?count=5&callback=?', function(data) {
				$.each(data, function(i, post){
					arr.push('<div class="post">');
					arr.push(post.text);
					arr.push('</div>');
				});
				var html = arr.join('');
				posts.html(html).fadeIn();
			});
		}
	},
	map: {
		size: function(){
			var w = $(window).width(),
				h = $(window).height();
			return { width: w, height: h }
		},
		data: {
			zoom: 3,
			center: new google.maps.LatLng(52, 23),
			mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP
		},
		init: function(){
			var size = o.map.size();
			$('#map').css({ width: size.width, height: size.height });
			map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById('map'), o.map.data),
			geocoder = new google.maps.Geocoder();
			google.maps.event.addListener(map, 'dragstart', function(){
				$('.posts').hide();
			}); 
		}
	}
}
$(function(){ o.init(); }

Lastly, we will add a ‘scroll’ object that has a function called ‘init’ which is responsible for scrolling the ‘.twitter’ div vertically.

var map, geocoder, marker, ey, my, mouseDown = false;
var o = {
	init: function(){
		this.map.init();
		this.twitter.show();
		this.twitter.click();
	},
	twitter: {
		get: function(){
			var arr = new Array;
			$('.get').find('input').each(function(i){
				var t = $(this), 
					val = t.val();
				arr[i] = val;				
			});
			return arr;
		},
		show: function(){
			var users = o.twitter.get(), // retrieve all users which are stored in html
				arr = new Array;
			for (i in users){
				var user = users[i];
				$.getJSON('http://twitter.com/users/show/'+user+'.json?callback=?', function(data) {
					var img = data.profile_image_url, 
						screen_name = data.screen_name;
					geocoder.geocode({ address: data.location }, function(response, status){
						if (status == google.maps.GeocoderStatus.OK) {
							var x = response[0].geometry.location.lat(), 
								y = response[0].geometry.location.lng();
							marker = new google.maps.Marker({
								icon: img,
								map: map,
								title: screen_name,
								position: new google.maps.LatLng(x, y)
							});
							arr.push('<div class="item">');
							arr.push('<p class="img"><a href="#" class="open" rel="'+screen_name+'"><img src="'+img+'" alt="" /></a></p>');
							arr.push('<div class="entry">');
							arr.push('<a href="#" class="open title" rel="'+screen_name+'">'+data.name+'</a>');
							arr.push('<p class="description">'+data.description+'</p>');
							arr.push('<p class="url"><a href="'+data.url+'" target="_blank">'+data.url+'</a></p>');
							arr.push('<p class="count">Followers: '+data.followers_count+', Following: '+data.friends_count+'</p>');
							arr.push('</div>');
							arr.push('</div>');
							var html = arr.join('');
							arr = [];
							$('.twitter').find('.inside').append(html);
							google.maps.event.addListener(marker, 'click', function(){
								o.twitter.open(this.title);
							}); 
						}
					});
				});
			}
		},
		click: function(){
			$('.twitter').find('.open').live('click', function(){
				var t = $(this), rel = t.attr('rel');
				o.twitter.open(rel);
			});
		},
		open: function(user){
			var posts = $('.posts'), arr = new Array;
			$.getJSON('http://twitter.com/status/user_timeline/'+user+'.json?count=5&callback=?', function(data) {
				$.each(data, function(i, post){
					arr.push('<div class="post">');
					arr.push(post.text);
					arr.push('</div>');
				});
				var html = arr.join('');
				posts.html(html).fadeIn();
			});
		}
	},
	map: {
		size: function(){
			var w = $(window).width(),
				h = $(window).height();
			return { width: w, height: h }
		},
		data: {
			zoom: 3,
			center: new google.maps.LatLng(52, 23),
			mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP
		},
		init: function(){
			var size = o.map.size();
			$('#map').css({ width: size.width, height: size.height });
			map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById('map'), o.map.data),
			geocoder = new google.maps.Geocoder();
			google.maps.event.addListener(map, 'dragstart', function(){
				$('.posts').hide();
			}); 
		}
	},
	scroll: {
		mouse: function(e){
			var y = e.pageY; 
			return y;
		},
		check: function(y){
			var all = $('.twitter').height(),
				inside = $('.twitter').find('.inside').height();
			if (y < (all - inside)) {
				y = all - inside;
			} else if (y > 0) {
				y = 0;
			}
			return y;
		},
		update: function(e){
			var y = o.scroll.mouse(e),
				movey = y-my,
				top = ey+movey;
				check = o.scroll.check(top);
			$('.twitter').find('.inside').css({ top: check+'px' });
		},
		init: function(){
			$('.twitter').find('.inside').bind({
				mousedown: function(e){
					e.preventDefault();
					mouseDown = true;
					var mouse = o.scroll.mouse(e);
						my = mouse;
					var element = $(this).position();
						ey = element.top;
					o.scroll.update(e);
				},
				mousemove: function(e){
					if (mouseDown)
						o.scroll.update(e);
					return false;
				},
				mouseup: function(){
					if (mouseDown)
						mouseDown = false;
					return false;
				},
				mouseleave: function(){
					if (mouseDown)
						mouseDown = false;
					return false;
				}
			});
		}
	}
}
$(function(){ o.init(); }

The CSS

First, we will embed our reset.css that will reset all the basic styles, and we’ll define some main properties:

@import url("reset.css");

html, body {
	margin:0;
	padding:0;
}

body {
	font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	font-size:12px;
	color:#333;
	line-height:18px;
}

a {
	text-decoration:none;
	color:#fff;
}

Next, we will define the styles for the map, Twitter posts and descriptions.

.twitter {
	position:fixed;
	left:0;
	bottom:0;
	background:#000;
	background:rgba(0, 0, 0, .7);
	width:100%;
	height:180px;
	color:#fff;
	overflow:hidden;
}

.twitter .inside {
	position:absolute;
	top:0;
	left:0;
	cursor:n-resize;
}

.twitter .item {
	float:left;
	width:280px;
	padding:20px;
}

.twitter .item .img {
	float:left;
	width:48px;
}

.twitter .img img {
	-moz-box-shadow:0 0 5px #000;
	-webkit-box-shadow:0 0 5px #000;
	box-shadow:0 0 5px #000;
}

.twitter .item .entry {
	float:right;
	width:215px;
	height:140px;
	color:#eee;
	font-size:11px;
	position:relative;
}

.twitter .item .count {
	position:absolute;
	left:0;
	bottom:-10px;
	font-size:10px;
	text-transform:uppercase;
}

.twitter .item .title {
	font-size:13px;
	font-weight:bold;
	color:#fff;
}

.twitter .item .url a {
	text-decoration:underline;
}

.twitter .item p {
	margin-bottom:5px;
}

.posts {
	display:none;
	position:absolute;
	left:50%;
	margin-left:-310px;
	width:580px;
	bottom:180px;
	background:#fff;
	color:#fff;
	background:#000;
	background:rgba(0, 0, 0, .7);
	padding:20px;
}

.posts .post {
	float:left;
	clear:both;
	width:100%;
	margin-bottom:20px;
	font-size:12px;
	font-weight:bold;
}

Conclusion

In today’s tutorial you learned how to use a geocoding service and how to use the Twitter API. An important fact to remember is that Google has imposed some limits to its geocoding service. Maximum number of requests in one day from a single IP address is 2500. Also, Twitter will rate limit the IP address from which the request was made.

Stay tuned for the next tutorial!

Marcin Dziewulski

Marcin is an experienced and creative web developer from Poland. He loves putting new ideas into practice and is addicted to jQuery and CSS. Read his blog about web development here: http://www.jscraft.net.

geocoding service google map twitter

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Comments are closed.

Muchtar April 13, 2011 at 13:31

Wawww.. cool… Thank’s bro…
Marco April 13, 2011 at 14:07

Whoah, that’s pretty nifty! Looks great too. Thanks for sharing this wonderful piece of code.

Also, neat to see that my twitter is included in this demo – thanks!
Dave April 13, 2011 at 16:02

Not that I cannot imagine this in use, but it would be great if you share 5 or more ways in which this is useful? Thanks.
e11world April 13, 2011 at 19:43

I agree with Dave and would also love to know a few ways to put this beautiful code to good use.
Jireck April 13, 2011 at 21:25

Really impressive !!!

thanks for this share 😉
Misael Juvenal April 13, 2011 at 23:47

exelente tutorial 😉
Web Development Company Mumbai April 14, 2011 at 07:08

nice & impressive tutorial. It shows the possibility of enhancing google map with custom functionality…
marcos April 14, 2011 at 14:50

Great tutorial, one thing only, the street view feature is available on it, but it wont let you zoom out back to the map
Krzysiek O. April 14, 2011 at 17:37

I was wondering if it’s possible to reuse this code and instead of using Twitter API use a SQL DB with Clubs/Groups that have cities on its record.

I just want to create a big map of all the Clubs/Groups around the world we have in our SQL DB.

Might take couple days of rewriting and adjusting the code.

Thanks for the tutorial, amazing work!
Erwin Schro April 15, 2011 at 19:02

Thanks a lot for this tutorial. Start to play around with it….fantastic
@AlexOA1 April 17, 2011 at 23:09

Nice application. Thanks and Grats 4 your development.
assadotcom April 18, 2011 at 00:05

Nice!!!
Thanks 4 Share Marcin ^_^
Ram April 18, 2011 at 09:48

Really a good quality tutorial. Thanks Marcin, Thanks Codrops. 🙂
Bart April 18, 2011 at 14:01

Won’t work with my twitter, with those of my friend it does. I wasn’t using location information, so i turned it on (on my iphone) and posted 5 tweets with location information. But still no result.

Anyone?
Joris April 19, 2011 at 12:38

Hi,

nice idea. I am trying it out for a few friends that are all in one city…

I can change the zoom and the location of the map. But it seems that only one image is being showed…

If i zoom in to have more space between the locations there is also only one (thought they would disappear beneath each other…

Any ideas?
Austin April 27, 2011 at 20:55

Demo seems broken.
Yourheadfor April 28, 2011 at 17:29

Thank you for that awesome script. I have built a Webcam, Twitter, Google Maps mashup. The idea is to offer a personalized but very simple voting site to display the wisdom of the crowd. Your script helped me with the Google Maps part, of course.

If you want to have a look go to http://yourheadfor.com and click on “SEE WORLDMAP”. Thanks again. You rock!
filmizle May 8, 2011 at 08:38

Waoowww really a good quality tutorial. Thanks Marcin 🙂
adam June 9, 2011 at 10:05

i would like to center the map on america please
adam June 9, 2011 at 10:06

thank!

data: {
82 zoom: 3,
83 center: new google.maps.LatLng(52, 23),
josh July 7, 2011 at 01:06

The tutorial is excellent, but I have some doubts, it would be possible to publish them here or you recommend any tutorial, I’m new to programming
josh July 7, 2011 at 01:18

i have a many problems for charged of tweet perfil , is normal ?
josh July 7, 2011 at 01:26

this is the url test of my site: http://200.58.112.49/~ib000381/index_.php
josh July 15, 2011 at 04:50

hi first of all thanks for the code, i have a problem the app en mi website only show 11 people, 11 people, somebody knows why, this is my url: http://200.58.112.49/~ib000381/, accept suggestions
josh July 15, 2011 at 05:56

i found some things, the problem of show more of 12 twett profiles its only whit firefox, but IE 8 i dont have problems,
josh July 15, 2011 at 05:57

Another problem is that if I update the website often ceases to show me profiles, suggestions??
Motorush August 9, 2011 at 00:11

Excellent. Thank you for posting example. Two requests:

1. Possible you add hashtag support? (searching on hashtag instead of user accounts).

2. Auto-refresh every 20-30 seconds?
Matt September 4, 2011 at 00:20

This is incredible! Thanks so much!
One question- how do I incorporate zindex. I am building a map for local food trucks, many of them set up close to each other and the problem is that only 1 twitter icon shows up on the map. The rest of the food trucks img icons that are in same location on map are are all hidden below the first img icon. PLEASE HELP. Ive been working on this for 36 hours straight, I’m a noob and its kicking my butt. Thanks a million!
Beben Koben September 27, 2011 at 12:53

haduh…this is awesome…
thank’s a lot \m/
Mark October 8, 2011 at 20:14

Great tutorial. I just used it to build http://canditweet.com to track the 2012 Presidential Election.
Thanks,
Mark
Jose November 15, 2011 at 21:13

Nice script! how i can add hashtag instead of user accounts?
Rick November 29, 2011 at 04:04

definitely a great script, but i also want to know how to add the hashtag instead
alex December 15, 2011 at 19:46

how would you center the map on the location of a single twitter post?
marc December 22, 2011 at 18:57

thanks for the item, wonderful.
i hide your twitter accounts on the map but how can show my followers?
can you tell us?
thanks a lot.

The Markup

The JavaScript

The CSS

Conclusion

Marcin Dziewulski

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