About that Openlayers change...

  1. paul says:

    milermeter.com is once again using the Google Maps API

    As many of you know, the switch to Openlayers turned out to be more problematic than I intended. The worst problem was for many users who were finding the automatic routing behaving extremely erratically. At first I thought this was a result of data changes between Google and OSM, but it turned out that certain browsers (I'm looking at you, IE8) were returning results from some other region entirely. It was a very strange and frustrating bug. There were some other issues, but that one was the real deal-breaker.

    (So you know, I did test on IE! Just not enough versions.)

    The site has been returned to the Google Maps API. A couple of things to note:

    - The version of the Maps API has been updated to v3. There were a lot of changes to make to move from v2 to v3, so please let me know if you find bugs.
    - This means you get streetview now (yay!)
    - OSM is still available as an alternate layer. As of now, the routing for automatic routing is always google, but if people want an OSM routing alternative, I can add that back for the OSM layers. Let me know if you'd like that.
    - Hybrid and Terrain are now hidden under the Satellite and Map choices in the MapType chooser. This is a result of the v2 --> v3 upgrade.
    - The new USGS and Oldskool USGS layers have been removed, but that's only because they're offline due to the US government shutdown. (No joke. Believe me, I wish I was kidding.) They'll be back when.... we have a government again.

    I apologize for interruptions the Openlayers change caused for anyone. There were a number of reasons I made the change, and the main one had to do with trying to avoid paying for Google Maps when a free open source alternative was available. However the usability of the site and the quality of the data are way more important than a few bucks here or there.

    I hope you'll come back, and tell your other fitness-minded friends, enemies, relations, coaches, and twitter followers to as well. This site is has been a long and rewarding journey for me so far, and I'm always working on ways to keep it that way. I hope you'll continue to track your journeys on milermeter.com too.

    Thanks everyone.

    Paul

  2. ufnoof says:

    Paul,

    Loving it all over again! Thank you for listening to what the people had to say and adjusting to it. This is what makes us keep coming back and makes you a successful and understanding businessman/engineer/father/person/etc.!

  3. zinniastars says:

    Thanks for trying something new, Paul. I'm all for open source. Maybe somewhere in the future it'll work.

  4. bpangie says:

    Thanks for this. I didn't even know anyone still used Internet Explorer...

  5. JoeB07 says:

    Thank you Paul for this great site, and for your willingness to improve it AND for listening to your user feedback. I had no problem whatsover with the change to openlayers—worked seemless for me. And by the way, love the USGS layers and hope the govt comes back some day.

  6. ericj_work says:

    Thanks!! Great site, been using it for years and years now.

  7. linkoja1 says:

    GmaptoGPX doesnt seem to work still..

  8. ehess55 says:

    I am back. Thanks returning this to the great tool I have grown to depend on. BTW, I still use IE-8 simply because the machine provided my by the large corporation I work for has that image installed and I am not given admin privileges to change it. I am scheduled for an upgrade soon:)

  9. RussilloSM says:

    Whew! All my old routes are back to their old selves. Very nice Paul. Sorry it was such a headache for you (and more $$) but it was a very pleasant surprise to venture back today--holding my breath!--and find that you fixed it quickly!

  10. Oranj says:

    Many thanks, Order has been restored. Perhaps you should have a "donate" button?

  11. Swilly says:

    Thanks for the quick response. Appreciate your efforts.

  12. slschmid says:

    Thank you sooooo much for returning to the Google Maps API! I love this site, it is incredibly helpful, and I have been using it regularly for NYC marathon training, so relieved that it's back to superior quality! Thank you!

  13. effemmeffe says:

    I'm really glad you switched back to old gmaps maps I prefer them a lot.
    I'm for opensource too, but imho it should be an option, not a constrain.
    For what is worth, I'd be happy to throw a few bucks to help paying the gmaps service if you add some paypal button.
    And I think you don't have to apologize for anything, this site is yours and you do what you think it's good for it. And everyone makes mistakes once in a while, I'm not sure this was your mistake...
    [Please, add some import function sometimes :)]

  14. beowabbit says:

    I, too, would love a way to throw you some money via PayPal (or similar).

  15. minipunk says:

    Re-enabling automatic routing for OSM would be great for me (gmap and OSM differ here often). So when using the OSM layer I always find myself switching between 'automatically' and 'manually').

    Pedometer is a great tool, I use it to plan long runs (though I use a GPS watch). Thx a lot!

  16. Swilly says:

    Any help regarding the maps? I can't switch from satellite view to street view. Please help since this is making my new routes difficult to determine!

  17. paul says:

    Hi Swilly, thanks for alerting me to this. Google deployed a change to the maps API yesterday which moved around the control elements. The map type selector ended up hidden behind the controls on the upper left. I've pushed out a change that fixes this, you should be good to go now.

    Thanks for using the site!

    Paul

  18. dhughes171 says:

    YES Swilly, I am having the same issue. Until very recently, one has been able to seamlessly switch between G-maps view to satellite,or USGS topo (current) or USGS (oldskool), or GSM. So what happened? The only view that is enabled for new maps is G-maps. A map that I recently created and viewed in USGS topo is now stuck in that mode. I am guessing that some kind of change was made to the site which has--perhaps unintentionally--removed the buttons controlling the view.
    Can you help us out here? I love g-maps pedometer and have contributed to support its development.

  19. paul says:

    dhughes171 The change to fix this problem was deployed earlier this week on 9/16. The next time you go to the site, try executing a forced reload by holding down the shift and control keys while clicking the reload button. That should ensure you get the latest updated version of the fixed javascript file.