Posted by Joe Monahan, Maps API Developer

I’m Joe Monahan, a 27 year old cyclist originally from South Plainfield, NJ and now living in Chicago, IL where I work the days away as a User Interface Engineer with Orbitz.com.

I’m excited to announce an addition to the Google Maps Open Source utility library: the ExtInfoWindow, an “extended” info window that allows much more customization than the standard info window. Have you ever wanted to tweak the look and feel of your map’s info windows? With ExtInfoWindow and a little CSS you can customize your windows to fit the theme of your site. Do you have a lot of subject matter to place in 50+ markers’ info windows, slowing your page load date? ExtInfoWindow can retrieve its subject matter as static HTML strings upon page load, or, for more efficient and real-time goods, it can pull input dynamically via an Ajax shout when the info window opens. On top of all that, the ExtInfoWindow plus mimics the behavior of the regular GInfoWindow, panning the map when needed, closing itself when another window opens, etc.

Sounds too good to be true? Let’s check out a quick demo. Given the current season, and the fact that I’m writing that while the snow is falling in Chicago, let’s create an ExtInfoWindow around the theme of “winter.” All of

the window’s styles come from an externally linked CSS file, while the subject matter is supplied by an Ajax ask to grab the lyrics to “Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!”. (I apologize in advance whether the song gets stuck in your head)

Want to see more? Check out the class reference documentation and more examples. As always, please report any issues you find in the developer forum.

Let me finish up by thanking Pamela Fox for making such a great Open Source Utility Library, and for all the help in getting that utility integrated. Second, I have to thank the authors of “Beginning Google Maps Applications with Rails and Ajax: From Novice to Professional”: Andre Lewis, Michael Purvis, Jeffrey Sambells, and Cameron Turner. The sample cipher in their book is really what jump-started that utility. Last but not least, I additionally have to give a quick shout-out to my team by at Orbitz Traveler Update for giving me the additional day to develop the ExtInfoWindow utility and release it as open source.

Disclaimer:
These views are mine and not the views of OWW or (subsidiary). I am not a spokesperson for OWW or (subsidiary) and neither OWW nor (subsidiary) endorse any material, composition and/or hyperlinks or assume any liability for any of my actions.

Original post by Pamela Fox