Google just released a Static Maps API. That means no more grabbing screenshots. This is some great timing as I’m currently working on a project which needs to incorporate static Google Maps. It’s really quite cool how it works. No javascript, just an image. Within your html, you simply place an image with the source pointing to a URL which contains parameters such as location, zoom level, map type etc.

Here’s an example using the following url:

http://maps.google.com/staticmap?markers=29.204019,- 81.049919&zoom=12&size=512×512&maptype=roadmap&key =MAPS_API_KEY

In the example URL above I’ve bolded all of the parameters. There are numerous available parameters, of which I used five; markers, zoom, size, maptype, and key.

You’ll see that I used the markers parameter to define where I wanted the marker placed. In this case it’s at Daytona Beach (Bike Week starts this weekend, after all). If you don’t want a marker, and just a clean map of an area you would use the center parameter rather than the markers parameter. Those numbers that come after the markers parameter are the latitude and longitude. How did I come up with these values? I visited google.com/maps and brought up the location I wished to mark. Then I clicked the “link to this page” button at the top right of the map. The url it spit out contained the latitude and longitude I needed.

The next parameter used was zoom. This value can be set anywhere in the range of 0-19 with 0 being a view of the entire earth. The next two parameters I could have left out, as the values I selected for size and maptype are the default values anyway. But, it is nice to have the option to select a size, horizontal pixels by vertical pixels as well as the option to select a mobile map type using the maptype parameter. The last parameter I used was key. This is required as this is where you place your specific API key. You can obtain this key for free.

This is just a very brief example of what you can do with the Google Static Maps API. For more information check out Google’s documentation.

Alright folks, first of all I want to apologize for the lack of an entry in quite some time. Secondly, I’d like to warn you to not get too excited yet. This will be a short entry. A very short entry in fact. The reason? It’s near midnight, and I’m tired. Why so tired? Well, I recently registered for the 2007 Kiawah Island Triathlon. It’s an Olympic distance tri, which means 1.5km swim, 45km bike, and a 10km run. Wow!

How might I do this? I’m training fairly rigorously (for what I’m used to anyway). Since it’s my first triathlon and I’m not quite sure what I’m doing, and am quickly learning there is lots to learn, I have taken to none other than… the internet for help. I picked up a training schedule at beginnertriathlete.com and found a rather entertaining podcast and blog at zentriathlon.com.

Hopefully those links will keep you entertained for the next day or so until I update with a more detailed explanation for all of this craziness. Oh yea, I also took a little time to tweak my style sheet and uploaded my about page, which you can access via the navigation at the top of the site.

Ah yes, before I forget.. this one is especially for you Poppie..

You folks that followed my AT journal back in 2005 may remember a fellow hiker by the name of “Daytripper”. Well, she’s back at it again. Except this time she’s on the CT, or for those not in the know, the Colorado Trail. If my memory serves me correctly, that’s around 454 miles or something like that (too tired to use google right now). So, go check out her CT 07 trail journal and cheer her on.

I’m out.. Peace.

Spent my day at the SCWAC with a fellow designer, and co-worker. The event was held at the South Carolina Convention Center and was put on by the good folks at access-sc.org. The speakers were great, and I’m excited to say I came out as a more knowledgeable web designer. I’ve already begun putting this knowledge into action right here in this blog entry. To explain:

For the acronym “SCWAC” above, I added a title tag that reads “S C W A C” so that a screen reader will read “S-C-W-A-C” and not “Seh-Cah-Wack”. The second bit of advice I have implemented is a “skip to main content” rather than a “skip navigation” link. The reason behind this is because though we web 2.0 savvy design geeks, and every other persons that uses the internet on a semi-regular basis would know what the term “navigation” refers to, not everyone knows that it refers to the main menu used to navigate through-out a website. Thus, by changing the it to “skip to main content” one more question mark is erased from our users’ thought process and our end result of a happy user is even more likely. Cool!

Where is this “skip to main content” link that I am referring to? Well, because my main content is readily accessible for a sighted user, I hid it from you! Sorry, but all you have to do to get to the main content is start reading. This is why I have placed my main content where it is, well it is one of the factors that went into the layout anyway.

While we are on the note of hiding things. Geniese James, senior designer at sc.gov recently returned from what must have been an amazing trip to An Event Apart Boston and had a bit of knowledge to share with me regarding good ole “display: none;”. For those of you that don’t know, “display: none;” allows a designer to “hide” an element on the screen, while keeping it in the html document. I’ve often used this to hide things. If today was yesterday, I would have hid my “skip to main content” link with “display: none;”. However, today is not yesterday. (whew!) Today, is a day in which I have been enlightened. Apparently, screen readers have gotten “smart” and have started to plunge into style sheets a bit.. thus, users of modern screen readers may actually not be able to see the content that has purposely been set to “display: none;” for sighted users but left in the xhtml specifically so that users of screen readers could still see it. So, alas.. as much as I hate to do it, I’m forced to either absolutely position the element I want to hide off screen or use negative margins or some other creative and oh so clutter-like attribute to hide elements. In today’s “skip to main content” instance I decided to go with a negative margin, for the simple reason that it seemed like the most natural, cleanest way to do it.. well besides “display: none;”. Doh! This one is going to eat at me for a while! And so is the web..

On another note, Apple multi-touch displays… ooh, how nice would it be? You may want to check this out: Video of multi-touch display demo

There aren’t many, but for those of you who have already managed to find your way here.. this site is very much under construction.

To give a (very) general overview of where the site is at:

I’m happy.. I think.. with the basic layout.. though, I’m not finished working through the navigation.. Originally this design was meant to be for my blog.. whenever that was to come about.. However, this particular site has now taken a larger role.. I now plan to use this site as a central hub for all things Ken Seals.. a blog, a portfolio, a journal, a photo album.. you get the idea. Therefore.. in regards to the site’s navigation.. I think I may have to come up with a better solution. The current navigation is great for a blog setup, but when there are multiple pages that will each have a unique objective requiring independent navigation.. I feel the current navigation just won’t fit the bill. I do think, though.. that I can keep the same feel and still implement the current navigation which will serve as each page’s unique navigation. Yet, for the overall navigation, I haven’t settled on a solution.. but I’m leaning toward some sort of top navigation.. perhaps tabbed.. perhaps something different.. I’ll tinker with it over the next few days and see where I end up. So again, this site is very much a work in progress.. but, within the next week it should be a fully functional “work in progress” so that at least each page that is referred to is actually a page.. enjoy watching the progress.. I’m off to sleep, more later.