- RT @alevit Working Extended Hours? You're Not Alone: http://t.co/Fl1OFWJq via @intuitquickbase #worklifebalance

Google Maps and QuickBase

By Soumya De | Posted on January 9th, 2006

Hi Everyone,
I am one of the engineers on the QuickBase team and I thought I would share with you an app that I created which uses the Google Map API. Very briefly, the way I use the Google API is to store the piece of code in a QuickBase db page and reference the page using a URL formula. The formula passes in the latitude and longitude as well as some other inputs.

We are interested in finding out …

i) if anyone has felt the need to explore integrating Google maps with QuickBase. If so, what was the need and how have you solved it?

ii) what QuickBase features do people think would be useful in the context of using Google maps. One obvious feature that I’ve heard from people is to be able to provide addresses (as opposed to latitude and longitude pairs) that can be fed to the Google map API to draw the maps. To the best of my knowledge, Google does not offer this yet.

Here is the link to the QuickBase app that I have created.

https://www.quickbase.com/db/bazk8i2wa

Enjoy!

Soumya

About Soumya De

I’m an Engineering Manager on the Intuit QuickBase team with a love for developing all kinds of software. When I’m not coding or learning a new programming language, I love travelling and hanging out with my wife and friends watching movies, football or cricket.

http://raphaelpungin.com/ Raphael

It’s very easy to get a map from an US address record in QuickBase. Assuming you have a table with fields: “Street” and “Zip Code”, all you need is a formula URL field like this:
“http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl;=en&q;=“&[Street]&”,”&[Zip Code]

Note that the Street field should not include a pound sign (for apartment number for instance). It should be in the format ()

For example “123 Main St. (Apt. 5)”

Raphael

[Reply]
MyOffices Reply:
April 29th, 2011 at 10:01 pm
I just put this formula into my browser and i see a map but how can I extract the Longitude and Latitude? I am trying to build a geocoder table to input address and automatically code them. For various uses. Like plot territories or aggregate close locations based on distances.

[Reply]
http://raphaelpungin.com Raphael

It’s very easy to get a map from an US address record in QuickBase. Assuming you have a table with fields: “Street” and “Zip Code”, all you need is a formula URL field like this:
“http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=“&[Street]&”,”&[Zip Code]

Note that the Street field should not include a pound sign (for apartment number for instance). It should be in the format ()

For example “123 Main St. (Apt. 5)”

Raphael

[Reply]
http://raphaelpungin.com/ Raphael

Oops, my format synatax was interpreted as html. The street should be in this format:

[house number] [street name] ([additional info])

[Reply]
http://raphaelpungin.com Raphael

Oops, my format synatax was interpreted as html. The street should be in this format:

[house number] [street name] ([additional info])

[Reply]
Soumya De

Raphael,
The reason you might use the Google Map API is that you have a lot more control over the map and how it appears. For example, you can put in multiple thumbtacks to designate multiple places on the map. You can configure what appears when someone clciks on the tacks etc…

[Reply]
Soumya De

Raphael,
The reason you might use the Google Map API is that you have a lot more control over the map and how it appears. For example, you can put in multiple thumbtacks to designate multiple places on the map. You can configure what appears when someone clciks on the tacks etc…

[Reply]
Mark Shnier

Can you post or point me to where I can see how to put multiple thumbtacks on one map. My real question is “is there a way to take a list of addresses from QuickBase, and feed them all into Google maps all at once.

There is a probably a way that uses advanced features of Java or whatever – I means from native Quickbase it would be nice to be able to take a list of addresses and “push a button” to see them on a map.

Or maybe that would need some development by QuickBase to make that easy for us.

(I can see how to do tyhe integration for just one thumbtack – you just create a formualo URL field. But how would you do multiple points without Javascript stuff)

Mark

[Reply]
Mark Shnier

Can you post or point me to where I can see how to put multiple thumbtacks on one map. My real question is “is there a way to take a list of addresses from QuickBase, and feed them all into Google maps all at once.

There is a probably a way that uses advanced features of Java or whatever – I means from native Quickbase it would be nice to be able to take a list of addresses and “push a button” to see them on a map.

Or maybe that would need some development by QuickBase to make that easy for us.

(I can see how to do tyhe integration for just one thumbtack – you just create a formualo URL field. But how would you do multiple points without Javascript stuff)

Mark

[Reply]
David Hogarty

Determining the lat-long for an address is called ‘geo-coding’, which the Google Maps API does not currently allow. However, the new Yahoo Maps API does allow you to query their geocoding engine, so you could get lat-long for addresses from there.

-Dave

[Reply]
David Hogarty

Determining the lat-long for an address is called ‘geo-coding’, which the Google Maps API does not currently allow. However, the new Yahoo Maps API does allow you to query their geocoding engine, so you could get lat-long for addresses from there.

-Dave

[Reply]
http://www.netrichmond.com/ Greg

I’d suggest partnering with a GIS company like MapInfo to integrate the geocoding piece. With my last company we wrapped MapInfo’s Spatialware as a web service and later integrated the GoogleMaps API.

Anyone who needs integrated GIS functionality would need some robust functionality that a dedicated GIS vendor already provides.

[Reply]
http://www.netrichmond.com Greg

I’d suggest partnering with a GIS company like MapInfo to integrate the geocoding piece. With my last company we wrapped MapInfo’s Spatialware as a web service and later integrated the GoogleMaps API.

Anyone who needs integrated GIS functionality would need some robust functionality that a dedicated GIS vendor already provides.

[Reply]
Constance de Brun

We’ve done a lot with integrating Quickbase with GIS mapping from ESRI. Check it out at http://www.landvote.org and go to the TPL LandVote Mapping System.

[Reply]
Constance de Brun

We’ve done a lot with integrating Quickbase with GIS mapping from ESRI. Check it out at http://www.landvote.org and go to the TPL LandVote Mapping System.

[Reply]
http://datacollaborative.com/ The Data Collaborative

The Data Collaborative is excited to announce Google Maps support in a new service, Mapping, on QuickBase Nation. Mapping allows you to easily plot multiple addresses from a QuickBase database, quickly, easily, and for free! Give it a try and unleash the power of Google Maps in QuickBase.

[Reply]
http://datacollaborative.com The Data Collaborative

The Data Collaborative is excited to announce Google Maps support in a new service, Mapping, on QuickBase Nation. Mapping allows you to easily plot multiple addresses from a QuickBase database, quickly, easily, and for free! Give it a try and unleash the power of Google Maps in QuickBase.

[Reply]

blog comments powered by Disqus

Meet Our Writers

Alexandra Levit

Alexandra Levit’s goal is to help people find meaningful jobs - quickly and simply - and to succeed beyond measure once they get there. Follow her @alevit.

Alison Green

Alison Green writes the popular Ask a Manager blog where she dispenses advice on career, job search, and management issues. She's also the co-author of Managing to Change the World: The Nonprofit Leader's Guide to Getting Results and former chief of staff of a successful nonprofit organization, where she oversaw day-to-day staff management, hiring, firing, and employee development.

Eva Rykr

Eva Rykr is an organizational psychology practitioner. Her passion lies in bringing a psychology perspective to the business world, with the mission of creating a high-performance environment. Follow her @EvaRykr.

Anita Bruzzese

Anita Bruzzese is a syndicated columnist for Gannett/USA Today on workplace issues and the author of “45 Things You Do That Drive Your Boss Crazy.” She has been on the Today show, and quoted in publications such as O, The Oprah Magazine, Glamour, Self.com and BusinessWeek.com. Her website, 45things.com, is listed on the Forbes top 100 websites for women.