Bread and Butter Mashups with Google Fusion Tables

Following up from a recent "An Introduction to Mashups" event we found people were interested in putting together simple mapping mashups. For non-developers wishing to put together a bread and butter mashup, you can't go past Google Fusion Tables.

A basic step by step guide follows.

1. Visit http://www.google.com/fusiontables/Home and obtain a Google account if need be.
2. If you have data in csv or Microsoft Excel format, you can import this directly into Fusion Tables, but for this example we will make a new table from scratch. In Fusion Tables click New Table | New empty table.
3. We can now start adding items to the map. In the first row add some text in the first column and either a textural string for the location, such as "sydney, nsw, australia" or WGS84 Geographic coordinates, such as "-33.87,151.21".
   You can use the edit menu to change the structure of the rows and columns.
4. Once you have added a few items to the table, you can visualise them on a map via the Visualize menu | Map.
5. Once you've loaded the data and are in Visualize menu | Map. There is the button "Get embeddable link" which will give you some HTML code which you can cut and paste into your own web page's HTML. This will then show a map just like the one you see here on your web page.
   Alternatively you can "Get KML network link" and publish the link. The link is to a KML file containing the same data shown on the map. This KML file can then be loaded in Google Earth.
     
6. You can apply simple styles, as well as information bubbles via map “Configure info window” and “Configure styles”.

For example, here is one I made earlier, http://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?dsrcid=357515 which can be visualized via the Visualize menu | Map.

Of course you can make much more complicated, detailed or larger scale mapping mashups. Lagen Spatial are dedicated to providing innovative spatial solutions for your organisation. Visit http://www.lagenspatial.com.au/
for more information.