CartoView is an open source and free JavaScript framework for creating online maps quickly.
It is integrated with Google Maps, Google Earth + OpenLayers and enables you to take control of the maps in means of function and presentation.
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With the help of its modular architecture, the functionality can be improved without touching the core and there are already extension created like the ones for Flickr, FourSquare, Youtube and more.
The framework is well-documented and supported with examples.
Tile5 is an open source HTML5 mapping JavaScript library that enables developers to integrate existing mapping platforms for providing a rich HTML5 experience.
It is compatible with most of the mapping providers like Google, Bing, Yahoo, MapQuest and more.
Besides the API for mapping, the library is also functional for creating more generic tiling application interfaces.
With the compatibility HTML5 offers, Tile5 is targeted at both desktop and mobile browsers.
Tip: there are very nice demos offered to see the power of the library.
Compatibility: HTML5 Enabled Browsers
Polymaps is a free JavaScript library for creating dynamic and interactive maps.
Besides the usual cartography from OpenStreetMap, CloudMade, Bing, etc., it works with image-based and vector-tiled maps by providing a quick display of multi-zoom datasets over maps, and supports a variety of visual presentations.
As Polymaps can load data at a full range of scales, it’s a good fit for showing information from country level on down to states, cities, neighborhoods, and individual streets.
And, as it uses SVG to display information, you can use CSS rules to define the design of the data.
OpenHeatmap is a highly customizable mapping resource that comes in 2 flavors:
web-based free service: creating maps that can be shared easily (for end-users)
jQuery plugin: more flexible choice with using either Flash or HTML5’s Canvas element to create maps (for developers).
It makes generating thematic maps possible by using the OSM XML file format (OpenStreetMap).
And, if wanted, density/blob based traditional heatmaps can be created too.
The plugin has a feature-rich API and every aspect of the maps can be controlled with JavaScript (like adding pop-ups, allowing zoom, changing colors and sizes, etc.).
MooGeo is a MooTools plugin that makes accomplishing common geolocation tasks easy.
These tasks include getting detailed info about an IP (country, city, longitude, latitude, etc.), parsing geographical data from text and even finding Flickr photos about a given place.
The plugin makes use of multiple free-to-use services like:
Yahoo PlaceMaker
Yahoo GeoPlanet
jsonip.appspot.com
W3C Geo location
Flickr.places.findLatLon
and wraps them into a single package.
MooGeo has also support for events on every level (when a request is sent, completed, success or error) which helps offering a better experience to end users.
Requirements: MooTools
Geolocation is one of the most popular subjects for today's web & there are many solutions that help geo-enabling web applications.
YQL Geo Library is an impressive resource for geolocation as it is totally free & JavaScript-based.
It has various powerful features like:
detecting the visitor’s location with the W3C geo API and with IP as a fallback
find geo location from text
find location from lat/lon pair
find locations in a certain web document (by URL)
get the location for a certain IP number
The library is lightweight (4kb uncompressed) & non-complicated. It just works by calling a function like:
yqlgeo.get('217.12.14.240',function(o){
alert(o.place.name + ',' + o.place.country.content +
' (' + o.place.centroid.latitude + ',' +
o.place.centroid.longitude + ')'
);
});
will get you the city, country, latitude & longitude of any given IP.
Requirements: No Requirements
gMap is a lightweight (2kb) jQuery plugin for easily integrating Google Maps into any website.
It can embed a map with a tiny function like:
$("#map").gMap();
and can be customized further with settings like:
latitude/longitude
default zoom level
markers, their positions, info to display as a pop-up, custom marker images
mapping controls on/off
& more..
Requirements: jQuery
Compatibility: All Major Browsers
Thematic maps are very useful when describing statistical data about places. The data, simply, becomes much easier to understand.
Cartographer is a JavaScript library for creating thematic maps on Google Maps which supports custom styling.
It is only a one JavaScript file that relies on the powerful Raphael.js vector-graphics library.
It supports 3 visualizing types:
Chloropleth (color coded regions)
Pie charts
Point clusters
The areas on maps are mentioned as latitudes or regions (depending on the type) which means no hacking or manual calculations.
Every visualization type comes with different options like colors, opacity, stroke & more.
P.S. The library is currently on alpha state but pretty solid.
Requirements: RaphaelJS JavaScript Library
Compatibility: All Major Browsers
Map Icons Collection is a set of 600+ free placemark icons that can be used to mention almost anything on maps with style.
The set is categorized very well in the project's wiki pages like restaurants, culture, sports & much more.
Sizes of the icons are mostly 27*27px or 32*37px and they are all transparent PNG format.
watermark.js is a JavaScript library that enables us to insert watermarks over images quickly and in batch.
It can target any number of images in a web page that has a specific class and apply the watermark over the original image with the help of HTML5 canvas.
The library normally aims to protect images from being stolen. Although, it is not a perfect solution (just like many others) as the image source is plain-coded, it can still prevent non-advanced users.
On the other hand, watermark.js is very handy when you only want to insert an image over another and position however you want without a server-side solution.
Requirements: No Requirements
Compatibility: All Modern Browsers