Download from the WordPress plugin repository.

The following example uses the included example.kml file.

The following examples use the included example.xml file.

<markers>
<!-- Marker Z has no html to show nonclickability-->
<marker lat="-31.9554" lng="115.85859"  icon="Z" color="c89bff"/>
<marker lat="-32.053128" lng="115.745869" html="Fremantle"  icon="1" color="6b98ff"/>
<!-- Standard marker with html-->
<marker lat="-32.036036" lng="115.92724" html="<b>Lynwood</b><br>Residence of the author" color="ffed5c"/>
<marker lat="-31.963013" lng="115.836239" html="Kings Park" icon="KP" color="97ec7d"/>
<!-- Character marker with html that includes link-->
<marker lat="-31.956659" lng="115.869906" html="<a href="http://perthmint.com.au" rel="nofollow">Perth Mint</a>" icon="$" color="ffffff"/>
<!-- Example of two lines-->
<line colour="#0000FF" width="2" opacity="0.75">
	<point lat="-32.027579" lng="115.751266" />
	<point lat="-31.987404" lng="115.769463" />
	<point lat="-31.957697" lng="115.852203" />
	<point lat="-31.963814" lng="115.879326" />
	<point lat="-32.026415" lng="115.942154" />
</line>
<points colour="#FF0000" width="4" opacity="0.75">
	<point lat="-32.053128" lng="115.745869" />
	<point lat="-31.963013" lng="115.836239" />
	<point lat="-31.9554" lng="115.85859" />
	<point lat="-31.956659" lng="115.869906" />
	<point lat="-32.036036" lng="115.92724" />
</points>
</markers>

• Marker Z – no HTML, nonclickable.
• Marker 1 – standard maker with some text.
• Marker Default – no icon defaults to standard Google Maps marker.
• Marker $ – symbols can even be displayed on a marker and links in the HTML.
• Marker KP – up to two characters can be displayed.

To display a map, simply type;

thydzikgooglemap(example.xml)

For the more adventurous;

thydzikgooglemap(example.xml, width, height, zoom, maptype)

where;

• example.xml is your xml file, and example xml file is included with thdyzikGoogleMap in the plugin directory.
• width is the optional width parameter, if left out the default width defined in the thydzikgooglemap options will be used.
• height is the optional height parameter, if left out the default height defined in the thydzikgooglemap options will be used.
• zoom is the optional zoom level from 0 to 17 (0 being the furthest away), if left out zoom will be calculated automatically to fit all points.
• maptype is the optional map type parameters, which can be (Normal, G_NORMAL_MAP, N), (SATELLITE, G_SATELLITE_MAP, S), (HYBRID, G_HYBRID_MAP, H), (PHYSICAL, G_PHYSICAL_MAP, P, TERRAIN or T) if left out Normal is defined.

Normal, G_NORMAL_MAP, N or left out; i.e. thydzikgooglemap(example.xml), thydzikgooglemap will produce a default styled map;

SATELLITE, G_SATELLITE_MAP, S; i.e. thydzikgooglemap(example.xml, 4, S), thydzikgooglemap will produce a satellite styled map. Note I have included a zoom of 4, and used the abreviation ‘S’;

HYBRID, G_HYBRID_MAP, H; i.e. tHyDzIkGoOgLeMaP(example.xml,hYbRiD,450,225), thydzikGoolgeMap will produce a hybrid styled map. Note I have included a width and height, and proved that capitalisation is not of concern;

PHYSICAL, G_PHYSICAL_MAP, P, TERRAIN or T; i.e thydzikgooglemap(example.xml,TERRAIN), thydzikgooglemap will produce a terrain styled map;

Reading XML from different folder
The XML can be in any location, as long as the whole path is specified i.e. thydzikgooglemap(http://thydzik.com/geocaching/karratha-mar08/karratha-mar08.xml). Yes, even links in the marker text are preserved.

Reading XML from different domain
The XML can even be on a different domain, as long as the whole path is specified. i.e. thydzikgooglemap(http://sonyaandtravis.com/maps/our-nullarbor-adventure-clare-melbourne08.xml).

Recently, I have had a need to do the same with circular markers. It uses the ‘Image Smooth Arc‘ function provided by Ulrich Mierendorff.

Similarly, I provide a little demo of some PHP code that does this that I quickly whipped up. Here are some example markers:

(Have a look at the image name)

Now that gets a little boring, how about some color:

(Again, have a look at the image name)

Again, you will need to download the modified arial font and host it in the same directory.

Have a look at the PHP source code below:

<?php
	include ("imageSmoothArc_optimized.php");

	$color = $_GET['color'];
	if (!$color) {$color = "ff776b";} //default google map color
	$color = str_replace("#", "", $color);
	$string = $_GET['text'];

	$font = realpath('arial.ttf');

	//unfortunately we still must do some offsetting
	switch (ord(substr($string,0,1))) {
		case 49: //1
			$offset = -2;
			break;
		case 55: //7
			$offset = -1;
			break;
		case 65: //A
			$offset = 1;
			break;
		case 74: //J
			$offset = -1;
			break;
		case 84: //T
			$offset = 1;
			break;
		case 99: //c
			$offset = -1;
			break;
		case 106: //j
			$offset = 1;
			break;
	}
	if (strlen($string) == 1) {
		$fontsize = 10.5;
	} else if (strlen($string) == 2) {
		$fontsize = 9;
	} else {
		$fontsize = 10.5;
		$offset = 0; //reset offset
		$string = chr(149);
	}

	$bbox = imagettfbbox($fontsize, 0, $font, $string);
	$width = $bbox[2] - $bbox[0] + 1;
	$height = $bbox[1] - $bbox[7] + 1;

	$im = imagecreatetruecolor(20, 20);

	//add the alpha
	$trans_colour = imagecolorallocatealpha($im, 0, 0, 0, 127);
	imagefill($im, 0, 0, $trans_colour);

	imageAlphaBlending($im, true);
	imageSaveAlpha($im, true);

	$bord_ellipse = array (0, 0, 0, 0);
	imageSmoothArc($im, 9, 10, 17, 17, $bord_ellipse, 0, 2*M_PI); //x, y, width, hegiht

	$fill_ellipse = array (hexdec(substr($color,0,2)), hexdec(substr($color,2,2)), hexdec(substr($color,4,2)), 0);
	imageSmoothArc($im, 9, 10, 16, 16, $fill_ellipse, 0, 2*M_PI); //x, y, width, hegiht

	$black = imagecolorallocate($im, 0, 0, 0);
	imagettftext($im, $fontsize, 0, 11 - $width/2 + $offset, 9 + $height/2, $black, $font, $string);

	header("Content-type: image/png");
	imagepng($im);
	imagedestroy($im);
?>

Google has gone in the right step their MapIconMaker allowing very customisable markers using the Charts API marker output. But why not take this a step further and add dynamically generated text as well.

Hence, I provide a little demo of some PHP code that does this that I quickly whipped up. Here are some example markers:

(Have a look at the image name)

Now that gets a little boring, how about some color:

(Again, have a look at the image name)

Unfortunately, not all symbols work (not sure why, even though they are in the font) and if the symbol doesn’t work it will default to the default bullet (this is done with a modified font file).

Also there may be an issue with alignment. All main characters 0-9 and A-Z; I have added manual offsets, this could be improved.

You will need to download the modified arial font and host it in the same directory.

Update: it looks like in Internet Explorer the transparencies are incorrectly displayed, this is not the case when displayed on a Google Map.

Have a look at the PHP source code below:

<?php
	 $color = $_GET['color'];
	 if (!$color) {$color = "ff776b";} //default google map color
	 $color = str_replace("#", "", $color);
	 $string = $_GET['text'];

	 //some smarts to prevent hotlinking
	 if (!stristr($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'], "thydzik.com")) {
		$string = chr(169);
	 }
	 $font = 'arial';

	 //unfortunately we still must do some offsetting
	 switch (ord(substr($string,0,1))) {
		 case 49: //1
			$offset = -2;
			break;
		 case 55: //7
			$offset = -1;
			break;
		 case 65: //A
			$offset = 1;
			break;
		 case 74: //J
			$offset = -1;
			break;
		 case 84: //T
			$offset = 1;
			break;
		 case 99: //c
			$offset = -1;
			break;
		 case 106: //j
			$offset = 1;
			break;
	 }
	 if (strlen($string) == 1) {
		$fontsize = 10.5;
	 } else if (strlen($string) == 2) {
		$fontsize = 9;
	 } else {
		$fontsize = 10.5;
		$offset = 0; //reset offset
		$string = chr(149);
	 }

	 $bbox = imagettfbbox($fontsize, 0, $font, $string);
	 $width = $bbox[2] - $bbox[0] + 1;
	 $height = $bbox[1] - $bbox[7] + 1;

	 $image_name = "http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=mm&chs=20x34&chco=$color,$color,000000&ext=.png";
	 $im = imagecreatefrompng($image_name);
	 imageAlphaBlending($im, true);
	 imageSaveAlpha($im, true);
	 $black = imagecolorallocate($im, 0, 0, 0);

	 imagettftext($im, $fontsize, 0, 11 - $width/2 + $offset, 9 + $height/2, $black, $font, $string);

	 header("Content-type: image/png");
	 imagepng($im);
	 imagedestroy($im);
?>

EDIT: 27th January 2010

I have experienced some users with errors produced by the imagecreatefrompng, either due to versions <4.3.0 disabling remote file access or allow_url_fopen being disabled.

A greater supported alternative is to use curl to fetch the Google marker. Replace the above with the below modification;

	$image_name = "http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=mm&chs=20x34&chco=$color,$color,000000&ext=.png";

	$ch = curl_init();
	curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $image_name);
	curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 0);

	// Getting binary data
	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_BINARYTRANSFER, 1);

	$image_string = curl_exec($ch);
	curl_close($ch);

	$im = imagecreatefromstring ($image_string);

EDIT: 30th November 2011

Hosting of these dynamic markers, linked on NumericIcons is using all my allocated hosting server resources. I have modified the script to redirect to Google’s dynamic markers (yes, Google has the equivalent) hopefully that will take some of the load off, and I won’t need to remove it totally.

They look slightly different to mine;

	if (!$color = $_GET['color']) {
		$color = "ff776b"; //default google map color
	}
	$color = str_replace("#", "", $color);

	if (!$text = $_GET['text']) {
		$text = "%e2%bc%80"; //default google map icon
	}

	header("Location: http://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chst=d_map_pin_letter&chld={$text}|{$color}|000000&.png");

EDIT: 6 December 2011
I now have implemented an Apache Mod_Rewrite solution, which will take all load off the php processing, existing users should see no difference.

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^text=([^&]*)$
RewriteRule ^thydzikGoogleMap/markerlink\.php$ http://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chst=d_map_pin_letter&chld=%1|ff776b|000000&.png? [R,L]

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^color=([^&]*)$
RewriteRule ^thydzikGoogleMap/markerlink\.php$ http://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chst=d_map_pin_letter&chld=â¼€|%1|000000&.png? [R,L]

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^text=(.*)\&color=(.*)$
RewriteRule ^thydzikGoogleMap/markerlink\.php$ http://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chst=d_map_pin_letter&chld=%1|%2|000000&.png? [R,L]

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^color=(.*)\&text=(.*)$
RewriteRule ^thydzikGoogleMap/markerlink\.php$ http://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chst=d_map_pin_letter&chld=%2|%1|000000&.png? [R,L]

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} =""
RewriteRule ^thydzikGoogleMap/markerlink\.php$ http://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chst=d_map_pin_letter&chld=â¼€|ff776b|000000&.png? [R,L]

• Icons now support letters ‘A’ to ‘Z’.
• Non clickable markers if no ‘html’ element is present.

In the below example Marker Z is not clickable.

Download the latest from the WordPress repository.