Polaris

Polaris is a framework greatly enhancing the Google Maps external framework. It aims to:

• Make the user's life easier
• Make the developer's life easier
• Make the resulting map look polished and natural

Here are some interesting links you can use to discover Polaris:

• Polaris Sample: A demo application demonstrating some features of the Polaris. It is available on the Google Play).
• Meet Polaris, a map library for Android: A blog post I wrote to introduce the first version of the library. It contains a great description of the main features included in Polaris. You can read it on my personal blog).

Features

• Gesture support
• Effortless map annotating
• Map callout variable anchor positioning
• Built-in “user tracking” mode
• Automatic built-in zoom controls
• Natural map callouts transitions
• Additional listeners
• And many more!

Limitations

Polaris is an extension of the Google Maps External Library and hence suffers from a lot of its limitations and bugs (

PolarisMapView

MapActivity

PolarisMapView

MapActivity

While reducing the complexity of the library,

Polaris

Overlay

Overlay

MyLocationOverlay

ItemizedOverlay

getOverlays()

PolarisMapView

addOverlay(Overlay)

removeOverlay(Overlay)

Usage

1. Include the PolarisMapView widget in your layout.

2. In your

   onCreate

   method, add/find the PolarisMapView to your layout.

    mPolarisMapView = (PolarisMapView) findViewById(R.id.polaris_map_view)
   

3. Bind your

   MapActivity

   's

   onStart

   and

   onStop

   method to the

   PolarisMapView

   equivalent.

   @Override
   protected void onStart() {
       super.onStart();
       mPolarisMapView.onStart();
   }
   
   @Override
   protected void onStop() {
       super.onStop();
       mPolarisMapView.onStop();
   } 
   

Including In Your Project

The Polaris library is presented as an Android library project. You can include this project by referencing it as a library project in Eclipse or ant.

Building the sample application

Using the Google Maps external library requires registering your signing key to Google. When doing so, Google generates an API key you must pass to

MapView

Logically, the sample application doesn't include API keys. In order to run the project correctly you must add a

LocalConfig.java

com.cyrilmottier.android.polarissample.util

package com.cyrilmottier.android.polarissample.util;

public final class LocalConfig {
private LocalConfig() {
}

public static final String GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY_RELEASE = "<your_release_key>";
public static final String GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY_DEBUG = "<your_debug_key>";
}

Developed By

Cyril Mottier - [email protected]

Credits

• Marie Schweiz: Designed the Polaris icon
• Pierre Valade: Helped me finding a nice name to this library

License

Copyright (C) 2012 Cyril Mottier (http://www.cyrilmottier.com)

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at
 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.