What's the purpose of this project?

We've realized that there are many possibly useful extensions of the Google Maps API for adventurous developers, but that the common user needs a reliable and quick-loading API. Adding custom objects/functionality to the core API unnecessarily bloats the size of the SWC and dynamically loaded SWF. With the open source project, a developer can include the SWC to use any of the libraries here, or they can checkout the source for a library and tweak it to meet their needs.

Additionally, skilled developers can join the project and we can harness the combined skills of the developer community in creating and improving API extensions.

I want to use a library here in my maps mashup. How do I do that?

You can either download the latest SWC (compiled classes) from the Downloads tab and put it in the build path of your Flex project, or you can do a read-only checkout of this project and move only the classes you're interested in to your project's src folder.

How do I contribute?

We welcome developers with previous experience programming with the Maps API to join the project, and we especially love for developers who have already written API extensions to open-source them in our project.

To join the project, follow these steps:

1. Sign the Google CLA. There's a quick online version at the bottom of that page.
2. Email Pamela (api.pamelafox@google.com) with links to code you've developed, and a brief paragraph about why you'd like to contribute to the library.
3. Wait for Pamela to respond that she's added you to the project (or to indicate she's missing something).
4. If you haven't used SVN or a versioning system in the past, read up on SVN (check SVNQuickTips page here).
5. Start contributing!

Why must I sign a CLA to start contributing?

We want to guarantee we have the right to use the code you contribute, and that we can release it under the same license (Apache 2) as the existing code. This protects us, and others who then use the code, from claims of copyright or patent infringement. It's important to note that our CLA does not assign copyright, or take away any of your rights to the code you contribute. You are free to sell or license it to others differently than the license we use for the project. The Google CLA simply says that you give us the right to use your code as well. If you do have particular concerns about the CLA or Apache License, please contact us for further clarification.

Where can project contributors discuss code revisions/project ideas?

Though many developers are active in the Google Maps API forum, we want to keep that as a forum primarily focused on using the core API. We've created another Google Group to be solely for contributors to this open-source project, so that we can have an active, focused discussion there.

If you're a contributor, please join this group so that everyone can keep abreast of what everyone else is working on. There will likely be some individual files that multiple people want to work on. Though it is possible to merge changes in SVN, it may also be best in some cases to create different versions for each contributor. Such discussions should take place in the forum.

Developers that aren't formal members of this project are welcome to contribute to the discussion in the forum. We welcome your participation.

Note that all changes in this project (such as svn commits, wiki edits, or new issues) will be forwarded to this group, as a way of keeping everyone informed about the latest changes. Feel free to do post-commit code reviews on any code commits.