MapCustomizer.com Launches

I have been meaning to overhaul my site that allows you to plot multiple points on Google maps for a long time now, and I am happy to announce that MapCustomizer.com is the result!

There are a number of new features that people have been asking for, including:

• It should continue to work, even if the site is busy. In the old site, when things got busy, it would exceed the quota for geocoding addresses with the Google Maps API. In the new site, the geocoding is restructured so this shouldn’t happen. It is still possible for things to slow down if you are creating a large map (and pasting in lots of addresses), but it won’t slow things down for other users.
• Edit/delete your own maps You can optionally create an account with the new site, and manage maps that you create. You can edit them after creating them, or delete them. Even if you don’t create an account, you can still edit maps that you create, as long as you are still using the same computer and web browser that you used to create them.

  

• Numbered location markers A lot of people were asking for this. The list of locations shows numbered markers that correspond to the numbered markers on the map. You can print the map out, and still see which location is which.
  
• General UI improvements I never put too much effort into making the old site look nice, and it showed :). The new site is a lot nicer, in my humble opinion. This leads into…
• Full-screen map Once the map is created, it takes up almost the full browser window, leaving a little bit of space for the location list.

If you go to the old homepage, you will be automatically redirected to the new site, or you can just go directly here:

MapCustomizer.com

If you are curious about the technology behind the new site, it is written in Scala using the Play Framework. MongoDB provides the persistence layer, and I am using WebJars with RequireJS, and the relevant sbt-web plugins to build everything. It was a great experience to play with WebJars and sbt-web (I am already proficient in Scala, Play, and MongoDB).

As with the old site, it is supported by ads and Paypal contributions. It operates on a value-for-value model: If you find that the site provides you with a value, please consider paying for that value.