ibn Mas’ud

Several major display issues appearing on the Qibla Locator in Internet Explorer due to CSS have been fixed. One minor issue relating to the overview pane remains but I dont consider it much of a problem and will look to fix it sometimes in the future.

It must be noted that the Qibla Locator works best in Firefox. Although IE is supported, the experience you may have may not match that with Firefox.

With the new Google Maps API v2 released, I decided to update the Google Maps Qibla Locator with quite a few exciting new features. First and foremost is the ability to search by address using AJAX! This is possible thanks to the Yahoo! Geocode API. You can not only search by address but also by zipcode, city, state or even just country (address and zipcode work only in the US). Different search queries provide different zoom levels. The more precise the query, the more zoomed in the view will be. This is usefull as it can speed up the process in locating a place.

Also added is the distance to the Qibla. As noted in the API documention, this distance could be off by as much as 0.3% but is still a good estimation.

Another little feature that was added has to do with the UI/usability. You will note that the map controls only appear when the mouse is on the map and they disappear when it is not. This enables the user to have a full unobstructive view of the map.

New in Beta 0.87:

• Updated to Google maps APIv2.
• Replaced Overview Pane with official collapsible version.
• Added Yahoo! geocoding.
• Added distance to Mecca.
• Added mouseover map controls.
• Added zoom level indicator.

I’ve been working on a little project utilizing the google maps api to make a Qibla direction locator. It works almost exactly like google maps except that it displays an overlay pointing towards the Qibla. The direction in degrees from true North is also given at the bottom of the page. Another nifty feature is a map-in-map view much like pic-in-pic view found on most new TV sets. As this is pretty much a work in progress, I’m sure you’ll notice many bugs. Please do let me know.

Head on out and take a look for your self. Be sure to leave your comments.

Note: May not work on Safari