[OpenLayers-Users] Question on using Google Maps API on top of OpenLayers

[Christopher Schmidt]

On Tue, Jul 17, 2007 at 05:53:32PM -0600, Mike Carsella wrote:
> Can you at least entertain the idea of exposing the GMap2 object?  It looks 
> like a lot of us need better popups and this could be a way to provide it 
> easily until better OL popups are developed.

Unfortunately, doing so leads to a whole host of other problems.
One of the features I beileve you mentioned wanting was the ability to
have popup automatically slide into view. Great, in theory. Except that
as soon as that happens, the Google Map has moved without the OpenLayers
map moving at the same time. The end result is that OpenLayers and
Google have a different idea of where the map is centered, which results
in crazy behavior in extreme cases, but in all cases is going to be
behavior that users don't want.

The events model in OpenLayers doesn't cooperate well with Google popups
-- zoomboxing and letting go over one will get your zoombox 'stuck' so
it can't be released.

etc.

What seems like a simple solution leads to a number of interface
issues. Not exposing the object is a design decision based on this type
of problem, and although I understand the desire, it's not something we
can support without creating more problems than we solve.

Regards,
-- 
Christopher Schmidt
MetaCarta