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July 21, 2006
Yahoo Maps QuickTip: Measure Mileage for an Exercise Route
Okay, so this is admittedly off-topic from the usual Adobe Consulting fare, but I recently discovered a nice feature of Yahoo Maps Beta that's a bit hidden that may be of interest to those who exercise and like to measure mileage of new routes.
For those who know me and have seen me in person, you might be surprised by the fact that I like to run - when I get the time, that is. Well, I also like to know how far I'm going when I run so that I can, say, decide to go out on a 3 mile run. For all the mapping websites out there (Mapquest, Google Maps, Yahoo Maps Classic), none of them had a way to draw a line on the map and get a mileage for that line. The best I could do was get directions and the mileage based on driving directions. Of course that's fine and dandy if you want to run on a highway. But, what if I want to run along some back roads? With every new Mapping RIA that comes out, how I wish for a simple measuring tape tool. (Okay, I'll confess as a User-Experience guy, I know that this doesn't exactly fall within the 80% usage rule here).
Enter Yahoo Maps ... you know, the Flex version. With the API I knew it'd be possible to create the tool myself, and I've thought about it off and on, but, I'm not THAT desparate to find new running routes. But, then recently I discovered something about Yahoo Maps. Right click and you get a "Drive to here..." menu option. Combine that with multi-point directions and, while it's still driving, I can define my route, and not have Yahoo tell me the quickest way to drive there. Starting from my home, I can right click a a few blocks down the road, and then again, and again, following the route I want to run, and get a total mileage count for my planned run (or bike, or walk, or whatever).
Okay, it's not perfect, since it's going to account for one-way roads, and will only go places a car can drive, but until some enterprising developer out there creates the measuring tape tool for Yahoo Maps (or any other Mapping RIA... ESRI maybe?), it's the best I can do.
Another possible use of the multi-right-click-trip-planner (I think I'll have to trademark that term): Anyone inspired by the recent Pixar release Cars who would like to plan a trip... not necessarily the fastest way there, but the scenic route, can get those directions and a time estimate of how long it will take, without being told by the application "No you really want to take the Highway... it's the fastest way".
If anyone does build a real measuring tape tool, let us all know.
Posted by Peter Baird at 12:23 PM | Comments (7)
Run the Flex Style Explorer Inside of Flex Builder
It's been a while since Flex 2 was officially released, but I'm finally getting around to writing about this. Of course, many of you have probably noticed that the release version of the Flex Style Explorer is now linked directly from the start page in Flex Builder. But, I also wanted to point out that its quite possible to run the style explorer directly in Flex Builder in it's own tab, as shown in the image below:
To do so, just follow these few simple steps (with apologies to those whoever this was already obvious to):
- Download the Flex Style Explorer to your computer by clicking here
- Save it wherever your heart desires
- Inside Flex Builder, select File --> Open File... and choose Flex2StyleExplorer.html
- Ta da.... Flex Style Explorer running in its own tab inside of Flex Builder
Yeah, it's really that easy, and I apologize if I've insulted your intelligence.
Posted by Peter Baird at 11:35 AM | Comments (11)