Bing Maps for WordPress
Plugin Info
Plugin Name: Bing Maps for WordPress
Plugin URI: http://redyellow.co.uk/plugins/bing-maps-for-wordpress/
Download URI: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/bing-maps-for-wordpress/
Description: Bing Maps for WordPress allows you to place either a static or dynamic Bing map on your blog post with a simple shortcode
Author: Rich Gubby
Version: 1.2
Author URI:http://redyellow.co.uk/
Bing Maps for WordPress allows you to create maps easily with a
[bingMap]
shortcode in your posts. You don’t have to worry about how the maps are displayed, the plugin takes care of that. You can create dynamic maps that allow your visitors to pan and zoom, or static maps that don’t have those features. You can create Road maps, Aerial views, Aerial views with roads marked on them, or even a 3D Birdseye view.
How to use – quick example
Add a [bingMap] shortcode into a post, configure it, and you’re done! Here is a quick example:
[bingMap location=”Beunos Aires, Argentina” zoom=”13″]
Installation
- To install through WordPress Control Panel:
- Click “Plugins”, then “Add New”
- Enter “Bing Maps for WordPress” as search term and click “Search Plugins”
- Click the “Install” link on the right hand side against “Bing Maps for WordPress”
- Click the red “Install Now” button
- Click the “Activate Plugin” link
- To download and install manually:
- Upload the entire bing-maps-for-wordpress folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
- Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress.
FAQ
How do I use it?
Once you have the plugin installed, edit a post, and use a shortcode of [bingMap] to create a Bing Map on the page.
If you just put
[bingMap]
on your page you’ll get something, but it centers the map on Timbuktu, so you might want to change some attributes:
-
location
– Specify where you want your map centered. Be as specific as you can, include the country code, an example would be “Birmingham, West Midlands, UK”.
-
width
– Define how wide you want your map to be. Default is 400px.
-
height
– Define how high you want your map to be. Default is 400px.
-
title
– Define a title for your map – displays above the map.
-
type
– “static”, or “dynamic”. If you leave it blank, it will default to dynamic.
-
maptype
– In static mode, options are: “Road”, “Aerial” and “AerialWithLabels”. In dynamic map mode, “Road”, “Aerial”, “AerialWithLabels” or “Birdseye”. Default is “Road”.
-
zoom
– Define the zoom level. the higher the more zoomed in. If you are in Birdseye mode, zoom is quite restricted.
-
pp
– Where to place a pushpin on your map. If you don’t include a `pp` attribute, the center of the map will be used. Turn it off by setting `pp` to “false”.
-
pp*
– Add pushpins to your map. Use pp1=”", pp2=”" and so on. Bear in mind there is a limit to the number of pushpins you can actually have. If you’re not in Birdseye mode, the map will automatically zoom out so all pushpins can display.
Screenshots
Changelog
1.2
- Fixed some more CSS issues by fixing settings fields
1.1
- Fixed CSS issue
1.0
- Added Bing Static Maps
- Added Bing Dynamic Maps
Hi Henk
Thanks for using the plugin, I hope it’s useful. With regard to the shortcode not working in a text widget, you need to filter your widgets to run shortcodes. There is a great tutorial about it here:
http://digwp.com/2010/03/shortcodes-in-widgets/
About adding more text to the balloon, I’m not entirely sure what you’re trying to achieve but ppt* can be used to give a pin a title, you can add as much text as you like here. You can also add description text to pins using ppd*. If it is just a single pin, locationtitle and description will be the attributes you need to use for the title and the description in the balloon.
I hope this helps.
Chris
Hi I have downloaded the app and it appears on my site but without any map details – roads etc, just the pin and zoom functions. how can this be fixed?
Can this app be used on a side bar??
Same here. Everything seems to work fine, even the custom filters I added to the shortcode, but no actual map appears in the background… :-/
I’ll show you the full shortcode I used:
[bingMap location="cathouse rock club, 15 union street, glasgow, uk" width="300" height="250" locationtitle="Cathouse Rock Club, 15 Union Street Glasgow - The Home Of Slide it In" ppt="Cathouse Rock Club, 15 Union Street Glasgow" ppd="The Home Of Slide It In"]
Only other thing missig is the “locationtitle” filter, as only “ppt” appears:
http://sin.theweare.net
And yes I am using it inside a widget – courtesy of the Shortcode For Sidebar plugin – but I’ve also tested it on a page with the same results:
http://sin.theweare.net/map-test/
Any ideas??
Thanks in advance,
Lee C
Wonderful Plugin. i am testing it out since my google maps shortcode plug-in failed.
What would be the limit of pp I could use. I need to plot about 50 of them on a map…
I have tested 2 so far, and thought i would check before I code all 50 (global project locations) with titles, descriptions and links.
Of note, i found that longitude/latitudes work in ppl as well.
work in progress can be found at: http://www.terralingua.org/bcdconservation/?page_id=2
You’ve got a section in the content.php of this plugin where you said
“// build the IDs for ppt, ppd, and ppl from pp
// I believe this could be improved to be more efficient”
This is better, and still works when you get into double digits of pushpins:
$pptid = str_replace(“pp”,”ppt”,$key);
$ppdid = str_replace(“pp”,”ppd”,$key);
$pplid = str_replace(“pp”,”ppl”,$key);
You’ve got a section in the content.php of this plugin where you said
“// build the IDs for ppt, ppd, and ppl from pp
// I believe this could be improved to be more efficient”
This is better, and still works when you get into double digits of pushpins:
$pptid = str_replace(“pp”,”ppt”,$key);
$ppdid = str_replace(“pp”,”ppd”,$key);
$pplid = str_replace(“pp”,”ppl”,$key);
Just installed on WP3.1, got a bing key and the output is not a map but “unknown location”. Any ideas on what’s wrong here? Thanks.
Great article and I look forward to seeing more…
[...]Bing Maps for WordPress | Red Yellow[...]…
I understand bing maps can overlay real estate listing information on the maps. can you tell me if there are short codes for turning this information on?
This would be really good if it were built to scan the post for an address then display it automatically. I wish to build a local business directory and will like to have location maps generated for each listing post. Each business will be on it’s own post. I hope I can find a plugin that can generate google or bing maps automatically from on page address. Maybe I could ad tags to each address so the plugin would know it was an address and display it? Should be possible right? Let me know if you ever do this type of plugin or ad this capability to this plugin.
I have the plug-in installed on our County Planning departmental website, both in a sidebar widget (with filter in the functions.php) and on a page outside of a widget. both work great viewed with IE but Firefox is hit-and-miss as about 99% of the time it doesn’t show the actual map graphic. I know it is there as the cursor turns to a hand when it is over the map area.
Any ideas on getting Firefox viewing to show 100% of the time??
County IT wants me to use Google map, but in the interest of getting more for less, I like your Bing map plug-in.
Thanks for any help so I can keep your plug-in online,
Chris Hardenbrook
Are my comments/questions sticking to this “reply” area? I posted in July and again twice in November (same subject and question).
Need an answer, please; just say, “I don’t know,” If you don’t. At least I’ll know you are there!
Thanks,
Chris
Private Health Insurance For Over 60s…
[...]Bing Maps for WordPress | Red Yellow[...]…
Hi Ted, i got the “unknown location” message when i entered a faulty bing maps api key!
I have the problem that no map will be displayed at all, there is just a white space, even when using the example [bingMap location="Statue of Liberty"]