Google Maps Save Polygon and points in MySQL using PHP

Question

Right now I have an application that allows users to draw a polygon on google maps. I need to save this polygon using PHP and MySQL but I'm unsure of best practices.

Should I enable spatial extensions and save the geometry? Should I save each vertical (lat/lng pair) in an array? Another approach I'm unaware of?

I'm wondering what the best practices are. Using MySQL spatial extensions seem daunting. It returns things in WKT and then I have to parse that text to make it do something else. It seems convoluted.

Saurav · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-01 23:51:17Z

5

It's best to think of your usage scenarios when planning out your storage layer.

This will help you figure out which queries you'll want your persistence layer to optimize for.

If you're going to handle lot's of queries like, "Find me all objects within this space". You may want to look at using the spatial extensions.

However, if most of the time you're simply drawing an object with a given id, simply saving the polygons as a json blob in the DB may do.

CREATE TABLE Polygons ( polygon_id int not null, vertices_json varchar(4096) )

answered Mar 1, 2011 at 23:51

Saurav

3,1443 gold badges22 silver badges12 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Ray Over a year ago

How do you get the vertices of a polygon then?

soju · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-02 14:41:55Z

4

You can also use : google.maps.geometry.encoding to encode/compress paths

http://code.google.com/intl/fr/apis/maps/documentation/utilities/polylinealgorithm.html

I once used this to save in database thousands of directions and it is quite convenient.

edited Mar 2, 2011 at 14:41

answered Mar 2, 2011 at 8:42

soju

25.4k3 gold badges70 silver badges71 bronze badges

1 Comment

andres.gtz Over a year ago

No longer available

Argiropoulos Stavros · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-02 08:26:26Z

1

Take the time to familiarize yourself with the spatial extensions as they will help you accomplish tasks down the road and not only for this project.

answered Mar 2, 2011 at 8:26

Argiropoulos Stavros

9,55311 gold badges64 silver badges79 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Google Maps Save Polygon and points in MySQL using PHP

3 Answers 3

1 Comment

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

1 Comment

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related