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October 8, 2005

PortlandMaps Advanced Search

One of my first projects as a web developer for the City of Portland was recently launched. The project was to redesign the advanced search page of the PortlandMaps web site.

This search tool allows you to search the city’s property data according to various criteria such as address, property ID, sale date, and market value. It was an exciting project for me as I was able to integrate a variety of technologies to create a really useful and interesting web application.

The search results are integrated with Google Maps and Google Earth. When you perform a search, not only do you get a table showing data about the matching properties, but a Google Map is also populated with markers showing the location of the matching properties. Each marker contains additional information about the specific property, along with a link to a detailed page with more information about the property. Should you prefer Google Earth instead of Google Maps, it is also possible to export the results into this program, again with detailed markers placed at the location of each search result.

The integration with Google Maps and Google Earth provide the user with a very engaging and interactive experience. Due credit should be given to Google for providing such easily extensible mapping applications. This is a perfect example of how “Web 2.0” technologies allow individual components to be integrated together to create rich web applications.

Posted at 3:55 PM in Web Development