                           _     _             _                    _
  ___   __  __  ____  ___ | |__ (_)_ __  _ __ (_) __      ___   __ | |_
 / _ \ / _|/ _|/ _' |/ _ \| |_ \| | '_ \| '_ \| |/ _|    / _ \ / _|| '_|
| (_) | (_| |-- (_| | | | | | | | | (_) | (_) | | |-- _ | | | | |--| |_
 \___/ \__|\__/___'_|_| | |_| |_|_| |__/| |__/|_|\|_/(_)| | | |\__/ \__|
  the world is flat............   |_|   |_| http://www.oceanhippie.net
  Skype: oceanhippie                        oceanhippie at yahoo.com

>>> How to nick the volvo ocean race deckerman feed and stuff it in google maps using PHP. <<<<

Version 0.1 20/10/2008

NOTE: this just display's the positions, to get the tracks is MUCH trickier and requires a database and cron jobs and stuff. There are no tracks in this code. If you want to know how to do that email me oceanhippie at yahoo.com
NOTE 2: this is in now way conected with any official volvoness. Its all publicly avaialable data so I doubt the'll complain. I wrote soemthing similar becasuse I use linx and can get either VS or Raceviewer to work on my PC(s). 
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>>> Some example code by Tom Griffiths. <<<<

I wrote this badly, and for my own edification. Its GNU licence, do what you will with it its free, buggy and bodged. Wouldn't mind achonlegment mind link to me http://www.oceanhippie.net.
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>>> Big fat instruction <<<
1: You need this to be isntalled on a WEB SERVER, Runing PHP. 
2: You need a google Maps API key for your site, get one here. http://code.google.com/apis/maps/signup.html,
	you then need to enter it on line 2 
3: You need to put the icons is a sub dir called icons
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>>> Stuff you might want to fiddle with. <<<<

	>> Zoom Level <<
line 137 reads:

	echo "\n map.centerAndZoom(new GPoint(".procLong($bit[3]).", ".procLat($bit[2])."), 13)\n";

Arbitralraly uses Green Dragon as the center point of the map, the number at the end is the Inicial Zoom Level. Higher to zoom out, lower to zoom in
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	>> Map / Satelite / Hybrid <<
line 88 reads:

	map.setMapType(G_HYBRID_MAP);

This sets it to hybrid. For sat or norm use below instead:
	map.setMapType(G_SATELLITE_MAP);
	map.setMapType(G_NORMAL_MAP);
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	>> Map Size<<
line 82 reads:
	
	<div id="map" style="width: 850px; height: 500px; border: 2px ridge #000000;">		</div>

This specifies the size of the map in pxels thisone is 850px by 500px. Its standard CSS.
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	>> Images <<
There are 9 images provided. If you want to use your own then use the following instructions:
1: you need to save them in the /icons directory
2: naming HAS TO BE using the deckerman feed convention:
	ERT3.png - icon for Erricson 3
	ERT4.png - icon for Erricson 4
	DLYD.png - Delta Lloyd
	GDRA.png - Green Dragon
	KOSA.png - Team Russia (I think)
	ILMO.png - Puma (I think)
	TELN.png - Telephonica Black (I think)
	TELA.png - Telephonica Blue (I think)
	shodow.png - drop shaddow effect.
3: Sizing either you need to make the icons 16px wide by 14px high like mine or you need to edit line 65 that reads:
	$gStr=$gStr.$bit[1].".iconSize = new GSize(16, 14);\n";
changing 16 and 14 to the size of your images. Likwise with the shadowSize line below it. Line 67 "iconAnchor" is where you want the middle of the image to be. Err I think.

Why? cos I was too lazy to code sencible filenames.
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>> Change the format of the info box <<

The Bubble containing the Yacht name is generated by lines 90 to 97. Its sort of HTML / Sort of Javascript.
You coauld probably fiddle with it to get differnet colors etc. For technical people the "tit" is the boat name, "icon" is the date, "ln" in the distance to go. Sorry about this Forgot to fix it from when I first wrote this code for another purpous.
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May update it and make it better check back <<<
Have fun, Tom you can email me on oceanhippie at yahoo.com
As far as I am aware this is all my own work bar forlowing examples on PHP.net and google code. 