How do I do a simple zip code map showing boundaries with Google Maps API V3?

Question

I need to display an interactive map with zip codes showing their boundaries and have different colors for the zip codes like this:

http://www.usnaviguide.com/zip.htm

Enter in a US zip code and click on "Find Zip code".

Perhaps I am overlooking it, but I've not been to find examples of this and documentation talking about this specifically at Google Maps API documentation. I've trying doing a view source on the above web page link, but it doesn't seem obvious to me how it works. There is also other stuff on the page which I don't know if it's part of what I need or not.

Some simple code examples would be very helpful! Thanks!

Solution 1

Here is a zipcode map for the US that I put together with FusionTablesLayers:

http://www.geocodezip.com/geoxml3_test/v3_FusionTables_zipcode_map.html

It doesn't have different colors, but you could change that.

John Coryat made that map using a tile server, you can do the same with Google Maps API v3 custom maps.

code snippet from example:

google.load('visualization', '1', {'packages':['corechart', 'table', 'geomap']});
var map;
var labels = [];
var layer;
var tableid =  1499916;

function initialize() {
    geocoder = new google.maps.Geocoder();
  	map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById('map_canvas'), {
    center: new google.maps.LatLng(37.23032838760389, -118.65234375),
    zoom: 6,
    mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP
  });
  
  layer = new google.maps.FusionTablesLayer(tableid);
  layer.setQuery("SELECT 'geometry' FROM " + tableid);
  layer.setMap(map);

  codeAddress("11501" /*document.getElementById("address").value*/ );

  google.maps.event.addListener(map, "bounds_changed", function() {
    displayZips();
  });
  google.maps.event.addListener(map, "zoom_changed", function() {
    if (map.getZoom() < 11) {
      for (var i=0; i<labels.length; i++) {
        labels[i].setMap(null);
      }
    }
  });
}

function codeAddress(address) {
    geocoder.geocode( { 'address': address}, function(results, status) {
      if (status == google.maps.GeocoderStatus.OK) {
        map.setCenter(results[0].geometry.location);
        var marker = new google.maps.Marker({
            map: map, 
            position: results[0].geometry.location
        });
        if (results[0].geometry.viewport) 
          map.fitBounds(results[0].geometry.viewport);
      } else {
        alert("Geocode was not successful for the following reason: " + status);
      }
    });
  }
  		
function displayZips() {
  //set the query using the current bounds
  var queryStr = "SELECT geometry, ZIP, latitude, longitude FROM "+ tableid + " WHERE ST_INTERSECTS(geometry, RECTANGLE(LATLNG"+map.getBounds().getSouthWest()+",LATLNG"+map.getBounds().getNorthEast()+"))";   
  var queryText = encodeURIComponent(queryStr);
  var query = new google.visualization.Query('http://www.google.com/fusiontables/gvizdata?tq='  + queryText);
  // alert(queryStr);

  //set the callback function
  query.send(displayZipText);

}
 

  var infowindow = new google.maps.InfoWindow();
		
function displayZipText(response) {
if (!response) {
  alert('no response');
  return;
}
if (response.isError()) {
  alert('Error in query: ' + response.getMessage() + ' ' + response.getDetailedMessage());
  return;
} 
  if (map.getZoom() < 11) return;
  FTresponse = response;
  //for more information on the response object, see the documentation
  //http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/reference.html#QueryResponse
  numRows = response.getDataTable().getNumberOfRows();
  numCols = response.getDataTable().getNumberOfColumns();
/*  var queryStr = "SELECT geometry, ZIP, latitude, longitude FROM "+ tableid + " WHERE ST_INTERSECTS(geometry, RECTANGLE(LATLNG"+map.getBounds().getSouthWest()+",LATLNG"+map.getBounds().getNorthEast()+"))";   
*/

  for(i = 0; i < numRows; i++) {
      var zip = response.getDataTable().getValue(i, 1);
      var zipStr = zip.toString()
      while (zipStr.length < 5) { zipStr = '0' + zipStr; }
      var point = new google.maps.LatLng(
          parseFloat(response.getDataTable().getValue(i, 2)),
          parseFloat(response.getDataTable().getValue(i, 3)));
      // bounds.extend(point);
      labels.push(new InfoBox({
	 content: zipStr
	,boxStyle: {
	   border: "1px solid black"
	  ,textAlign: "center"
          ,backgroundColor:"white"
	  ,fontSize: "8pt"
	  ,width: "50px"
	 }
	,disableAutoPan: true
	,pixelOffset: new google.maps.Size(-25, 0)
	,position: point
	,closeBoxURL: ""
	,isHidden: false
	,enableEventPropagation: true
      }));
      labels[labels.length-1].open(map);
  }
  // zoom to the bounds
  // map.fitBounds(bounds);
}

google.maps.event.addDomListener(window,'load',initialize);

#map_canvas { width: 610px; height: 400px; }

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/jsapi"></script>         
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://maps.google.com/maps/api/js?sensor=false"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://google-maps-utility-library-v3.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/infobox/src/infobox.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://geoxml3.googlecode.com/svn/branches/polys/geoxml3.js"></script>


<form> 
 	    <span class="style51"><span class="style49">Show</span>:</span> 
<input id="address" type="text" value="11501" ></input>
<input id="geocode" type="button" onclick="codeAddress(document.getElementById('address').value);" value="Geocode"></input>	  
<div id="map_canvas"></div>

Solution 2

To draw the regions you can use a Polygon from google maps API, but you will need the data of the boundaries of the states or cities or zipcodes you want to draw.

You can use view source in that polygon example, it's very easy if you have Google maps already working you just pass the Polygon Obj an array of LatLng objs and it's done

About the data I think you can find it in a fusion table like this which is for US Zip codes.