Easier way to use Google Latitude

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Hi Everyone ,

My first post was about getting the Location using Google Latitude Api using OAUTH,

it is extremely useful when you want to create an application that gets your app users

location and you can mashup with google maps api or yahoo maps to create killer apps .

But if you are creating a system in which you create google latitude account for your

customers  or you want to track your kids from your home , there's  a simpler method

 for doing that , a shortcut rather than going the OAUTH way i.e. Google Latitude Badge .

Step 1

Log into your google account through which you are linked to Google Latitude

Step 2

Goto https://www.google.com/latitude/b/0/apps

Enable your google public location badge account by selecting the radio button .

Step 3

So once the basic steps are done you are ready for using the Google Latitude Badge

http://www.google.com/latitude/apps/badge/api?user=YOURUSERID&type=json

Paste this url onto your browser and you can see how the json response is .

You will get a response like



{ "type": "FeatureCollection",
"features": [
{ "type": "Feature",
"geometry": {"type": "Point", "coordinates": [-73.2575225, 40.7758618]},
"properties": {
"id": "YOURID",
"accuracyInMeters": 2380,
"timeStamp": 1289029283,
"reverseGeocode": "Brentwood, NY, USA",
"photoUrl": "http://www.google.com/latitude/apps/badge/api?type=photo&photo=JtJ_zy4BAAA.Bk0BAmxqLUX6UTW4cdN2Zw.TcwN7VercOwesfkijix_mg",
"photoWidth": 96,
"photoHeight": 96,
"placardUrl": "http://www.google.com/latitude/apps/badge/api?type=photo_placard&photo=JtJ_zy4BAAA.Bk0BAmxqLUX6UTW4cdN2Zw.TcwN7VercOwesfkijix_mg&moving=true&stale=true&lod=1&format=png",
"placardWidth": 56,
"placardHeight": 59
}
}
]
}

Depending on the server side language you are using you can retrieve your results

accordingly . However I will be showing you how to get the results in php .

<?php

//Replace the YOURUSERID in the url below with your Badge userid . 

$url="http://www.google.com/latitude/apps/badge/api?user=YOURUSERID&type=json" ;

// We get the content
$content = file_get_contents( $url );

// We convert the JSON to an object
$json = json_decode( $content );

$coord = $json->features[0]->geometry->coordinates;

// this will give you the coordinates of the user
echo $coord ;
$timeStamp = $json->features[0]->properties->timeStamp;

// timestamp of the last update

echo $timestamp ;

// If you want to retrieve the longitude & latitude separately

$latitude=$coord[0];

$longitude=$coord[1];

echo "Your current coordinates  Latitude :".$latitude."  Longitude".$longitude ;

?>

You can further mashup with the google maps api to show the location

on the google maps .