Joomla has many plug-ins, modules and components that are based on the Google Map API. Although they are powerful and very useful, they often look pretty much the same and everyone with a map on their websites is using them. To make your site more special, we recommend that you use AmMap, an interactive flash map creation software package that is available for free.
You can use this tool to show locations of offices, vendors, projects, assignments, routes of your journeys, create your distributor map, etc. Photos or illustrations also can be used instead of maps to make different presentations, e-learning tools and much more.
We used to have YOS amMap: a Joomla extension which integrates almost all AmMap features, but the extension is no longer available in the JED. That should not be a problem. It is easy to use html codes in an article to create great maps once you know what paths to directories you should use.
So, let's go step by step through the process:
Step 1: Visit AmMap Site and download the latest version of AmMap (the package comes in a zip file).
Step 2: Unzip the file and place everything in a folder called ammap on the c-drive of your computer.
Step 3: Start your FTP program and upload the folder to the server where your Joomla is installed (most likely this is in the public_html folder and/or www folder).
Step 4: Log in Joomla as administrator and create a new article. Make sure you have the correct settings set for Joomla to insert html code in an article.
Step 5: Look at the html examples that come with the AmMap package. In the html files in the example, you find html code that you need to insert in your article. For example, the graph below is created by the html text that is included in the text box:
Step 6: For AmMap to work, you need to make sure the paths to the files are correct. In our example, the swobject.js, ammap_settings.xml and ammap_data.xml files are in the directory test/.../.../ on the server (please substitute ... with the names of the directories you us.
It is in the test directory since our website has test as its domain name. On a website without a subdomain, you place the /.../... directory in the public_html folder.
If your paths are not correct, you will get the following message: " You need to upgrade your Flash Player." So, keep on testing with the paths till the graph works.