Help with clickable map.
April 2, 2012 10:57 AM   Subscribe

Need suggestions on creating an interactive map of congressional districts. I'd like to have a map embedded on my site (only Us) with zoom-able and click-able Congressional districts. When a district is selected, I'd like to display the relevant Senator & Congressman.

I'm pretty well-versed in PHP/Ajax but I'm not sure how to easily tackle this. I was looking into using KML overlays in Google Maps but I find them to be really time-consuming, finicky, and have a cluttered appearance with the markers. I'd rather not a have markers at all, in fact, just clickable regions. I also would like the map to *only* show the US. All suggestions welcome. Thanks!
posted by Raichle to Computers & Internet (9 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Are you looking for something like this?
posted by troika at 11:01 AM on April 2, 2012


Response by poster: In theory, but I actually want to create my own instead of using a proprietary system that may or may not adapt to re-districting, etc.
posted by Raichle at 11:03 AM on April 2, 2012


One of the d3.js examples is a counties map. Maybe that could be adapted for congressional districts instead.
posted by zsazsa at 11:14 AM on April 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


If I was you I would wait a few more months. Redistricting still isn't settled in a couple states.
posted by Hollywood Upstairs Medical College at 11:24 AM on April 2, 2012


Response by poster: Yeah, but it's part of a presentation I need before that. I figure that once I know how to do it, making the appropriate changes will be relatively easy.
posted by Raichle at 11:27 AM on April 2, 2012


Best answer: Kelso's Corner might have some good leads for API capable maps. This embeddable map in particular looks promising.
posted by samsara at 11:30 AM on April 2, 2012


Best answer: (Election category from Kelso's Corner)
posted by samsara at 11:39 AM on April 2, 2012


Response by poster: Those are great. One thing that I just thought of that I should clarify is that I would love a way to use the existing KLM data (which is open to the public) in a way a bit different than Google Maps.
posted by Raichle at 11:46 AM on April 2, 2012


I'm not sure if this will be helpful, but here are some comments + code snippets on how to script the removal of markers entirely from Google maps (if that's the biggest show stopper against Google Maps...it might be a workaround that'll simplify the use of KLM overlays)

Also, some additional dialog on plotting out regions with Google Maps (and a link to a non-google flash solution at the bottom for ~$200 but is unfortunately non-zoomable)
posted by samsara at 12:12 PM on April 2, 2012


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