meCloud is an ongoing effort to use the Buddycloud API to show your almost-real-time location on your WordPress blog.
It’s a WordPress plugin that uses the AJAX and the Buddycloud API in conjunction with the map provider of your choice to display your location and waypoints in a number of ways.
Forthcoming Features Include
- Your choice of map provider. Currently only OpenStreetMap, with CloudMade and Google Maps support coming soon.
- Widget & page modes. Display your map in a widget in your sidebar, or dedicate an entire page to your location data.
- Shows your public places in relation to where you are.
- Your position on the map updates dynamically.
Design Rationale
The system has been designed with extensibility in mind.
The next version (currently not in the repository) will include API functionality into your blog, almost independent of the Buddycloud servers. The system exposes public data through XML and JSON APIs which can then be used to develop third party applications. The forthcoming version of meCloud uses this data to power a Javascript front-end.
Because Openlayers (the map API) doesn’t degrade gracefully for non-Javascript browsers, I figure a Javascript-only front end is acceptable.
I’m also planning on implementing basic noscript and mobile functionality including current location, status, nearby waypoints, and a link to the external map provider of your choice. There are several reasons for this:
- Mobile devices generally have much less bandwidth and screen real estate for expensive map widgets.
- Lower specced mobile devices have been known to crash and run out of memory with some more intensive script, and even styles.
- Non-Javascript browsers can still navigate to the map provider of choice, which will generally provide a much better non-Javascript experience than I can possibly cobble together.
Status
As of June ’09 it’s still under development. You can get the latest pushed (and possibly broken) version on Github.