KML Handbook: Geographic Visualization for the Web [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Just received my copy today and spent the afternoon pouring through it. In summary it is an excellent summary of KML and will appeal to both novice and professionals.

This is a step by step guide to writing and using KML programming language to produce enhanced graphics as overlays onto web based mapping programs such as Google Earth. But since KML is an open standard it can be used with almost any geographic program that supports it (such as Microsoft Virtual Earth, ArcGIS, EarthBrowser, etc.).

It has been a long time since a did any programing and I was worried that this book would be over my head, but it is not. It provides step by step directions with excellent colour screen shots to progressively walk the reader through several real world mashups using Google Earth. KML is based on the XML language but you do NOT need to know anything about programming in order to pick up this book and learn how to write and use KML code. Since KML is platform independent this book will be useful if you use PC, Mac or Linux.

Finally there is a website that has examples and KML scripts for downloading (to save some typing). I especially appreciate Appendix A which is a reference for the syntax of all of the KML commands.

In addition to this book, Google's website has a lot of information, examples and practice scripts on KML and how to use it with both Google Earth and Google Maps. If you are just interested in seeing what KML is and how it is used that would be the first place to go as it is FREE. If you like what you see and want to learn more this is THE reference/guide for KML.

Eric

This book is about KML, the language used for creating custom presentations based on Google Earth maps and many other geographic data display programs. The book was written to be read sequentially, with the basic concepts being presented at first and then more complex topics being presented later in the book. The compact appendix at the back of the book makes a great reference. This is not one of those IT shovelware books that are useful for about six months and then discarded. I can see me keeping this one around for a long time.

You do not need to have any programming skills to use this book. A knowledge of HTML and XML is probably required, and if you have that this book will make perfect sense. If you're new to HTML, you'll probably want to consult some additional resources on that subject. The book does briefly go over XML, but there probably isn't enough detail for you to grasp the concept if it is totally new to you. The following is a brief explanation of the chapters of the book:

Chapter 1, A Quick Tour, discusses the different uses of KML, ranging from simple sets of placemarks to elaborate blogs and websites that use KML to make attractive, informative presentations of geographic data. This chapter describes a simple "Hello, Earth" example that illustrates the basic parts of a KML file.

Chapter 2, Placemarks and Balloons, explains how to modify the KML file to achieve custom effects and paves the way for you to efficiently create entire websites with a custom look and feel. This chapter also explains how to package KML files into KMZ archives so that you can conveniently share them and post them on the web as one entity.

Chapter 3, Geometry, teaches you about a family of elements, derived from the abstract Geometry element. You'll also examine the <coordinate> element in more detail and learn how to specify additional parameters for geometric shapes, including tessellation, extrusion, and altitude mode.

Chapter 4, Styles and Icons, builds on what you've already learned about styling balloons, lines, and polygons. This chapter introduces the concept of shared styles, a powerful mechanism for developing uniform presentation styles that can be easily applied to a large set of features. You'll also learn about styles for icons and labels.

Chapter 5, Overlays, looks under the hood to see how screen overlays, ground overlays, and photo overlays can be created and manipulated in KML. Adding overlays to Google Earth gives you the power to add your own layers of imagery to Google Earth, presenting data in a vivid geographic context.

Chapter 6, Network Links, introduces the network link, which is a powerful way to share and refresh your data over the network. Network links are also a useful way to organize large presentations into smaller files that can be loaded independently, both locally or across the network. Additional features of the <Link> element are discussed too, showing how you can refresh network links based on the user's view or changes in data, and how you can communicate certain information from the Earth browser back to the server.

Chapter 7, Dynamic KML, dives deeper into the power of network link controls as it shows you how to use the <Update> element to create, change, and delete elements in KML files previously fetched through a network link and currently in memory. In addition, it explains how to create dynamic effects in KML through use of the time elements: <TimeSpan> and <TimeStamp>. Adding these elements to a KML file causes Features to be loaded according to their specified time sequence, which can be used to animate models, overlays, and placemark icons in Google Earth.

Chapter 8, Dealing with Large Data Sets, the final chapter in this guide, deals with two advanced subjects that are useful for KML files that contain large data sets. Regions allow you to specify additional conditions under which data is shown (based on where the user is looking and how far away the user is from the objects being viewed). The extended data mechanism is used for custom, typed data and allows you to add new data types to KML and preserve them when the file is saved and reloaded.

Appendix A, KML Reference, is an alphabetical reference that contains a brief description of every element and type in the KML standard, with syntax sections for all complex elements. This appendix describes the basic structure of a KML file and conventions of the language.

Appendix B, Sky Data in KML, describes how to display astronomical data in an Earth browser. You can create KML files that display objects in the sky, such as stars, constellations, planets, the Earth's moon, and galaxies. This appendix explains how to create a KML file to display celestial data in an Earth browser that supports Sky data, such as Google Earth or Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope.

I do not share the high rating given to this book by other reviewers. First, the images in the book are terribly fuzzy, sometimes to the point of being unreadable. Second, some of the writing was very careless, and I found many errors that were not caught and corrected during the final editing. For example, some of the sample code violates rules set forth in the text! It is handy to have such a thorough compilation of the rules of KML code, but there's much room for improvement.