Check if lat/long point is within a set of polygons using google maps

Question

I know how to do the above using Esri (Query task on shapefile), but can this also be done using Google Maps? Do I have to query each polygon or is there one method to query a set of polygons?

Answer 1

The Google maps API does not already provide a method for checking points in polygons. After researching a bit I stumbled across the Ray-casting algorithm which will determine if an X-Y coordinate is inside a plotted shape. This will translate to latitude and longitude. The following extends the google.maps.polygon.prototype to use this algorithm. Simply include this code at a point in the code after google.maps has loaded:

google.maps.Polygon.prototype.Contains = function(point) { var crossings = 0, path = this.getPath();

    // for each edge
    for (var i=0; i < path.getLength(); i++) {
        var a = path.getAt(i),
            j = i + 1;
        if (j >= path.getLength()) {
            j = 0;
        }
        var b = path.getAt(j);
        if (rayCrossesSegment(point, a, b)) {
            crossings++;
        }
    }

    // odd number of crossings?
    return (crossings % 2 == 1);

    function rayCrossesSegment(point, a, b) {
        var px = point.lng(),
            py = point.lat(),
            ax = a.lng(),
            ay = a.lat(),
            bx = b.lng(),
            by = b.lat();
        if (ay > by) {
            ax = b.lng();
            ay = b.lat();
            bx = a.lng();
            by = a.lat();
        }
        // alter longitude to cater for 180 degree crossings
        if (px < 0) { px += 360 };
        if (ax < 0) { ax += 360 };
        if (bx < 0) { bx += 360 };

        if (py == ay || py == by) py += 0.00000001;
        if ((py > by || py < ay) || (px > Math.max(ax, bx))) return false;
        if (px < Math.min(ax, bx)) return true;

        var red = (ax != bx) ? ((by - ay) / (bx - ax)) : Infinity;
        var blue = (ax != px) ? ((py - ay) / (px - ax)) : Infinity;
        return (blue >= red);

    }

 };

Here we have extended the functionality of google.maps.Polygon by defining a function with name ‘Contains’ which can be used to determine whether the latitude longitude provided in function parameter are within the polygon or not. Here we make use of Ray-casting algorithm and developed a function using the same. After doing this much of exercise now, we can check a point as follows:

var point = new google.maps.LatLng(52.05249047600099, -0.6097412109375); var polygon = new google.maps.Polygon({path:[INSERT_PATH_ARRAY_HERE]}); if (polygon.Contains(point)) { // point is inside polygon }

For complete code and demo please go to: http://counsellingbyabhi.blogspot.in/2013/01/google-map-check-whether-point-latlong.html

Answer 2

I'd go the Open Layers plugin; fetch it, and you can then even add whatever dynamic layer to your map and export.

*Before doing so, ensure you have your project CRS(EPSG) set to WGS84, and that 'on the fly' CRS transformation is enabled under your Project Properties settings.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

if you use third party program as geodjango, you can check out your point whether within a set of polygons or not. more info is here.

contains

Availability: PostGIS, Oracle, MySQL, SpatiaLite

Tests if the geometry field spatially contains the lookup geometry.

Example:

Zipcode.objects.filter(poly__contains=geom)

Backend     SQL Equivalent
PostGIS     ST_Contains(poly, geom)
Oracle  SDO_CONTAINS(poly, geom)
MySQL   MBRContains(poly, geom)
SpatiaLite  Contains(poly, geom)

i hope it helps you...