Oregon Hikers

The Oregon Hikers Maps feature of the Field Guide is showing dark with a "For development purposes only" watermark. When I click on "Do you own this website?" in the dialog box that comes up, here is what it says:

API Key and Billing Errors

▸ Attention customers in Brazil, Canada, and India
Under certain circumstances, a darkened map, or 'negative' Street View image, watermarked with the text "for development purposes only", may be displayed. This behavior typically indicates issues with either an API key or billing. In order to use Google Maps Platform products, billing must be enabled on your account, and all requests must include a valid API key.

I'm guessing that is due to the google maps policy changes that were recently done. It is the reason gmap4 shut down - google changed the billing to have a greatly smaller "free" tier, and now requires a credit card be on file in case you go over. Many people have migrated away from google maps for this reason.

Just a guess.
[Edit]

Yep, that is the cause - the browser console shows this message:

Google Maps JavaScript API warning: NoApiKeys https://developers.google.com/maps/docu ... o-api-keys

Looks like they are finally forcing us over to using their billing system. I think we'll be OK with the amount of traffic the maps page receives and be able to stay at the free level, so I will add billing to our key.

When trying to add billing to our API key, I keep running into an error. I'll give it another shot later.

Martell wrote: ↑

October 30th, 2018, 7:16 am

When trying to add billing to our API key, I keep running into an error. I'll give it another shot later.

They really don't make it easy.

adamschneider wrote: ↑

October 30th, 2018, 7:53 am

Martell wrote: ↑

October 30th, 2018, 7:16 am

When trying to add billing to our API key, I keep running into an error. I'll give it another shot later.

They really don't make it easy.

Yeah, although I'm getting a new error now. For a while it was locking up my browser tab (couldn't even close the tab) and then generating a javscript error.

It's like they WANT us to switch over to Leaflet...

adamschneider wrote: ↑

October 30th, 2018, 8:28 am

It's like they WANT us to switch over to Leaflet...

Do you know if it's easy to set a limit with Google so you don't start getting charged? The Maps page doesn't get too much traffic, but I'd hate to get a random bill because a bot was loading the page or something.

I'd switch to leaflet - I did up a page for myself that has all the features I need. It really wasn't that hard either. There are a TON of plugins for Leaflet. Anyone who is reasonably good with javascript would pick it up very quickly.

The only thing google maps has on leaflet is the superior aerial imagery, IMO. Otherwise, Leaflet is better than google maps now. And it is all open source so you won't have to worry about changing their mind and abandoning it or charging for ALL access.

Martell wrote: ↑

October 30th, 2018, 10:04 am

adamschneider wrote: ↑

October 30th, 2018, 8:28 am

It's like they WANT us to switch over to Leaflet...

Do you know if it's easy to set a limit with Google so you don't start getting charged? The Maps page doesn't get too much traffic, but I'd hate to get a random bill because a bot was loading the page or something.

Yes... Somewhere in there, there's a "quotas" page.