Best Tools For Creating Interactive Flash Maps

Interactive maps have become a significant part of web applications, providing users with real-time visual information about many places in the world. Many web pages use maps to display information about travel routes, tracking information or supply and distributor chains. The usage of maps on the company’s website helps clients find the location of its offices all over the world. Travel sites can’t go without maps if they want to show the potential customers all the attractions and places of interest of tourist destination.

Interactive maps give the possibility to interact with users by simply rolling the mouse over the map. The usual technology for inputting them into the website is Flash. It makes interactive maps highly customizable and user friendly.

Today there are plenty of map tools developed by different companies.

Origramy VividMap – (http://origramy.com/vividmap/).

It is a useful flash-based map view component working with XML-driven data. The component’s standard tools are Navigation, Layers, Distance metering tool, Objects list with a quick jump feature, but they can be customized and expanded. Javascript interface supports object click action handling. The VividMap can read maps in SWF, JPEG, GIF. Has free downloadable version.

AmMap(http://www.ammap.com/)

It is a tool for creating interactive Flash maps. It allows customization of map details - sizes, colors, etc. - controlled with JavaScript. AmMap can be used to create presentations and e-learning tools using photos and images instead of maps. It uses latitude and longitude for saving point position.

AnyMap(http://www.anychart.com/products/anymap/)

It is an extension of AnyChart Flash Charts and it allows effective combining of maps and charts. The tool allows using custom markers, bubbles, lines and connectors on the maps as well as legend, labels and tooltips. It also can display 10 projections of any map.

FusionMaps(http://www.fusioncharts.com/maps/)

It helps you create animated, interactive maps in Flash for dynamic web applications. Using FusionMaps, you can display geographical data distributed by category, regions or entities. The tool can currently plot more than 530 maps, including all continents, major countries and all US states.