Google Maps - Set up instructions for non-watermarked maps

[Rob Holtman]

Google Maps works without an APi key for me most of the time. Do I still have to install the software update ?

[IAmFedUpWithThis]

I'd appreciate some more detailed information, please, as following the instructions didn't work. First of all, I was given a choice of three products to select: do I need just "maps" or all three. Secondly, after going through the steps of creating a project, I was not given the option to set up a billing account (I had no accounts on Google maps): I was just taken back to the first screen. Finally, it appears that you can't set a billing limit of $0.00, you have to set a usage limit instead.

[admin]

I'd appreciate some more detailed information, please, as following the instructions didn't work. First of all, I was given a choice of three products to select: do I need just "maps" or all three. Secondly, after going through the steps of creating a project, I was not given the option to set up a billing account (I had no accounts on Google maps): I was just taken back to the first screen. Finally, it appears that you can't set a billing limit of $0.00, you have to set a usage limit instead.

Updated instructions. Its "Maps JavaScript API" the one you want. Enter the API key into ST3 and if it works you got the right one.

[admin]

HA! Like I had waited for this Google change to use OpenStreetMap
Best map layer plugin!

OSM street data exceeds even Google Maps in some places, but due to Google's size and ambition to partner with satellite and airplane ground imagery companies as well as negotiating content deals for maps, they are second to none and it's no wonder they are changing to a fee model as all this infrastructure can't be cheap.

[IAmFedUpWithThis]

HA! Like I had waited for this Google change to use OpenStreetMap
Best map layer plugin!

OSM street data exceeds even Google Maps in some places, but due to Google's size and ambition to partner with satellite and airplane ground imagery companies as well as negotiating content deals for maps, they are second to none and it's no wonder they are changing to a fee model as all this infrastructure can't be cheap.

OSM street data is indeed often better than Google, but it doesn't have the satellite imagery which I think is more useful. The latest OSM plugin also seems to require registration and an API key (can't see why since it's supposed to be "open"), but the old one still works fine.

[admin]

The latest OSM plugin also seems to require registration and an API key (can't see why since it's supposed to be "open"), but the old one still works fine.

The "open" in Open Street Map has always referred to the content and licensing restrictions of the actual data itself. It has never meant you could use their data storage and compute resources either for free or anonymously. You can (and should) read their terms of service.

[IAmFedUpWithThis]

I don't doubt that, but version 3.1.4403 of the plugin had no requirement for API keys; it's just the latest release that does, and they seem to relate to specific map styles provided by thunderforest.com, not to the basic OSM ones. {Edit] That may only be half right: the old version now seems to require API keys for OpenCycleMap but not for Mapnik or Hike&Bike; Osmarender (whatever that was) doesn't seem to load at all.

[rogerpgvg]

I found the process a bit confusing, so I thought it might be useful for others to provide a step-by step guide of what I did:

I go to https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/get-api-key
Press "Get started"
Tick "Maps" and continue
Then it asks you to enter a project name and I select "My project"
I create a "Billing account"
I select my country and agree with the terms and conditions
I give my credit card details and start my free trial
I receive my API key
Next, in ST3, I go to Settings, Google Maps, enter my API key and restart ST3
It works!

Now, my question is: What happens after the 12-month free trial period? Do I need to start paying then?

[rogerpgvg]

And here are step-by-step instructions for getting an Open Street Map key:

Go to https://www.thunderforest.com/docs/apikeys/
At the bottom of the page, sign up for a thunderforest account
Sign up for the “Hobby project”
Enter your name, email and password and create an account
You’ll receive an email to confirm your account
After confirming, you’ll see your API key
In ST3, go to Settings, Open Street Maps, enter your API key and restart ST3

Oh, and if you can’t be bothered to get an API key for Google or Open Street Map, you could use the ESRI Map Providers plugin. The ESRI maps seem to work without API key.

[IAmFedUpWithThis]

I found the process a bit confusing, so I thought it might be useful for others to provide a step-by step guide of what I did:

I go to https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/get-api-key
Press "Get started"
Tick "Maps" and continue
Then it asks you to enter a project name and I select "My project"
I create a "Billing account"
I select my country and agree with the terms and conditions
I give my credit card details and start my free trial
I receive my API key
Next, in ST3, I go to Settings, Google Maps, enter my API key and restart ST3
It works!

Now, my question is: What happens after the 12-month free trial period? Do I need to start paying then?

Actually, there are potentially more steps:

At some point you have to log in to Google (if, like me, you aren't normally logged in). I found this meant I had to repeat some of the earlier steps; maybe that should be the first thing (I waited until it insisted I log in).
You need to set a quota limit so that you won't be billed. As a lot of APIs are enabled by default, you either need to do this for all of them, or disable the ones that aren't required. The only one you need is "Maps Javascript API". (This could probably wait until after the free trial, but it would be easy to forget if you didn't do it right away).
If you don't want to be permanently logged into Google, you need to log out when you're done.

If I understand the Ts and Cs correctly, you're initially signed up to a free trial, and within 12 months you need to upgrade to a paid account (though, of course, with suitable usage limits you won't actually pay anything).

[Kevin Dow]

I found the process a bit confusing, so I thought it might be useful for others to provide a step-by step guide of what I did:

I go to https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/get-api-key
Press "Get started"
Tick "Maps" and continue
Then it asks you to enter a project name and I select "My project"
I create a "Billing account"
I select my country and agree with the terms and conditions
I give my credit card details and start my free trial
I receive my API key
Next, in ST3, I go to Settings, Google Maps, enter my API key and restart ST3
It works!

Now, my question is: What happens after the 12-month free trial period? Do I need to start paying then?

Thanks for your step by step, this gave me to courage to go through the process and now my maps are back to normal. I haven't seen mention that the same issue occurs in the web based version of the program "mobi". Does anyone know if "mobi" is impacted? If not, is there any simple explanation why "mobi" doesn't need an API key but PC does?

[MRM1]

Did this just start happening? I opened ST3 for the first time in a month, and after 9 years of using SP I am seeing "for development purposes only" on the map. What happened to the ST3 map?

[admin]

Yep, Google will want to verify your identity via an account login. The other details should be covered in the FAQ on the subject. Glad to hear it's up and running for you.

[mroek]

I just went though this, and added my API key to ST, but now ST just throws exceptions when trying to load the maps.

This is the exception text:

Code: Select all

See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at ZoneFiveSoftware.SportTracks.Mapping.Google.ScriptConvert.ToDouble(Object val)
   at ZoneFiveSoftware.SportTracks.Mapping.Google.GoogleMapsMapControl.GMap2_GetZoom()
   at ZoneFiveSoftware.SportTracks.Mapping.Google.GoogleMapsMapControl.get_Zoom()
   at ZoneFiveSoftware.SportTracks.Mapping.Google.GoogleMapsMapControl.ZoomAtMousePosition(Boolean zoomIn, Point mousePosition)
   at ZoneFiveSoftware.SportTracks.Mapping.Google.GoogleMapsMapControl.OnMouseWheel(MouseEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseWheel(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.UserControl.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


If I remove the API key, it loads the "For development purposes" maps again. What could cause this issue?

[Torgo]

I'm getting the same thing as mroek.

[ritzenflitzer]

Same with me! Removing API Key causes no error message

[admin]

Be sure to use a Google API key for the "Maps JavaScript API" product. ST3 doesn't check if the key is ok. You can find your keys listed at the console.cloud.google.com website under APIs and Services > Credentials page listed in the "Key" column. If you entered a wrong key or need a new one you can correct it in ST3 by going to Settings > Plugins > Google Maps. If the key in ST3 exactly matches that in the Google Console key check the settings to see if you picked the right product and options for the key.

[mroek]

Be sure to use a Google API key for the "Maps JavaScript API" product. ST3 doesn't check if the key is ok. You can find your keys listed at the console.cloud.google.com website under APIs and Services > Credentials page listed in the "Key" column. If you entered a wrong key or need a new one you can correct it in ST3 by going to Settings > Plugins > Google Maps. If the key in ST3 exactly matches that in the Google Console key check the settings to see if you picked the right product and options for the key.

Well, I did use the correct key, and (unfortunately) I also followed the instructions given, which was to restrict the key to only work with "Maps JavaScript API". I had therefore disabled the other APIs for my key.

So now I just tried re-enabling all the other APIs, and after doing that, it works. I haven't tried enabling restrictions again, but I might do that to see which one causes the issue.

[admin]

Well, I did use the correct key, and (unfortunately) I also followed the instructions given, which was to restrict the key to only work with "Maps JavaScript API". I had therefore disabled the other APIs for my key.

So now I just tried re-enabling all the other APIs, and after doing that, it works. I haven't tried enabling restrictions again, but I might do that to see which one causes the issue.

Our development test environment key uses a restriction to just the Maps JavaScript API and works fine, so that is mysterious...

[mroek]

Mystery solved, and it was my own fault, I'm ashamed to say. I didn't read the Google documentation on the API restrictions, and from the selection page, it is easy to be mislead to think that what you are choosing are the APIs that should not be allowed to use the key.

However, after reading Google's documentation, I came to realize that you are in fact selecting the APIs that should be allowed, and as soon as you choose one, all the others are disabled by default. In my opinion this is counterintuitive, since if you select none, then they are all enabled.

So to the others that had the same issue, if you did what I did (i.e selecting all APIs except the "Maps Javascript API", then that's your problem too. It should look like this:

api_key.png (34.31 KiB) Viewed 5971 times

[the5krunner]

I found the process a bit confusing, so I thought it might be useful for others to provide a step-by step guide of what I did:

I go to https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/get-api-key
Press "Get started"
Tick "Maps" and continue
Then it asks you to enter a project name and I select "My project"
I create a "Billing account"
I select my country and agree with the terms and conditions
I give my credit card details and start my free trial
I receive my API key
Next, in ST3, I go to Settings, Google Maps, enter my API key and restart ST3
It works!

Now, my question is: What happens after the 12-month free trial period? Do I need to start paying then?

I started following these instructions and it goes wrong towards the end. I was using firefox and it might be advisable to use Chrome as i find that other google stuff can be a bit temperamental when not using chrome.

anyway i clicked randomly on lots of things. Wondered why I was doing any of this as i am not a developer (I'd even pay ST for the SATELLITE map access). Got a bit angry. found things that said API and pasted them into st3.1. It worked

[brirun]

I found the process a bit confusing, so I thought it might be useful for others to provide a step-by step guide of what I did:

I go to https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/get-api-key
Press "Get started"
Tick "Maps" and continue
Then it asks you to enter a project name and I select "My project"
I create a "Billing account"
I select my country and agree with the terms and conditions
I give my credit card details and start my free trial
I receive my API key
Next, in ST3, I go to Settings, Google Maps, enter my API key and restart ST3
It works!

Now, my question is: What happens after the 12-month free trial period? Do I need to start paying then?

What does happen after the free trial period? Does anyone know?

[rogerpgvg]

If I understand it correctly, then you pay $7/1000 map loads after the trial runs out:
https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/usage-and-billing?hl=en_GB

Please anyone correct me if I am wrong.

Googleprices.JPG (52.83 KiB) Viewed 5765 times

[admin]

Correct Google Maps API pricing is $7 USD / per 1000 loads, however currently Google gives an ongoing $200 / per month credit for maps products which is an equivalent of over 28,000 free map loads - plenty for any single user to remain in the free tier.

It's anyone's guess how long Google will continue to provide this credit, whether it will be discontinued at some future point, and/or whether they will change pricing or rethink their free API usage strategy. If you're price conscious and don't absolutely need Google Maps a better option is to transition to using the Open Street Map plugin.

[rochrunner]

Thanks for the info in this thread. I was able to easily get my API key, especially since I already have a Google project for the Android app that I developed. It doesn't use maps, but it made getting the key a bit easier without having to create a project. All looks good now in ST.