Ajax / JSRS / Google Map / Network Monitoring Example

This is just a prototype example using Ajaxian techniques, JSRS (Javascript Remote Scripting), and Google Maps to show how one could display network monitoring updates in real-time. I started putting this together about a month ago when there were just two known implementations using Google Maps out on the net. One was Chicago Crime Maps and the other was Housing Maps. It really only took me a couple days to put together as I only had a few hours here and there over the time period to actually work on it. I'm usually too busy getting paid to do this kind of stuff so I don't normally spend time like this just for fun anymore. Since starting Google has changed the Map implementation a couple times so I had to fix things and now they've actually come out with a Google Maps API to make things a million times easier so people don't have to hack this stuff together. They were a couple weeks too late so I'm still using old techniques here that will likely stop working at some point. UPDATE (Jan 24, 2006): Things stopped working recently so I figured I would just modify the code to use the API.

A very brief overview of how this thing works: On first hit to the page it generates a list of random network nodes and marks them all as being UP (Green). Every 30-90 seconds we use JSRS to make a call to the server to simulate a network node change. The server returns the changed node information and using Ajaxian techniques displays the changes by updating some text on the left and moving the map to the node location. One can enable or disable updates by clicking the checkbox. There are a number of ways this can likely be done differently and more efficiently especially with the API being available now. Please note: This has not been tested in many browsers and is likely not to work in some. I haven't developed this to be net friendly as its just a prototype so don't expect me to fix much unless its a very minor thing and easy to fix in two minutes. I can be reached by email at tsaiello at kosmo dot com and you can find my blog at http://tim.blog.kosmo.com.