An Expert System for Tourists Using Google

Maps API
Aleksandar, Pejiü; Szilveszter, Pletl; Bojan, Pejiü
Subotica Tech, Department of Informatics, Subotica, Serbia; www.vts.su.ac.rs
e-mail: alex@vts.su.ac.rs, pszilvi@vts.su.ac.rs, bpejic@vts.su.ac.rs

Abstract— In the field of eTourism, it is important to integration of readily available open source and free to
present prominent objects of tourists destinations. use software, frameworks, APIs, libraries, data sources,
Nowadays demand for eTourism applications is rising and external services and functionality to create a platform for
the customers need rapid software development. Google running our Web 2.0 service. This development model is
Maps API is a technology provided by Google based on known as “Mashup” - a web application hybrid [4].
AJAX, which powers many map-based services. This paper
presents an expert system for tourists. The realized software
uses free, public API service from Google Maps. The system
utilizes a knowledge base formed by tracking user actions.
The expert module suggests information of special interest
to the user.

Keywords: Rapid Web Prototyping, Google Maps API, AJAX,

eTourism, mashup, fuzzy logic.

I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years more and more information is available
for tourists on the Internet. However, it is known to many
that it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain quality
information. Growing requirement for modern websites is
rapid web development along with customized data
services. Intelligent software agents have been used to
make recommendations of items in a wide variety of
domains, as e-Tourism. A fuzzy clustering method of
construction of ontology-based user profiles is proposed in
[5]. Similarity measures are usually used for determining
distance between the clusters [6].
Section II. presents the Rapid Web Development
technique. Some basic problems based on Google Maps
API are described in Section III. Structure of the
developed software is presented Section IV. Technical Figure 1. Illustration of mashup model
realization of the application is described in section V.
Testing and validation of proposed algorithm is presented Figure 1 illustrates a simple mashup model where web
in section VI. Finally, we conclude this paper in Section services and multiple external and internal data sources
VII. are combined.

II. RAPID WEB DEVELOPMENT III. GOOGLE MAPS API

Rapid Web Development means quick and efficient web
application building. It is part of the Rapid Software
Development described in [1]. Beside the obvious
objective of meeting customers’ deadline, another
characteristic of Rapid Web Development is fast
prototyping. Mockups and partial web application
versions aid evaluation, usability testing and simulation
of planned features.
The Rapid Web Development process uses existing
technologies and brings them together allowing us to
focus on the real task of application building. It implies
Google Maps is a web-based mapping service provided
by Google which provides a slick, highly responsive
visual interface built using AJAX technologies. This
service has detailed street and aerial imagery data, and an
open API allowing customization of the map output
including the ability to add application specific data on
the map (and also integration to third-party websites).
Google was created the Google Maps API to allow
developers to integrate Google Maps into their websites
with their own data points, and it is a free service.

978-1-4244-5349-8/09/$26.00 ©2009 IEEE 317

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 Google Maps API is based on a very simple suite of
classes (components) within a JavaScript container
directly within a XHTML page, and these classes were
loaded from Google each time we opened a Google Maps
web page. All of the functionality of Google Maps is
based on this embedded JavaScript object built in a web
page, and this component was provided the interface to
the Google Maps service and generated the map on users
screen by loading the necessary image components and
tiling them onto the display. The interface of the API was
hiding some powerful classes, objects, and interfaces that
enabled us to manipulate the Google Map. With
combining this interface with the data that we wanted to
display, it was possible to support interactive elements on
the web page without reloading the page or redisplaying
the portions of the map – the entire process was handled
by JavaScript and Google Maps application. Valuable
tips on using these services can be found in [2].
The Google Maps API is essentially a suite of JavaScript
classes that we used to build applications within the
confines of the web page. API understanding was relied
on knowing the terminology used to define sections of the
Google Maps API and interface. Detailed documentation
on API can be found in [3]. Google Maps applications
usually start with a simple map. To this map we added a
number of different elements designed to provide
application functionality. In this work we used following
elements:
• Overlays – representing POI (point of interest)
on map or lines denoting areas, routes, or other
information about the location being displayed.
In this section was available some GLayers
which were providing various data type on the
map as pictures, text or video (Panoramio,
Wikipedia, and YouTube layers); and markers
and polylines.
• Events – are triggered by some action, such as
the user click or mouse over on a POI or some
other action associated with GEvent.
InfoWindows are commonly called with GEvent
and click action.
• Controls – basic interface controls that enable
user to zoom in and out the map, move the map
effectively, and ability to change between map
types.
• Services – extends Google Maps API with
adding new functionalities and features that are
often available on maps.google.com first. In this
section are Geocoding, Directions, Google bar,
Ad-Sense for map and some others.
We took advantage of Google Maps support for standard
WEB technologies. We used following technologies:
• XHTML – Google Maps will work embedded in
any standard HTML page, but Google
recommends that we create pages that are
compliant with the XHTML standard, which
will ensure not only that the code is compatible
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with the standard of most browsers, but also the
reliable rendering of our web page.
• VML (Vector Markup Language) –on top of our
Google Maps application we used polylines as
an overlay. For compatibility with Internet
Explorer, we included the Microsoft VML
namespace within our XHTML definition.
Without this option, our polylines will not work.
• Styles – we were completely free to develop and
design our own styles, stylesheets, and layout
according to the needs of website. Google Maps
has no limitation or restriction on how we layout
or style our website when it includes a Google
Map.
• XML (Extensible Markup Language) –The
XML standard is a way of representing data in a
structured format that is architecture neutral.
Although XML isn't a required element in
Google Maps applications, it is common to
provide large volumes of data (map points,
information windows, etc.) by specifying the
information in XML, loading the XML through
Google Maps API, and than displaying that
information using the functionality of the API.
We have exploited this ability to present our
data.
• JavaScript – the Google Maps API is based on
the JavaScript language. JavaScript was built
into most browsers and provided a rich suite of
functionality for developing dynamic elements.
The majority of JavaScript programming was
designed to interface directly into the Google
Maps API, which itself is based on an object-
oriented interface to a suite of Google Maps
specific classes.
IV. SOFTWARE STRUCTURE
In this section the structure of the realized software is
described. The project is focused to provide information
on tourist and business objects in Paliü and around Paliü
Lake, a popular tourist destination in foremost north of
Serbia. The result of project is a web site and can be
found at location http://palic.in.
A. User interface
User interface was designed that main focus to be on the
map as shown in Figure 2. Layout scheme is very simple,
a combination of header which contains a logo and
widget buttons, and the content area which is held by the
map. Right side of map is reserved for widgets, which are
giving a really nice interactivity to user interface, because
they are movable, collapsible, extensible and closable.
Content of these widgets is adjusted by expert agent. By
the buttons in header these widgets also could be hidden
or shown. These widgets are containing options and
actions which gives user the interaction with the map,
selecting category by interest and listing markers,
 directions or maybe displaying a third-party weather
information by parsing an XML. On the left side map
there are controlls for map interaction like pan, zoom in
and out. Tourist and business objects are presented with
icons on the map.
Figure 2. Screenshot of palic.in user interface.
Technical background of construction like this contains:
XHTML page with CSS, JavaScript, and PHP. A
JavaScript library called jQuery is used mostly in creation
of user interface effects, jQuery and some extensions in
plugins form are helping to get the widgets and their
interactivity, and also some other functions like buttons
hover effect etc. A function of Google Maps API was
used for implementing controls of the map.
B. Services
There are many services provided by Google Maps API
like: Geocoding which from given address returns a
geolocation (point on the map), Directions which takes us
from one point to another with detailed route instructions
(time and distance calculations), Streetview which gives
us a virtual picture of location just like we are there,
GoogleBar for local search of the map, KML/GeoRSS
overlays, and these are just some of the most interesting
ones.
On palic.in website integration, because the limits of
Google Maps API for Serbia (abilities with map
interaction are not developed on the same level as for
U.S., England) there were used only some of the services.
These services are Directions used how to reach Palic in
Serbia from given location, KML/GeoRSS overlays, and
custom icons for marking different point (location) types
on the map picked by category.
For some abilities which are not supported for Serbia yet,
we developed our own solution, like street mapping and
naming.
C. Expert system
The main task of expert system is to provide customized
information to users. The task entrusted to system was
realized as follows.
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All objects are classified based on their individual
attributes value. The algorithm of classification of objects
is based on fuzzy logic. In this work we assume that the
number of objects and classes is N and M respectively.
The fuzzy logic system to determine which class object
falls under has 3 inputs. Universe of discourse for each
input is covered by 3 triangular membership functions:
small, medium and large linguistic values. The three
inputs are: level of comfort, distance from the object of
interest (Paliü lake) and the price of the service. Figure 3.
illustrates an input space coverage.
Figure 3. Membership functions of comfort input.
Classification of the every object is done during the
process of adding it to the database. After the
fuzzification of each input we evaluate each rule in the
rule base. A typical rule is as follows:
R1: if (comfort is small) and
(distance is small) and
(price is small)
then (cluster is c1)
As a result of output from the rule base, one object may
belong to more than one cluster for some degree. The
next step is to find maximum membership function value
and assign the class to object which membership value is
the maximum.
During the exploitation the system creates a log entry for
every visit and visitor. Returning visitors are identified on
the basis of a web browser cookie. The cookie contains a
randomly generated unique string value to identify each
visitor. During the visits, the system collects more and
more information from user, this fact helps to correct
class assignment. If we once assign a class value to
visitor he becomes our user. It is not a unique class for
one user. The user may belong to more than one class for
some degree. The user interface of the application is
divided in two parts, one is class dependent and the other
is class independent. Class dependent part of the user
interface contains information about objects that belong
to the same class as user. In case of classification of user's
behavior in more than one fuzzy set, we consider the
membership function value and find a proportion of
objects to be presented.
 D. Database
Database was designed using the relational model with
special focus on normalization. After determining the
information to be stored, basic objects, information
grouping and relationships between them were created.
The database holds information on tourist and business
objects in Paliü and around Paliü Lake. Each object has a
set of basic information, such as name and contact
information, has some attributes like comfort level,
belongs to one or more categories, has address and
geolocation information, can have one or more pictures
grouped within galleries. Custom object grouping,
multilingual content and inline linking (hotlinking) for
partner web sites are also stored. Database contains tables
for logging visitors’ actions on the website. Information
for profiling visitors and objects into clusters is also
stored. Structure of the database is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Database Enhanced-Entity Relationship Diagram

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V. TECHNICAL REALIZATION
The project is based on client-server technology, and
consists of server side and client side parts. During the
development process we considered limitations of both
parts. The palic.in project was realized using mostly open
source software and some proprietary but free-to-use
software and services. The underlying development
platform for our application is WAMP (Windows-
Apache-MySQL-PHP), while the actual web application
hosting platform is LAMP (Linux-Apache-MySQL-
PHP). Figure 5 shows a typical server and client software
stack needed for web application deployment.
Server side
Application
PHP
The following data services are used:
• PHP PDO library; Is a robust, lightweight and
consistent interface for accessing databases in
PHP.
• PHP Classes and Objects; Whole application is
developed using the OOP paradigm.
• Database Abstraction Layer; We developed an
PHP class to unify the communication with
different database types.
• SQL Views; We stored logical tables as SQL
query.
• SQL Stored Procedures and Functions; We
achieved improved security and speed increase
with them.
• SQL Triggers; We used them to improve
database integrity.
• Geotagging. We used it to add geographical
identification to various media.

Apache MySQL • Google Maps API (proprietary but free to use);

• Weather.com weather forecast (proprietary but
free to use);
Linux
• Panoramio, geolocation-oriented photo sharing
website (free to use);
• YouTube, video content sharing website (free to
use);
Web Browser • Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Operating System VI. TESTING

Client side
The palic.in web application passed the following tests:
Figure 5. Software stack on server and client side
• Cross-browser compatibility testing; addresses
browser compatibility and operating system
The following technologies are used: compatibility
• Functionality testing; covers basic web site
• XHTML markup language functionality as links, forms for information
• CSS style sheet language submitting, database connections, cookies
• XML markup language • Usability testing; covers user interface and
• JavaScript language navigation
• AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) • Interface testing; covers interaction between
application, web server and database server
• PHP scripting language
• Security testing; testing for potential
• SQL relational database language
vulnerabilities like XSS (cross-site scripting)
• jQuery JavaScript library
• Performance and stress testing; application
• Keyhole Markup Language (KML), XML-based
performance evaluation during high load and
language schema
user activity, testing application response on
• GeoRSS Geography Markup Language (GML) different internet connection speeds
The following techniques are used:
VII. CONCLUSION
• CSS overlays; User interface makes extensive This work describes an application developed with rapid
use of overlays. On this way we produced web development method. The realized application uses
flexible interface. and benefits of Google Maps API service. The
• Web Widgets; We used them for interactivity application was customized to a popular tourist
and to provide customized information to users. destination Paliü, hence the web site domain name

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 palic.in. The realized database is capable of storing user VIII. REFERENCES
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[2] Martin C. Brown, “Hacking Google Maps and Google Earth”,
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[3] Google Maps API Documentation,
http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/
[4] Mashups: The next major new software development model?,
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[5] Lixin Han, Guihai Chen “A fuzzy clustering method of
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