Google Maps – making your map accessible to api without api key

Days back I was playing around with Google’s maps and I found it quite frustrating that the maps I created with http://maps.google.com/maps/mm is not accessible by APIs unless I authenticate by signing in to my Google account. I was getting a ‘map not api visible’ error. For those who are having similar situation, here is the solution. Use any api (java, php, python or even javascript) to set your map’s  ‘api_visible’ property to true!

<script>
function login(){
token = google.accounts.user.login('http://maps.google.com/maps/feeds');
if(token) updateMap();
}

function updateMap() {
//mapUrl is the url to your map - http://maps.google.com/maps/feeds/maps/userID/full/mapID
service.getMapEntry(mapUrl, function(entryRoot) {
var entry = entryRoot.entry;
entry.addCustomProperty({name:'api_visible', value:'1'});
entry.updateEntry(
function(ent){alert('Updated!');},
function(e){alert('Upadte err...' + e);});},
function(e){alert("Err..." + e);}
);
}
</script>
<input onclick="login();" type="button" value="Authenticate!" />
<input onclick="updateMap();" type="button" value="Update!" />

Happy mapping!

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