PHP Basics: Replace Characters & Google Maps

Hi All, Generic article greeting input here!

Replace Characters with this Easy PHP Script

I recently decided that with some enquiry forms that I wanted to send out a link to Google maps so that the person who recieves the enquiry can locate them on the map easily. I didn’t want the hassle of setting up a SOAP service or anything like that, so this just manipulates a URL query. One thing I needed to do was to replace spaces with a ‘+’ character, so it would work properly.

Here’s the script!

<?php
$address = "120 Purple Nipple Lane";
$postcode = "ME9 8CP";
// this is a made up address, so suggest getting a working one
 
$map = "http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=" . $address . ",+ " . $postcode . "&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=19.773582,57.128906&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=16&g=" . $address . ",+ " . $postcode . "&iwloc=addr";
$maplink = str_replace(" ","+",$map);
// remove the space and replace with a plus
?>
<a href="<?php echo $maplink; ?>">Click for map!</a>

Ok thats it! Enjoy, you can send it out with an email if you like, or whatever, it’s handy though, note you don’t need a full address, postcode and first line is adequate.