After browsing the web a bit, I never found how to properly export a good kml for the 'mymaps' feature of google maps.
So, I created my own (using an older forum post as a template) that would work well with my usercase and thought I would share with other users in similar situation.
Result :
- The map https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1L25qzoO4GAVr5EuFK6A_69Y8Yi7A6hty (https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1L25qzoO4GAVr5EuFK6A_69Y8Yi7A6hty)
Note :
- Based it off an older post (https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php?topic=1688.msg7373#msg7373 (https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php?topic=1688.msg7373#msg7373)) for google earth.
- For each image, the map display an small picture for the icon, and some details pulled from the Exif
Setup :
- Pick a root folder for your export (for our example, let's name it 'FolderA')
- Copy 'exiftool.exe', 'Export.bat', 'kml-content-icon.fmt', 'kml-content-drain.fmt' into 'FolderA\Bin',
- Create a new batfile in 'FolderA', with a name matching the folder with your pictures. For Example, you could have :
- Folder: 'FolderA\MyPics'
- Batfile: 'FolderA\MyPics.bat'
Batfile content:Bin\Export.bat %~n0 (Insert map name/description here)Steps :
- Using Gimp, I tweak my source images
- Using Gimp, I edit a few Exif fields that will be used in the kml generation
- (Document Title) => Name of item
- (Author Title) => Name of Author (note: didn't use (Author) since it adds extra unwanted text)
- (Description) => Some description of the item
- (Copyright Notice) => Website URL
- (Copyright URL) => Google Drive fileID (needed and filled later)
- Note: These fields can adjusted to any content you want, just edit the kml template files accordingly
- Export the png/jpeg image to chosen folder (like 'FolderA\MyPics')
- Upload image to a public google drive folder
- Using google drive to ensure the image URL stays the same after re-uploading it. (Other options explored 'google photo', 'smugmug' but they url gets updated)
- You could use another online image provider, if the url to the image is never changed after first upload amd updating the kml template
- This uploaded image is used by the google map importer, to fetch the linked pictured and the icon
- Google drive is also useful with its auto thumbnail generation. The kml icon creation use it during import. (creating icon from original large image can slowdown import too much and cause an error)
- After uploading the image, get its unique FileID
- Can be found by clicking on the 'Get Link' icon and then copying the text between https ://drive.google.com/file/d/(FileID)/view?usp=sharing
- For example for 'https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ak-8GpAWKu8jJgdH4Q-JXO3TS9od7cuZ/view?usp=sharing the FileID' is 1Ak-8GpAWKu8jJgdH4Q-JXO3TS9od7cuZ
- Copy the FileID to the image (Copyright URL) Exif data amd re-export the image
- Run your created bat file to generate your new KML document ('FolderA\MyPics.bat')
- Import the KML file into your google map, and you are done