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I want to create an app that will do massive use of google maps api. In particular, I wanna display a map, add a lot(and I do mean a lot) of data on top of the map, and constantly display the user location in the map.

I'm struggling between two option- native vs hybrid:

Hybrid: Pros: - cross browser - I can use maps engines lite and therefore avoid the need of manually drawing my data on the map. Cons: - hybrid app are known of bad performance in comparison to native. - the user location constant update not good as native

Native: -pros: - good performance - better gps access -cons: - need of separate apps for different OS - no maps engine support. Need of constant manual drawing on map

Maybe someone can advice me?

P.s. I thought of implementing hybrid without phone gap - and to create a native app that will use a browser only to display the maps engine map - to improve performance

Thanks

user1433927
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1 Answers1

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Unfortunately I can't give you an exact answer with the information provided but in order to help you decide I would recommend you do some basic performance testing with a test data set similar in volume to what you expect to use in the real app.

The Google APIs in question (Maps for mobile web, Maps for native mobile and Maps engine for web) all have limitations on the amount of data they can handle, as will a mobile device. You should create simulations in each scenario and see which, if any, of the platforms can handle your data requirement.

Another option you may not have considered is to use a combination of maps engine & native maps APIs. You can use maps engine to store your data & query for only the data required at the time (e.g. data within the current viewport) using the API and plot it on the native maps API yourself. This has the benefit of only requiring the mobile device to handle a small subset of a larger dataset, if that's possible in your case.

Mark McDonald
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