Unofficial Philly Beer Week Maps Updated...

Yes the unofficial Philly Beer Week maps are updated. Check the sidebar over there -->

UPDATE: Removed from the sidebar. Here is the final version.

~Friday 3/6 (kml)
~Saturday 3/7 (kml)
~Sunday 3/8 (kml)
~Monday 3/9 (kml)
~Tuesday 3/10 (kml)
~Wednesday 3/11 (kml)
~Thursday 3/12 (kml)
~Friday 3/13 (kml)
~Saturday 3/14 (kml)
~Sunday 3/15 (kml)

Note: kml links should work with Google Mobile Maps

Thanks to Bryan @ The Brew Lounge
for the list of events. I couldn't put this together without him :-) The official schedule can be found at the Philly Beer Week site.

Yep, I'm here to tell you that it wasn't fun either. I don't have this automated on the server side, so I have to go through all these manual steps every time Bryan updates his spreadsheet. Next year, I might find some way to make it a bit easier. Here's the process I used just in case this kinda stuff interests you.

• dowload Brew Lounge's google spreadsheet as Excel file (thanks Bryan!)
• put columns in correct order, combine some columns with forumulas
• make sure records show in proper chrono order
• split into 10 diff days
• export into 10 tab delim files, one for each day
• use http://batchgeocode.com to create KML files
• give KML files new names so Google Maps doesn't use old cached ones
• make sure the KML files are saved in unicode for Google Maps
• use Notepadd++ to change pushpins and remove some quotes from the 10 files
• upload to website
• test
• change sidebar HTML to reflect new links (URL to Google Map and raw KML file)
• Then you realize you screwed up and have to redo the whole thing. Sorting is a PITA.

So what does this tell me? There's probably an easier way. I guess I would try to automate it if I did it more often. You know, I should probably check to see how http://beermapping.com does their stuff.

Whew, glad that's done.