Visualization Library

Overview

The Google Maps JavaScript API uses libraries to provide supplemental features; the visualization library contains a number of classes that turn raw data into beautiful visualizations.

The visualization library includes the following classes:

• The HeatmapLayer class visualizes data intensity at geographical points. Our earthquake mapping tutorial uses the HeatMapLayer class to plot earthquake locations and intensity and walks you through each step of the code.

Using the library

The Visualization classes are a self-contained library, separate from the main Maps API JavaScript code. To use the functionality contained within this library, you must first load it using the libraries parameter in the Maps API bootstrap URL:

<script type="text/javascript"
  src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?libraries=visualization"></script>