Workaround to have Google Maps back in Mashups

I found a quick workaround to have Google Maps back into Infor Smart Office Mashups. There are currently three problems with Google Maps in Mashups. I’m using Smart Office 10.1.1.1.5, on Windows 7 Professional 64 bits, with Internet Explorer 11.0.9600.17207.

Problem 1

The first problem is that some time ago Google Maps changed their service and removed the parameter output=embed from the allowed parameters of the URL. The embed output was great as it used to hide the header, footer, and sidebar making it ideal for limited spaces like Mashups; the default output having been classic. With that parameter now disallowed, it causes Google Maps to display the error “The Google Maps Embed API must be used in an iframe” and that happens whether in a browser or in a Mashup, and it even broke the built-in Mashup sample of Mashup Designer:

I haven’t investigated all the details of the problem but I found a workaround. Replace the value embed of the parameter with either of these values: svembed, embedmfe, or svembedmfe. sv seems to be the prefix for Street View. I haven’t yet figured out what the suffix mfe means nor if it will remain long lived.

Here’s a sample result of Google Maps embedded in my browser:

Problem 2

Instead of using the output parameter we could simply use the Google Maps new look which is lean and sexy and also hides the header, footer and sidebar. But unfortunately, the WebBrowser control of Smart Office Mashups sends the HTTP request header Accept: */* instead of Accept: text/html, application/xhtml+xml, */* and that causes Google Maps to respond with HTTP 302 Found redirecting to output=classic and we’re back at problem 1:

Problem 3

The third problem is that Google Maps in a Mashup now throws a JavaScript error popup:

I haven’t yet investigated what causes it. It seems to be caused by the old render mode IE7 that Smart Office uses (although in the past the same render mode wasn’t causing the script error). The workaround is to add a registry key to your Windows to force the render mode to IE11 (and you need to install Internet Explorer 11). You can read more about this in Karin’s post. Microsoft has tools to push registry keys to users computers. Here’s the Windows Registry key I just added on my computer:

Result

After changing to output=svembed, and after adding the Windows Registry key, here’s the result in my Smart Office: the output is correctly embedded, there is no script error, the map works correctly (zoom/pan/etc.), and the Mashup events still work correctly:

That was a quick workaround to get Google Maps back into Mashups. If you know of a simpler solution let me know.