Don't be caught off guard when we push a new release: the new JavaScript versioning feature has arrived, and it will mean a couple of changes for you.
- You can specify previous JavaScript versions in the URL as part of the "v" parameter. In the past, the v=1 part of the URL
http://maps.google.com/maps?file=api&v=1referred to "version 1" of the API. We have updated this so that v=1.27a refers to "version 1" of the API and "version 27a" of the JavaScript. If no JavaScript file version is specified, then we use the current API default. If you want to specify earlier versions, that's OK with us, but we don't plan to support them or guarantee they will always be available. When we push a new release, we will start serving the previous week's JavaScript to API developers by default so that everyone has at least 5 days to check compatibility before the most current version becomes the default. For example, this week Google Maps will begin using JavaScript version 28, and the Maps API will use version 27a by default. You can test version 28 by specifying v=1.28 in the URL given in the script tag. Using the letter "x" instead of a JavaScript version number, i.e., v=1.x, will cause the current release to be used immediately rather than waiting 5 days.
These changes will be effective starting with the release going out today. (The other changes we're making in the current release are minor and should have no impact on the API.) We will include the default versions in our blog post for each release. This week's versions are:
Current Release: 1.28
API Default: 1.27a
As always, we value your feedback. Feel free to post comments on the API discussion group as we'd love to hear from you.
