Country specific zoom level in Google Maps API

Question

I'm trying to make a Google Map that only shows the Netherlands. But when I use zoom level 6 it shows Belgium and Germany as well and when I use zoom level 7 it zooms too far in that it doesn't show the complete country.

How can I make The Netherlands show only, and not germany and belgium (or at least a very tiny part of them).

Currently it looks something like this:

Donar

Zoom levels are integer values, you might not be able to get the exact size (and the Netherlands isn't rectangular). You could do something like this, make an inverted polygon that has a "hole" over the Netherlands and covers the rest of the world. – Crazed

Well given that the Netherlands borders Belgium and Germany, you're always going to show them (partly at least) if you show all of the country. You could always adjust the width and height of the map div to crop it a bit at zoom level 6 – Transgression

Answer 1

1. go to http://www.gadm.org/download, download the adm0 file for the Netherlands

2. Combine that polygon (as the inner ring(s)) with a polygon that covers the whole earth

3. use the winding reversal tool to reverse any inner polygons that don't wind opposite the outer ring.

4. zip up the resulting kml, rename to kmz. Display on the map using geoxml3

Code:

function initialize() {
    var map = new google.maps.Map(
    document.getElementById("map_canvas"), {
        center: new google.maps.LatLng(85.4419, -122.1419),
        zoom: 13,
        mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP
    });
    var geocoder = new google.maps.Geocoder();
    var geoXml = new geoXML3.parser({
                    map: map,
                    zoom: false, 
                 });
    geoXml.parse("http://www.geocodezip.com/geoxml3_test/kmz/nld_adm0_inverted.kmz");
    google.maps.event.addListener(geoXml,'parsed', function() {
      geocoder.geocode( { 'address': "Netherlands"}, function(results, status) {
        if (status == google.maps.GeocoderStatus.OK) {
          map.fitBounds(results[0].geometry.viewport);
        } else {
          alert("Geocode was not successful for the following reason: " + status);
        }
      });    
    })
}
google.maps.event.addDomListener(window, "load", initialize);

Working example

To restrict it to be always displayed on the map see this page from Mike Williams' v2 tutorial

working example

Crazed