partial tile display for KML layers

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Which products are affected?
Google Maps using KML layers

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Wait until Google's tile servers are busy (say 5pm GMT)
2. Visit http://www.surfysurveys.com/node/982/map
3. Click through the different KML layers (listed under Subsectors on the left 
hand side)
This is an intermittent bug, which I think is caused by high loads on Google's 
tile servers.

What is the expected output or behavior? What do you see instead?
Two screenshots are attached.

The 'complete' screenshot is what I'd expect to see.  The 'partial' screenshot 
is what I see periodically, and more at busy times.

What application versions (if any) are you using?
Google Maps API v3

Which operating systems (and/or relevant web browsers) are affected?
Windows 7
Chrome 16.0.912.63
Firefox 8.0
Internet Explorer 9.0.4

Please provide any additional information (code snippets/links) below.
Google's tile server seems to fall back to the normal tiles for some but not 
all tiles, which means that the KML layer is only partially rendered.  It would 
be better if
1. the tile server just delayed the request
2. if the tile server is too busy to resolve the request in a reasonable time, 
it should return an error
Either way we should end up with a map that features no KML-enhanced tiles, or 
all the KML-enhanced tiles, but not some of the KML-enhanced tiles!

The screenshots are also available on my blog: 
http://www.alexstanhope.com/blog/technology/203/google-maps-tile-display-bug-kml
-layers

Original issue reported on code.google.com by alex.sta...@gmail.com on 5 Jan 2012 at 7:59

Attachments:

• gmap-kml-tiles-partial.jpg
• gmap-kml-tiles-complete.jpg

[GoogleCodeExporter]

[deleted comment]

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I believe I had the same issue, which I couldn't figure out what went wrong. 
See Attached and you will notice the area around south west was not drawn 
correctly. It happens intermittently.  If this 's an issue at Google server, 
surely I'd like this to be solved.
Thanks.

Original comment by nsak...@siras.com on 20 Jan 2012 at 10:50

Attachments:

• kml_tile_hole.png

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I'm having the same issue. I find that the tiles normally get rendered by the 
server, but if the server takes too long then the tiles just don't get drawn on 
the map. I've attached an image which shows that the tile that's missing on my 
map has been successfully downloaded by the browser (as demonstrated by 
Firebug). It'd be great if somebody could shed some light on this!

Original comment by a.c.osm...@gmail.com on 24 May 2012 at 10:36

Attachments:

• missing-tile.jpg