Hey, I'm trying to work out how to use this to get the distance from the successful directions: http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/v3/reference.html#DirectionsDistance

This is the code I have so far:

var googleMaps = {
  // HTML Nodes
  fromInput: google_maps_from,
  toInput: google_maps_to,

  // API Objects
  dirService: new google.maps.DirectionsService(),
  dirRenderer: new google.maps.DirectionsRenderer(),
  map: null,

  showDirections: function(dirResult, dirStatus) {
    if (dirStatus != google.maps.DirectionsStatus.OK) 
    {
     //Here we'll handle the errors a bit better :P
      alert('Directions failed: ' + dirStatus);
      return;
    }
    else
    {
     //Get the distance here
     //onGDirectionsLoad();
    }

    // Show directions
    googleMaps.dirRenderer.setMap(googleMaps.map);
    googleMaps.dirRenderer.setPanel(document.getElementById("directions"));
    googleMaps.dirRenderer.setDirections(dirResult);
  },

  getSelectedTravelMode: function() {
    return google.maps.DirectionsTravelMode.DRIVING;
  },

  getSelectedUnitSystem: function() {
    return google.maps.DirectionsUnitSystem.METRIC;
  },

  getDirections: function() {
    var fromStr = googleMaps.fromInput;
    var toStr = googleMaps.toInput;
    var dirRequest = {
      origin: fromStr,
      destination: toStr,
      travelMode: googleMaps.getSelectedTravelMode(),
      unitSystem: googleMaps.getSelectedUnitSystem(),
      provideTripAlternatives: true
    };
    googleMaps.dirService.route(dirRequest, googleMaps.showDirections);
  },

  init: function() {
    googleMaps.map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map_canvas"), {
      zoom: 13,
      mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP
    });
    // Show directions onload
    googleMaps.getDirections();
  }
};

// Onload handler to fire off the app.
google.maps.event.addDomListener(window, 'load', googleMaps.init);

I could do this just fine in v2, just having trouble working out the v3 equivalent :x