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See https://data.openupstate.org/maps/ for existing open Greenville map layers and GeoJSON data.

Why?

Go to Google Maps, zoom into Greenville, SC and type "bike racks" or "dog parks". If you're lucky you get decent info, but inevitably you'll be looking at incomplete or irrelavant results. You may even get advertisments.

This is not to say we should make a public-version of Google Map. Actually, we already have that in OpenStreetMaps.

Rather, lots of great public infomation is locked inside all maps, proprietary and open maps alike, in much the same way styling was locked inside of HTML before CSS.

The current lock-in approach reduces:

  • accuracy of updates
  • the speed of changes
  • the scope of sharing
  • the ability to mix and match layers looking for new patterns (what do we see if we overlay tree planting data with census data?)
  • portability across applications (browser vs tablet app vs GIS tools)
  • depending on the source, oversight and fairness

What's the Problem with Current Sharing Methods?

Lets say you found park data on the city's GIS system and exported it out to a file. Now, you have the bright idea to build a Google Map with a layer for the parks, plus another layer for bathroom locations.

You share it with friends and 5 of them love the idea. They make their own map with your city parks + their own interests (bike racks, breweries, dog parks, etc).

Everyone goes about sharing and copying the layer data they like the most into their own personal maps.

Cool, we have 6 interesting maps.

One week later a dog park closes due to clown sightings. Spring comes and the city has a new park and 3 new breweries. Oh, and all the bike rakes were moved next to parking decks.

Now what? Well, things get stale and maps die, that's what.

How We Solve the Problem

  1. A Google Docs / Drive Spreadsheet is used as a real-time data source that virtually anybody can help maintain.
  2. A PHP script reads the published Google spreadsheet in real-time and converts that into a GeoJSON format
  3. The spreadsheet is now a public, sharable, standardized GeoJSON URL (via the geojson.php) which anybody can reference or edit in real-time.
  4. Any tool which understands GeoJSON, like LeafletJS, can point at one or more map layer URLs and magically show fresh data.

Start With a New Google Spreadsheet

  • Make a copy of the base spreadsheet template (File -> Make a Copy)
  • Rename your copy and start adding real "point" data, including geographic coordinates (longitude, latitude) and other properties

Publish Your Google Spreadsheet

Additions or changes to the spreadsheet will appear on a refreshed map somewhere between immediately and a few minutes later.

You should plan on only having 1 tab in the spreadsheet. However, if for some reason you want to point at the data in the second tab within the spreadsheet then open that tab in you browser and look in the URL for gid=##########. You would need to append &gid={your-tabs-gid-here}&single=true to the end of the CSV URL above to target that tab.

Allowing Other People to Help Curate the Data

Use Google's Share function to give Edit permissions. You should consider allowing "Anyone with the link" to edit the data and then all you need to do is share the edit URL with trusted people.

Using PHP to Convert a Google Sheets CSV to a GeoJSON File

The "CSV data source URL" to be used in the geojson.php PHP script is the URL from the Publish to Web step

ex. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/{a-bunch-of-random-numbers-and-letters}/pub?output=csv

Insert that URL in the $googleSpreadsheetUrl variable near the top of geojson.php

The column values are used in this example to generate the GeoJSON are hard-coded to include 4 fields: longitude, latitude, title, and notes.

If you need more columns / fields to your spreadsheet then you can add additional properties in your geojson.php under the $features['properties'] array section and then include them in the map pop-up bubble by modifying the popuphtml variable within index.html

You'd be best not to change order of the latitude and longitude columns in the spreadsheet. If you must change the order then you'd need to modify the corresponding code in geojson.php and index.html

Getting Longitude and Latitude

Non-programming / manual ways to get latitude and longitude numbers

  • (Easiest) Go to MapQuest, zoom in and center the position you want in the middle of the map and right click on the spot you want. The pop-up will show the lat and long.
  • (OK) In Google Maps zoom into a point. The URL in your browser will contain the center point's latitude and longitude (in that order) ex: 34.8509174,-82.3987371
  • (Hard, but good for looking up lots of data) If you know how to do custom functions in Google Sheets then you can convert an address into latitude and longitude with some customization.

Render a Leaflet Map Showing the GeoJSON Data

The index.html file loads the GeoJSON file into a local Javascript variable. Point this at your GeoJSON file and Leaflet will render the GeoJSON data. The magic line for loading a single layer map is

var geoJsonData = JSON.parse(readJSON('geojson.php'));

Leaflet JS is using open MapQuest tiles. As of July 2016, it's necessary to register an account with MapQuest. Up to 15,000 views a month is free.

Testing in Cloud 9

  • After forking this base project and setup a C9 workspace
  • Save your changes (File-> Save or Ctrl + S)
  • Click green Run icon near the top of the C9 workspace and it will fire up an Apache web service running your environment
  • On the command line at the bottom of C9 you'll see a message like Starting Apache httpd, serving https://leaflet-wi-fi-map-allella.c9users.io/ (your public workspace URL)
  • Visit your public workspace URL in a new browser tab and you should see your map with the points specified in the spreadsheet. This is showing you the index.html where the map is rendered.

Registering for Map Tiles

The base project includes a MapQuest key (key=bA5WISoAPsk5r0GJ3hHGTkAMFEskFOA2) in the index.html.

Ideally you should register your own free account and use your own key to avoid exhausting this base key if too many people start using or abusing it.

If using Mapquest then after registering for an account do the following:

  • Login to your developer account
  • Go to Keys and Reporting
  • Register a new Application. Give it a name. The callback may not be necessary. Save the application
  • Click on the "Application" you created and copy the "Consumer Key", NOT the secret.
  • You'll use your new key value in the index.html in the MapQuest <script> tag
  • Replace the existing key with your key where is says key=bA5WISoAPsk5r0GJ3hHGTkAMFEskFOA2

If you register with CloudMade you can use their map tiles instead, as described by Leaflet example http://leafletjs.com/examples/geojson.html

Multiple Layers and Advanced Leaflet

Leaflet has a bunch of other plug-ins and options, so the maps can be tweaked in all sorts of ways.

Documentation for MapQuest and Leaflet

Original concept from OpenData Day 2014 in Greenville SC