Template talk:GeoGroup

Several coords for one site

I have set up coords in List of Local Nature Reserves in Greater London formatted for kml, with kind assistance from Rodw. I forgot that Natural England gives two coords for some sites which are in separated areas, and only gave the name= parameter once for each site, so some locations show up on the map just as numbers. I am not sure of the best way of dealing with this. Do I need to have duplicate headings on the map or is it possible to stop kml from seeing selected coords? This will be a problem with other lists - some SSSI citations give 4 coords. Thanks for any advice. Dudley Miles (talk) 19:42, 22 July 2014 (UTC)

KML files on Google Maps

Google have announced changes to the use of kml files on google maps. Will this require any action on articles which use the kml template?— Rod ^talk 18:42, 21 November 2014 (UTC)

Article pages should not be impacted: That is why we have templates. The changes will be confined to this template and/or the mapping resource handler page https://tools.wmflabs.org/geohack/geohack.php or its successor. The change doesn't occur until February and it seems it is easy to address. See WT:GEO#Google_Maps_and_.7B.7BGeoGroupTemplate.7D.7D. —EncMstr (talk) 19:02, 21 November 2014 (UTC)

I came to report the same news. Ping User:Para FYI. --Jeremyb (talk) 23:33, 26 December 2014 (UTC)

Technically it would be an easy change, and Google have all the code laid out for it already. Someone just needs to set up a landing page somewhere with the code on it, and change all the templates and tools on Wikipedia(s) to point to the new site instead of the Google site. However...

• For some use of the Google Maps Javascript API that needs to be used, it must be loaded using a key from Google. Obtaining the key requires the developer to personally register themselves and the site with Google.
• Google have limits on the number of free map loads allowed from a site before payment is required: https://developers.google.com/maps/usagelimits/ The various KML content linked from all the Wikimedia wikis is most likely over that limit.
• The most obvious place for this Wikipedia related page would be on a Wikimedia Labs server, but the Labs Terms of use may not be compatible with embedding stuff from Google.
• There will most certainly be feature requests for the site that someone will need to implement and maintain. There is much more room for customisation when a Wikipedian is responsible for the site, rather than just the KML content.

It's going to be very time consuming once you add in these inconvenient additional bits, so unfortunately I'm going to have to pass. As far as this template goes, all I can do (after the landing page exists) is change where the tool sends people when it's called with redir=google. Some other volunteer could probably be convinced to step up and do the groundwork just so that there's something to link to, but the paid staffers will need to intervene at some point. --Para (talk) 01:45, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

OSM

Any updates on OSM addition? Found in archive link to German implemenatation, but it is slow and does not seem to work (https://tools.wmflabs.org/osm4wiki/cgi-bin/wiki/wiki-osm.pl?project=en&article=List_of_rapids_of_the_Columbia_River%26section%3DSnake_River_to_Bridgeport). I found nice fast osm kml display here, but it does not accept our kmlexport kml due to missing file extension (how however kml produced by kmlexport and saved somewhere else works without problem) and code itself does not seem to be open source. --Jklamo (talk) 17:04, 30 December 2014 (UTC)

Adding a new external resource

I have a website with implemented Google Maps, which displays the coordinates in order (and with the pins interlinked).

I have added an option for external KML resources, and it's much nicer in the case of routes / hikes / pilgrimages: The website is http://mumimhere.info and the map with the KML is: http://mumimhere.info/kml/?kml=tools.wmflabs.org%2Fkmlexport%2F%3Farticle%3DCh%25C5%25ABgoku_33_Kannon_Pilgrimage

I understand (for what I can read in this Talk) that this might consume my Google Maps API usage limit (I think it's 25,000 map loads per day). I don't believe people will go for my option before Google or Bing, but some might. If it goes over the limit but you like the website, as @Para said, "There will most certainly be feature requests for the site that someone will need to implement and maintain. There is much more room for customization when a Wikipedian is responsible for the site, rather than just the KML content," someone (or me) could be responsible for maintaining a site (Mum I'm Here) exclusively for Wikipedia GeoGroup. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nicojonesgodel (talk • contribs) 04:22, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

Please consider adding it to the GeoGroup template. Thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nicojonesgodel (talk • contribs) 04:15, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

Reducing verbosity

One of the distracting aspects of this template is that it produces a surprisingly verbose floating box, even before it is expanded.

I have removed the overly verbose "of"s from "Map of " URL labels in an effort to whittle it down a bit. I wonder if "coordinates" could be shortened to "points" as well?

Also, currently each URL label renders on two lines for me:

Map all coordinates from         [show]
Google
Map up to 200 coordinates from
Bing

Playing around with my browser's settings, I can't affect the two line rendering.

What about revising this to something like this?:

Map all points with:     [show]
 Google    Bing

Comments? —EncMstr (talk) 22:37, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

Map {{abbr|PoIs|points of interest}}? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 22:52, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

Map PoIs? I'll give you that it is short. Alas, it looks vaguely obscene.

Maybe it should just be Map points with: —EncMstr (talk) 23:59, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

"vaguely obscene"?! Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 10:59, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

What did I do wrong?

I added the template to Brisbane River and the Google map shows all the reaches with their name parameter (where supplied). Great! So I added the template to Bridges over the Brisbane River and the Google map doesn't display the name parameter but calls everything #1, #2 etc. I can't see what I have done differently. Any advice would be most welcome. Thanks. Kerry (talk) 04:03, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

It looks like everything is right. I tweaked a few inconsequential issues (feel free to revert) in case there is a new pathology. I think the external tool which interprets the coordinates is being confused by the article's subsections which is something it did years ago and I thought was discussed and fixed here, but that fix didn't work, though there could be caching issues keeping it from working immediately Maybe the maintainer of that tool, @Para:, will comment? —EncMstr (talk) 15:14, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

Google caches all the kml it fetches, especially if you keep hammering it after updates. You can change the kml url slightly to make it think it's a new one, like mentioned at Template:GeoGroup#Cache delay. --Para (talk) 17:44, 23 January 2015 (UTC)