Template talk:GeoTemplate

GeoTemplate is of interest to WikiProject Geographical coordinates, which encourages the use of geographical coordinates in Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.Geographical coordinatesWikipedia:WikiProject Geographical coordinatesTemplate:WikiProject Geographical coordinatesGeographical coordinates

Microformats

GeoTemplate is part of, or of interest to, WikiProject Microformats, which encourages the deployment of microformats in Wikipedia, and documents them in the article space. If you would like to participate, visit the project page.MicroformatsWikipedia:WikiProject MicroformatsTemplate:WikiProject MicroformatsMicroformats

Note: changes to this template may take several days to propagate to the toolserver.

This template has a sandbox for design work and testing. If changes are not immediately visible try purging the cache (Purge GeoTemplate). Other globes or bodies are located on subpages, such as Template:GeoTemplate/moon. Some of their talk pages redirect here. Do not delete these subpages even if they do not appear to be used! For test coordinates, see /test coordinates.

All subpages | GeoHack documentation | GeoHack.js

view · edit

Frequently asked questions

Q: Which World Geodetic System is used?

A: Wikipedia uses the WGS84 datum ellipsoid for all coordinates, which is also used for GPS. This model can vary as much as ±100 m when compared to the geoid, which represents mean sea level.

Q: How can I report an error?

A: Report it on this page, with this link.

Q: Why do I see two markers on Google Maps?

A: Google Maps has introduced a reverse-geocoding feature, which gives priority to the closest object in their database, instead of the desired coordinates. The closest object is shown with a bright red marker with the map centered on it, and the requested coordinates are given a green marker that often blends into the background or is outside the displayed area. It might be called the "you must have meant this" feature. Our use of the Google Maps KML generator for Google Earth links is also affected. That's not something that can be fixed here.

Q: What is "UTM"? Does it use the WGS84 geoid?

A: UTM stands for Universal Transverse Mercator which is a map projection. Maps using UTM are usually based on WGS84 but, notably, the Ordnance Survey grids for Great Britain and Ireland are based on slightly different geoids: OSGB36.

Q: How can I get to Google maps quicker?

A: A user script is available, but easiest is to use WikiMiniAtlas. Click on the

to the left of the coordinate link will open a frame with a map of the surrounding location populated with Wikipedia articles.

Other common questions? edit

Archives

New Bing Maps

If you go to the Bing Maps page on the left sidebar you will see a message about the new Bing Maps. It provides improved usability and has "streetside level" in select North American cities. It's is a lot like Google's street view imagery. Although you will first have to download Silverlight to your computer I prefer this to the "classic" version. Can someone please update the links? Thank you. Ric36 (talk) 22:32, 24 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

3D map for Slovenia

There's a free 3D visualization based on NASA's World Wind in Java that has has aerial imagery, detailed elevation model, streets and several more information from the Slovene government.

This is the entry that should be included in the Slovenia section

|-
| Gaea+
| colspan=3 | [http://gaeaplus.si/webstart?version=gaeaplus&command=FlyLookAt;{latdegdec};{londegdec};400;WGS84;0.0;45.0; 3D Satellite]

If everyone is OK with it I will be adding it shortly. You can test it from this link

Thanks, Mariano(t/c) 08:17, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ireland

The Ordnance Survey of Ireland has an interactive map that is useful for Republic of Ireland. The top-level URL is http://ims0.osiemaps.ie/website/publicviewer/main.aspx#V1,600000,750000,0 . It should be added to the list as an indirect resource. Or better, someone who knows how to plug in direct resources should be able to convert to its URL format, which looks quite transparent. jnestorius^(talk) 10:12, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I tried adding the indirect link, though I'm not convinced it's working. A direct URL would seem to require translation of the coordinates to a national grid system (neither lat/long nor OSGB36) which I doubt GeoHack currently supports. --Stepheng3 (talk) 20:08, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The URL seems to be using Irish Transverse Mercator coordinates. Adapting the GeoHack OSGB code, could the following be added to transversemercator.php to allow a conversion?

	/**
	 *  Convert latitude, longitude in decimal degrees to
	 *  Irish Transverse Mercator Easting and Northing
	 *  Adapted from https://fisheye.toolserver.org/browse/~raw,r=1/geohack/transversemercator.php at 2010-06-03
	 *  Data from http://www.osi.ie/en/alist/reference-information.aspx?article=50148558-fe55-4c49-b6d9-4892bd8011ac
	 */
	function LatLon2ITM( $latitude, $longitude )
	{
		/* GRS 80 ellipsoid */
		$this->Radius = 6378137;
		$this->Eccentricity = 0.0066943800229; /* square of eccentricity */

		$this->Scale = 0.99982;
		$this->Easting_Offset = 600000.0;
		$this->Northing_Offset = 750000.0;
		$this->Northing_Offset_South = 0.0;

		$latitude_origin = 53.5;
		$longitude_origin = -8.0;

		if (!$this->LatLonOrigin2TM( $latitude, $longitude,
				$latitude_origin, $longitude_origin )) {
			return "";
		}

		$grid_x = floor( $this->Easting / 100000 );
		$grid_y = floor( $this->Northing / 100000 );
		if ($grid_x < 4 or $grid_x > 7
		 or $grid_y < 5 or $grid_y > 9) {
			/* outside area for ITM */
			return "";
		}

		$e = sprintf("%06d", $this->Easting);
		$n = sprintf("%06d", $this->Northing);

		return $e.",".$n;
	}

Then mapsources.php could be amended along the following lines:

class map_sources {

/* ... */

	function build_output() {

	/* ... */

		$osgb36 = new transversemercator();
		$osgb36ref = $osgb36->LatLon2OSGB36( $this->p->latdeg, $this->p->londeg );

/*+*/		/*  Irish Transverse Mercator grid */
/*+*/		$itm = new transversemercator();
/*+*/		$itmref = $itm->LatLon2ITM( $this->p->latdeg, $this->p->londeg );

		/* ... */

		$search = array( 
			"{latdegdec}", "{londegdec}",
			/* ... */
			"{pagename_gmaps}",
/*+*/			"{itmref}" ) ;

		/* ... */

		$replace = array(
			$lat['deg'],
			/* ... */
			$pagename_gmaps,
/*+*/			$itmref
		);

		/* ... */

		return str_replace( $search, $replace, $bstext );
	}
}

I checked the OSI URL against Google Maps for 16 traffic junctions in major towns across the Republic of Ireland using a spreadsheet version of the formula. The coordinates agreed to within ±14 m, so this seems an accurate transformation. But I don't know PHP or GeoHack, so errors & omissions excepted.

— Richardguk (talk) 03:27, 3 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Comments, anyone? — Richardguk (talk) 18:27, 17 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I use this tool OStoWiki you might like to give it a spin. It does Irish Grid, both to and from, and I would expect an accuracy limited only by the precision of the input. I don't like code that does't do a Helmert transformation. Enjoy --ClemRutter (talk) 20:48, 19 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Great, whatever! If I had to guess, I'd say that the above code does apply a Helmert transformation, but I'm neither a geodesist nor a PHP coder, so the suggested code is simply a minimal adaptation of the existing OSGB36 toolserver code. (Also, the rutter website seems to be down at present.) The Helmert transformation article claims that the Helmert formula resolves to within ±7 m, for OSGB36, and heuristically I'm getting ±14 m for Irish Transverse Mercator (as noted above), which seems a reasonable accuracy unless someone wants to recode. — Richardguk (talk) 23:17, 19 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thx for telling me my site was down- I have spent most of the morning trying to sort that one out! I have put the page in my Dropbox you should be able to pick it up from there.--ClemRutter (talk) 11:24, 20 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Can I recommend a link via a conversion tool. I have one working at http://dl.dropbox.com/u/483977/openpostcode/convert.html - URL parameter examples are listed on the page. The source is open and free to use and uses the fieldenmap APIs which are free for non-commercial use. (Does this license apply to wikipedia?) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.251.211.55 (talk) 18:02, 11 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Ovi Maps (Navteq)

Maps by Ovi (Navteq) are more accurate, more so outside the U.S., I can atleast confirm for the United Arab Emirates. Can someone please include Ovi Maps in this template. --IncidentFlux ^{[ TalkBack | Contributions ]} 11:17, 9 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see how to add a direct link to a location in Ovi, and I'm not sure what purpose an indirect link would serve. Could someone else look at this request? --Stepheng3 (talk) 17:59, 9 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ovi Maps is now showing the full direct navigation URL in browser address bars. Can someone please look in to this again. Thanks, --IncidentFlux ^{[ TalkBack | Contributions ]} 09:35, 25 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I've added a link that I think will work. It may take awhile to go live. I'd appreciate it if someone would check my work. --Stepheng3 (talk) 15:12, 25 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, but its not working properly. Takes you to the right city, but its way off mark. --IncidentFlux ^{[ TalkBack | Contributions ]} 09:46, 1 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I've removed the link. --Stepheng3 (talk) 01:00, 2 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Google Maps/Earth location problem

Hi

RE: [1]

Does this solve the problem? http://toolserver.org/~stwalkerster/kml/

I'll prettify the manual interface later, but you can hack apart the form to extract the relevant URL parameters for generate.php :)

Stwalkerster [ talk ] 23:17, 25 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Geo Template

I want to add this temblate on nepali wikipedia. how to format the URL for coordinates? nepaboy talk —Preceding undated comment added 09:58, 30 June 2010 (UTC).[reply]

New map of Mars

Apparently, there's a new, high-res map of Mars. The site is currently down due to volume of traffic, but if suitable it could perhaps be used on {{GeoTemplate/mars}}. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 23:17, 23 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I added an indirect link. --Stepheng3 (talk) 01:41, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. I can't find a way to pass it a latitude & longitude pair (and maybe a resolution) to get a map centred on that. However, it does take URLs in the form: http://viewer.mars.asu.edu/#/planetview/results?instrument=themis&minlongitude=[value]&maxlongitude=[value]&minlatitude=[value]&maxlatitude=[value], where each [value] is a valid decimal number. GeoTemplate offers us {latdegdec} and {londegdec}; we could do with, say, {latdegdec+10}, {latdegdec-10} and so on. I've raised a feature request for that. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 18:09, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Template edit not showing on toolserver

This edit is not showing up at http://toolserver.org/~geohack/geohack.php some 5 hours later. — Richardguk (talk) 18:22, 17 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It seems to have updated in the past day. I thought the PHP code checked the Squid cache of the template every time it ran, so it is puzzling that it took six days to update in this case. — Richardguk (talk) 23:02, 23 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Panorama photos of places

There's a large collection of panorama photos available out there, many with rather impressive resolution. Their locations are available via a map interface, directly via lat-long coordinates. Example here - the Dancing House in Prague, a proof that LSD and architecture should not mix:

http://www.360cities.net/map#lat=50.07556&lng=14.41417&zoom=17

As this kind of immersive photography gives much better "feel" for the different places, I'd consider this resource worth of adding to the geotemplate links. --Shaddack (talk)

Stable template please

In the course of writing a simple article, I was using this template while one user went over the top trying to make, and then remake a political point. If this template needs to be touched- could you do me the courtesy of discussing it here first. Too make it perfectly plain, I want to use the same tool today as I have for the last 4+ years- and get to it quickly. While in the future we may go open source, at the moment a satellite image is useful- a patch of white space isn't very informative. --ClemRutter (talk) 20:39, 19 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. Please discuss here before making changes. That should be in the edit notice, if it isn't already. --Stepheng3 (talk) 21:23, 19 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I checked and this isn't in the edit notice. Also, the current edit notice points editors to a nonexistent talkpage: {{TALKPAGENAME}} in the edit notice should be replaced with Template talk:GeoTemplate. Finally, the edit notice is edit protected, so we'll need an admin to make both these changes. --Stepheng3 (talk) 21:27, 19 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Please change the edit notice for Template:GeoTemplate to the following:

{{Ombox|text='''All:''' <p>Please obtain consensus on the [[Template talk:GeoTemplate|talk page]] ''before'' changing the primary mapping service.</p> '''Unregistered users:''' <p>If you wish to add a mapping service leave a message on the [[Template talk:GeoTemplate|talk page]], preferably with instructions on how to format the URL for coordinates.</p> }}

Request Moved To Template talk:Editnotices/Page/Template:GeoTemplate. Thanks. Set Sail For The Seven Seas 200° 52' 0" NET 13:23, 26 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Featuring proprietary content

I am strictly against featuring proprietary Google maps in the big heading at the top of the template. This goes against Wikimedias mission - we should support free contetn, such as OpenStreetMap for instance.--Kozuch (talk) 20:33, 25 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I disagree. If the main purpose of this template for average visitor is to show geolocated content from wikipedia on a map, then I believe GM is much more appropriate default choice (for that purpose), simply because of far better coverage and value added. There are plenty of geotagged locations on wiki (those, lying a bit off the crowded western cities, full of OSM enthusiasts equiped with GPS gadgets and internet connection), for which OSM displays just a red marker above big gray plane, while GM almost always shows something usable (orthophoto, terrain, at least) to get a rough idea what the hell is around a thing. Regards, --Teslaton (talk) 23:57, 25 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I suggest to add free map OpenStreetMap on top of the page, but not remove popular Google Maps. Who support me? For free encyclopedia - free map! --TarzanASG (talk) 17:57, 29 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Something like this (whichever comes first)?:
  View this location in Google Maps^popular or in OpenStreetMap^free, or select an alternative service below:
  May be, but we should take care, not to eventually duplicate service list below, step by step... --Teslaton (talk) 18:34, 29 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The wording is fine, but if we are going to do this the change needs to be useful. As it stands the template is like a junkshop window- there is so much info that one can find nothing. In principle, any change should remove stuff not add it. Having said that- if we use colour to highlight the only two bits of the information that 99% of our users want to see then we will be thanked. In principle I don't believe that you should be timid about a change you make- be bold or don't bother. So!

View this location in Google Maps^popular or in OpenStreetMap^free, or select an alternative service below:

--ClemRutter (talk) 19:09, 29 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

In the data I collected only about 30% of Google users were using the links at the top, the rest scrolled down to the entry (regardless of highlighting). I suppose if we got a statistician here we could do some T-tests with different configurations. Anyway, here's my entry the redesign. My aim is to make this more friendly to the minority iPad users.

Feature services

Maps
Maps, Aerial, Birds eye

Maps, Satellite, Terrain

OpenStreetMap
Freely licensed maps

(Can you tell I worked on the Google button the longest?) — Dispenser 20:56, 29 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, this may be the right way to make it more user friendly and less geeky. I'm just afraid, too many folks here would have ideological problems with logos of hated "proprietary" services, despite of fact, that this is just a helper template to help visitor view a location, not an article. --Teslaton (talk) 23:52, 29 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I think it's good. --TarzanASG (talk) 15:34, 30 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I like it. Obviously the OpenStreetMap logo can be made to look less sucky. And it's OpenStreetMap not OpenStreetMaps (changed it) -- Harry Wood (talk) 16:02, 8 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

What are the arguments to say that Google has "far better coverage". Is there a metric somewhere that could confirm this statement? w.r.t. the value added argument please have a look to this page. You can display articles from various Wikipedia languages (such as English) or pictures from Commons on OpenStreetMap tiles. I therefore strongly recommend to: remove Google from the top, replace it with OpenStreetMap and provide links to some value added maps (English WP and Commons would make the most sense). Nakor (talk) 20:29, 29 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It looks if I have got involved on this topic- when I should have just walked away.

As I said above the whole page is a dogs breakfast. It needs some love and attention. To start with the data tables for individual coutries disobey the most fundamental rule of IT. Keep Information and Formatting separate- so it is a major job to correct the formatting without interfering with the data. And the formatting is awful. Each of the tables contains data contained in some of these six fields- Service|Language|Coverage|Map|Satellite|Other, so could be presented in a template. The formatting of the tables could be standardised so the data columns have a fixed width and then the whole page becomes readable. Having applied a little discipline to the tables we move up to these quicklink buttons.
I don't like the idea of using company logos on Wikipedia- that includes Google. It again makes the page look more fussy. Google would never clutter up their website with our logos or anyone elses.
It is a prejudice I know- but I have removed every trace of Microsoft from any of my computers. Why would anyone want to use this bingthing? What does it add? If it does add anything- is it sufficient to get a free plug at the top of article?
Yes, I was one of the users that ignored the quicklink to Google- I just didn't see it. Now I have found it- it is really useful
I do use this template as a editor not a reader, and I have bookmarklets set up to Geotag- and for that reason I exclusively use Google, that is my sole interest in clicking the link. OpenStreetMap may be an ideological soulmate but it is totally useful for that purpose. (A bit like the Co-op Bank- UK reference!).
As a former teacher- giving student instructions on how to use WP, the Google Link is the only one that is simple enough to explain, and powerful enough for their needs.

So can we please bear that all in mind before we make the template even more difficult.--ClemRutter (talk) 22:34, 29 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

1. Even the presence of orthophoto layer alone, covering almost whole dry land makes it "far better covering", because even if you managed to open a location with minimal or no vector data wide around, you can still get oriented. On OSM, you just see marker in the middle of nothing.

2. No, I haven't made any in-depth scientific comparison using precisely tuned metrics... But if I pick and compare just few localities eastern of Slovakia I know (e.g.: Carpatho-Ukraine, Romania, Western Turkey, Armenia), the coverage of settlements, roads, landscape elements is much better on GM when compared to those on OSM, not to mention the presence of high-res air photo resources and the possibility of hybrid view.

So again: nothing wrong with the concept of OSM, but for this specific purpose I see GM as much more appropriate and user friendly "default" and I see no reason to idolize or emphasize the free content ideological aspect to the extent, that it should beat every other aspect. --Teslaton (talk) 23:52, 29 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Believe it or not, it is better than what we had three years ago. I've included nearly every design at Template:GeoTemplate/sandbox, one of which I used for the basis of the German redesign. Reflecting from that experience, I should have wiped more off the page. There are services that after years are still not configured. The only reason why I hesitate is that we have a really long tail for clicks.

So here's what I'm going to do.

Move the current page to /all, and start fresh.
Establish an Featured section at the top, based on click track: Google (60%) and Bing (12%) will be included and other "fun" services such as flickr or geocommons will be included. (OSM was beaten by the Toolserver, btw)
The infobox possibly with the optional map component
Eliminate poor, duplicate, and most local services
Aim for iPad friendly interface, square boxes, logos
Establish FAQ here

I will keep in contact with the usability team. — Dispenser 04:26, 30 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes a recode seems to be the way forward. Apologies if I didn't show enough respect for the work that you had already done. When I get a moment I will see if I can tidy up the regional tables in the way I suggested which will make data transfer a lot easier.—Preceding unsigned comment added by ClemRutter (talk • contribs)

I've start a FAQ, so we can start putting questions that might be asked. I'd like to get the new page up by Monday latest. — Dispenser 22:10, 30 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Resolution

I think enough has been said to make a clear agreement that the page should be again worked on. We should make the page much simpler, more usable and possibly split it into more specialized templates, that could be used for specific areas of wiki. I think there is no point in keeping 30 different services in the first table that appears. Featuring one proprietary and one free service with headlines is a good compromise for now. Let us work on the fly so that we save labour proposing various changesets. Btw, that German template does have OpenStreetMap at the first position... --Kozuch (talk) 17:32, 30 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I would be happy if it was only 30 services, but take out Wikimaps and their users will cry foul. I'll work on a new click-track data set. German template has OSM on the top because they zealous. However, they are paying for the Toolserver and bought extra hardware to run an OSM render for integrating with Wikipedia. — Dispenser 21:16, 30 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

German template has OSM on the top because they honour Wikimedia's mission. So should do we. --Kozuch (talk) 20:58, 2 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

English Wikipedia is more pragmatic then the German one. Over half the clicks are to aerial/satellite views. Google Maps continues to be 4 times more popular then its nearest rival. It offers street view imagery, simplified topographical, geo-tagged photo, and Wikipedia article overlays with arguably the best interface in the industry. OpenStreetMaps does not have these features or equivalents nor does plan to in the future. However, as an encylopedia we shouldn't limit ourselves to only street map. Here's a list from some brainstorming: WWII timelines (see which countries join which side and when), atlas maps (climate, annual rain, steel production, fishing yields, wind, forest/greenery, water, mining deposited [e.g. copper, uranium, natural gas], agricultural production [in tons and dollars]), with finer grandulairty we could see income per capital, birthrate mortality, alcohol consumption, and breast cancer rates. — Dispenser 16:54, 3 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Compromise?

Would it be agreeable to have the first line simply say "Please choose one of the following services to view this location" and then have the popular ones (Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, Bing, Wikimapia) be highlighted the way they are now? My arguments for this solution are:

It seems unfair to highlight one of the popular services twice while the others are highlighted only once.
Google Maps is currently arguably somewhat broken, as is explained in the footnote.

Cheers, AxelBoldt (talk) 22:06, 30 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It was added by netbook users who wanted the good links in the first screen (400px tall), without needing to scroll down. — Dispenser 16:54, 3 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Moving forward

Its been clear since the inception, that a redesign is in order. In two weeks, I'm going to ask an administrator to move the current template to a /all subpage where it will still be accessible from the new design. For the new design I intend to include few links cross a wider variety of map data. WikiMiniAtlas will be integrated and (modified) buttons from above for featured services. I will also look for workarounds to update problem plaguing WMF squid servers. — Dispenser 22:26, 14 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Modernize the coordinate notation?

It's long past time to drop the DEG MIN SEC notation. It is ARCHAIC! Use DEG.DDDDDD or DEG MIN.MMMM instead and allow appropriate degree of precsion according to the feature being identified. The accuracy for a large city only needs to be within 1 km or so, for example; whereas the accuracy for a particular outcropping of rock should be within 10 meters or so. The accuracy can be suggested by the number of digits after the decimal point. Alanbrowne (talk) 21:53, 1 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I agree about excess precision. However, precision can be indicated in dms coordinates by rounding or omitting the seconds (and in some cases, the minutes). This template displays both decimal and dms. I don't see any reason to remove the dms notation that many people are comfortable with. --Stepheng3 (talk) 00:29, 2 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Bug in 'Wikipedia articles' section

Resolved

The first line in the in 'Wikipedia articles' section is not rendering correctly. I see wiki markup instead of links. I can't see anything wrong in the template itself. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 11:10, 2 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It seems that GeoHack's coordinate substitution doesn't work for wiki links, only for URLs. So I'll rewrite the above links as URLs. AxelBoldt (talk) 09:00, 3 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

fixed. Thank you. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 16:01, 8 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Remove multimap

Multimap now redirects to Bing (spit) and should IMO be removed from the template. --Tagishsimon (talk) 18:49, 14 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Agree. No point linking to bing twice. -- Harry Wood (talk) 16:06, 8 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Remove two links

Yes, I'm an admin, but I don't know exactly how to perform this edit without breaking something, so I'll ask for help from someone who does. Please remove Google Maps and OpenStreetMap from the list of "Global Services" — after the links to them near the top of the page is a note that alternative services appear below: in effect, Google Maps is said to be an alternative to Google Maps. My suggestion would resolve redundancy and reduce the rather large size of this template. Nyttend (talk) 02:01, 20 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There's a discussion, above, at #Featuring proprietary content which deals more extensively with the (currently rather ugly) View This Location In... line. I think it's reasonable to leave Google and OpenStreetMaps in the Global Services for two reasons: first, me (and I presume others) are blind to the View This Location In ... line and see only the table; and secondly, the table offers two or three links (map, satellite, other) for each of the two, that is to say, does offer alternatives (as well as duplicating the main links).

But if someone has the confidence to kill MultiMap, for the reason stated immediately above, that would be great. -Tagishsimon (talk) 15:42, 20 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

In #Compromise?, I pointed out those links where added for the benefit of netbook users. — Dispenser 20:01, 20 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I don't understand how this helps the netbook users, but I very well understand (which I'd completely overlooked) the idea of providing different links below. I've simply reworded "an alternative service" to "one of the services listed", since that solves the grammar issue. Nyttend (talk) 02:43, 22 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It been discussed many times before, as a starting point I recommend Archive 12. The problem: Users want to know where the object is or get to Google Map (70%) or Bing (15%) [as of October 20] with as little hassle as possible. With smaller screens a user is require to scroll to get to the links of interest even if they're easy to spot. — Dispenser 02:49, 23 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

location/zoom glitches

The GeoHack toolserver location function does not work right.
A good coordinate for this cemetery article is N 42.293 W 71.177 = N 42 17' 33" W 71 10' 36"
But if you put in the DMS form, it comes out in slightly the wrong place. And if you put in the decimal degrees form, it comes out in the right place with the wrong zoom factor.
One way around this is to put in this weird form: coord|42.293|0|0|N|71.177|0|0|W|region:US|display=title
Is there some other way to get this to work right? -71.174.187.78 (talk) 23:23, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Which mapping service did you use? Which article is that from (so we can double check the source)? —EncMstr (talk) 23:42, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The article is Baker Street Jewish Cemeteries. The roundoff/calc error seems to occur when the coord function links from the article to the associated GeoHack/toolserver page -- you can see that the decimal coords have been fuzzed from the proper translation of the DMS form. GoogleMaps, OpenStreetMaps etc all then point to the slightly (but enough to be irritating) wrong place. The calc is either wrong or needs more bits of resolution. This created a situation where I was tempted to put in the slightly wrong coords in order to end up pointing to the right place. The same thing happened when I tried to adjust another article -- Not Good! Wonder how many articles have already been contaminated by this?

I was using Acme as my primary tool for generating coords. Nifty tool!

It is equally important to correct the zoom issue. Someone's code thinks that if M and S are not specified then do a coarse map. Which is an OK idea but wrong unless the D is really a whole number! Thank you for working on this.-71.174.187.78 (talk) 14:29, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You should at least use type: which provides a better basic scales and/or dim: to specify the largest dimension (in meters). Regarding automatic scaling based on formatting, PHP has a buggy modulo operator so my code for scaling based on precision does not work. The D, DM, and DMS default scales in a compromise for that. — Dispenser 18:20, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

NASA's LRO Creating Unprecedented Topographic Map of Moon

NASA's LRO Creating Unprecedented Topographic Map of Moon: press release, FYI. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 16:23, 20 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Am I done?

Resolved

Is this all I need to do, or do need to notify someone somewhere else? thanks. Choyoołʼįįhí:Seb az86556 ^{> haneʼ} 15:56, 23 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That edit adds an interwiki link from the English GeoTemplate to the nv (whatever language that is) template. The nv template properly links back to English. As for whether the nv template is properly working, that's another matter, but it looks reasonable. What were you intending to accomplish? —EncMstr (talk) 18:19, 23 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Should this pop up on the GeoHack site after while? The link here is currently in English even though the URL includes "&language=nv" Choyoołʼįįhí:Seb az86556 ^{> haneʼ} 19:19, 23 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hmmm, it looks like it is set up properly as implied by the documentation. That is, the nv coord template links to toolserver GeoHack with the language parameter, which should use nv:Bee álnééhí:GeoTemplate to format the coordinate page. Perhaps Dispenser or someone more knowledgeable about how that works will chime in, but maybe GeoHack doesn't know an nv translation from template to Bee álnééhí? —EncMstr (talk) 19:41, 23 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Well, it was made today... it says it'll take a few days for any changes to come into effect. I guess I'll just wait. thanks. Choyoołʼįįhí:Seb az86556 ^{> haneʼ} 21:08, 23 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It the Wikipedia squids servers which don't know that the page has changed. I will have to either re-code for Vector, write a better caching mechanism. I don't have much time right now so I'll add a hack to request a different URL every day. — Dispenser 02:22, 24 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Works now. thx.Choyoołʼįįhí:Seb az86556 ^{> haneʼ} 18:01, 24 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Connect with map of British listed buildings

This map is very useful for finding the locations of listed buildings (buildings of particular historical/architectural importance) in Britain. Is there any way to connect it up with geotagged Wikipedia content? Could a link to it be added to the GeoHack results page? This would be very useful, since there is a need to collect media about listed buildings on Wikimedia Commons, and consider whether Wikipedia needs articles about them. NotFromUtrecht (talk) 22:48, 16 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Defra MAGIC (UK) maps

I just tried one (from onslow village) and got a generic page saying that the URL had changed and old links wouldn't work. -- SGBailey (talk) 08:29, 29 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yahoo maps doesn't require flash

For the last couple of years, Yahoo maps is entirely JS based and doesn't require flash. Why does it still say "requires flash" on these pages? How can that be rectified? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.61.113.101 (talk) 17:59, 30 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Street-directory.com.au (Australia)

Is it possible to change the URL for Street-directory.com.au (Australia) to

http://www.street-directory.com.au/sd3/map.php?x=$long&y=$lat&l=10&mt=4

e.g.

http://www.street-directory.com.au/sd3/map.php?x=143.810588&y=-37.397826&l=10&mt=4

It will give it a more conventional zoomable/scrollable map. The l parameter is zoom. I think 10 is a nice "broad context" default value; higher numbers zoom in.

—Felix the Cassowary 14:16, 31 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

www.osm-3d.org (Europe)

The OSM-3D project is now complete and includes all European countries except Scandinavia (up to 60 degrees north).

Direct link:

http://www.osm-3d.org/map.htm?lat=49.412222&lon=8.71&zoom=13

--Doijizs (talk) 15:33, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Problems with special characters in PAGENAME

A problem was reported here with regard to links from pages with special characters in the pagename, like Space Mountain (Disneyland). I don't know if it can be fixed here, or if this should be reported elsewhere. Thanks! Plastikspork _―Œ^(talk) 02:42, 15 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Add nearby.org.uk

Might we consider adding http://www.nearby.org.uk/ to the Other Information section of GeoTemplate. It seems to accept a wide range of arguments. --Tagishsimon (talk) 22:30, 31 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That overlay map iframe thingie

It sits on top of some of the map links, and it can't be turned away or destroyed. I have an 800*600 resolution. Could it be moved, or at least given an 'X' button to turn it off? Thanks...Smarkflea (talk)

Somewhat Bing biased

It seems like there has been a lot of debate about improving this page. I still think the current one is very Bing biased, because it's the only result that appears highlighted in green. I think this would attract a lot of users to ignore everything else and click on Bing, just as a result of the current presentation alone. That's bad because it's biased.

Personally, I think the entire map service chooser page is a waste. If you want my idea, there would just be a global Wikimedia preference option, a simple drop-down menu under Special:Preferences, where I can choose my preferred map once. Then next time I will never have to see this page again because the links would automatically take me to my favorite map service rather than to the map service chooser page each time. Imagine how annoying operating systems usage would be if I couldn't choose a default browser. --Bxj (talk) 20:03, 17 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with part of your suggestion. However, I often find it valuable to choose different mapping services. For example, for cities, I am most likely to choose Google's "map" view to be able to easily plot a driving route. But for Pacific Northwest mountains, I tend to choose ACME's topo map to see glacier extents, steepness, etc., especially where there are no roads. If there were a default mapping service set, I'd keep it at "show me all the choices". —EncMstr (talk) 03:56, 18 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Preferences only apply to users who have logged in, but most readers of the encyclopedia have no account. Those of us account holders who love maps are inclined to love different map sources for their particular strengths, for example the better slant views of Bing or the dense street views of Google. So, the Preferences setup would only apply to an intermediate class of users, neither large nor fanatical. Jim.henderson (talk) 10:59, 21 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Map service for Switzerland

There is a very good map-service for all cantons of Switzerland (http://map.geo.admin.ch/?lang=en); it should be put on the first place of the services for Switzerland. With a link like http://map.geo.admin.ch/?zoom=5&X=265700&Y=621771&lang=en (where X and Y are Swiss Grid coordinates) you can point to the desired map. There are many layers which can be displaied, e.g. http://map.geo.admin.ch/?Y=600568&X=199647&zoom=7&bgLayer=ch.swisstopo.pixelkarte-farbe&layers=ch.swisstopo.hiks-siegfried&layers_opacity=1&layers_visibility=true&lang=en for an old map of Bern. P ev (talk) 21:08, 2 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I believe the hard part would be converting latitude and longitude into Swiss grid coordinates. —Stepheng3 (talk) 01:58, 3 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This is already done for the other services for Switzerland. By the way: the link to Swisstopo is broken! I edited the template myself; hope it will work! P ev (talk) 06:03, 3 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

United States Mapping Service: TerraFly

Here is the URL: http://vn4.cs.fiu.edu/cgi-bin/gnis.cgi?Lat=25.756701&Long=-80.375801&vid=&tfaction=&referer=tfhome

In the URL are Lat and Long parameters. Just replace the decimal latitude and longitude values in the URL above. Please add as a United States Mapping Service.

May 6, 2011 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.176.228.149 (talk) 23:29, 6 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Request to add United States Mapping Service: TerraFly

Update to original request:(May 6,2011) Replacing the Original URL in the Original request with a correctly formed service URL as follows;

http://vn4.cs.fiu.edu/cgi-bin/gnis.cgi?Lat={latdegdec}&Long={londegdec}&vid=&tfaction=&referer=tfhome

The TerraFly.com Mapping Service is part of the Florida International University HPDRC and CREST projects, the service has been running for more than 10 Years and is an ongoing developing project as such we would like to have our service added to the Wikipedia United States Mapping Service listings. For further details look here:

TerraFly on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrafly ^[1]

TerraFly.com homepage http://www.terrafly.com ^[2]

--Mullerk cs.fiu (talk) 16:52, 10 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a parameter for the zoom factor? I played around with the mapping service to see if I could reverse engineer it, but since it is Flash-based and doesn't have an apparent way to generate URLs of what is selected, it wasn't possible to determine. —EncMstr (talk) 17:36, 10 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

response

Yes an additional parameter can be concatenated to the URL to specify zoom/scale levels based on the initial imagery resolution in meters as '&Res={resolution}' the API's supported resolutions in metric equivalents are as follows = 0.0762 , 0.1 , 0.15 , 0.1524 , 0.16 , 0.3 , 0.5 , 0.3048 , 0.6 , 0.6096 , 0.75 , 1 , 1.2 , 1.2192 , 2 , 2.4 , 2.4384 , 2.5 , 4 , 4.8 , 4.8768 , 8 , 9.6 , 9.7536 , 16 , 19.2 , 19.5072 , 32 , 38.4 , 39.0144 , 64 , 128 , 256

example = http://vn4.cs.fiu.edu/cgi-bin/gnis.cgi?Lat=25.756701&Long=-80.375801&vid=&tfaction=&referer=tfhome&Res=4.8

Which should translate to:

http://vn4.cs.fiu.edu/cgi-bin/gnis.cgi?Lat={latdegdec}&Long={londegdec}&vid=&tfaction=&referer=tfhome&Res={scale}

or

http://vn4.cs.fiu.edu/cgi-bin/gnis.cgi?Lat={latdegdec}&Long={londegdec}&vid=&tfaction=&referer=tfhome&Res={zoom}

Of this I am a bit uncertain as to which would translate best at the moment.

---Mullerk cs.fiu (talk) 17:20, 11 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Can you explain what those resolutions mean? If you know about Google Maps scale factor, maybe explain it in terms of that. An alternative to zoom or scale is a parameter which specifies the map portal width in longitude degrees. —EncMstr (talk) 17:46, 11 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Lamentably I am not familiar with Google Maps scale factors, so I am unable to produce a clear response using that as a guide. The listed resolutions are the pixel to meter ratio. For example ~ 0.1524 equals 6 inches/pixel, 0.3048 equals 1 ft/pixel, 1.0 equals 1 meter/pixel resolution, and so on.

--Mullerk cs.fiu (talk) 15:36, 16 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

2nd Request

We've been awaiting a response for sometime now and were curious if there were any problems/concerns arising from our request to have our Service added to add United States Mapping Service: TerraFly to the list of services. Mullerk cs.fiu (talk) 22:08, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Please add National Library of Scotland historic maps (for Britain)

See http://geo.nls.uk/maps/enwiki/api/

Should go along with Vision of Britain.

URL: http://nls.tileserver.com/?lat={latdegdec}&lng={londegdec}&zoom={osmzoom}

Requires Javascript.

HTH. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Streapadair (talk • contribs) 11:45, 6 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Done Voomie (talk) 12:11, 5 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Request to add Russian military maps from Topomapper.com

Request to add Russian military maps from Topomapper.com Topomapper.com is a map viewer for worldwide topographic maps. Complete Europe, Asia, Africa and South America is covered with seamless Russian military maps at the scales 100k-500k (mainly 200k). For many countries in Africa and Asia these maps are still the best available topographic maps, see examples of Afghanistan, North Corea and Morroco. I am not aware of any other topographic map server with such a complete coverage. Beneath the topographic maps Topomapper has map layers from Google, Bing and Yahoo and a physical reliefmap. With the "Dual Map View" different map types can be compared with 2 synchronized map views. URL: http://www.topomapper.com/index.html?zoom=9&lat={latdegdec}&lon={londegdec}

A valuable addition to this catalogue, thanks. Voomie (talk) 23:00, 21 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Intention to Add Service to 'Other'

I intend to add an additional service to 'Other' : GloCode.com, which proposes a single global 'postcode' system as an human-memorable encoding of latitude and longitude. I am one of the developers of the system. I have also been a proud wikipedian since 2002 :) Please shout if any issues WillSmith (London) (talk) 15:16, 4 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Korean Maps

The following sites have street maps in South Korea, with accompanying street view technology:

Daum Local (http://local.daum.net/)

Naver Maps (http://map.naver.com/)

Rickvaughn/talk 16:54, 6 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

What are the parameters for these? --Redrose64 (talk) 13:25, 11 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Stats for the use of GeoTemplate

Are there any stats available on the number of times users have clocked on a geo-coord to get to the GeoTemplate page; and any stats on the number of referrals from discrete pages? And if not, is there any possibility that we could generate or start collecting such stats?

The context of my question is the perennial challenge made to those who add geo-coords to articles, that they are inappropriate, useless, etc. It would be easier to defend them if I could point to actual rather than supposed usage. thanks --Tagishsimon (talk) 13:55, 5 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's not worth the effort of making a tool to compile this information from the web server logs (Apache format). But, the old click tracker is still running and it counted 26,000 click-throughs last Wednesday (Aug 31). Also, it rather silly selling this as the only application for geo-coords when people are using my database. — Dispenser 05:11, 6 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Tell me more about your database. --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:41, 6 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

26,000 click throughs from when to August 31? —EncMstr (talk) 00:09, 7 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm assuming that's in the 24 hour period. --Tagishsimon (talk) 00:10, 7 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

incorrect scale

The map "Map 1:50,000 from 1880" in the Israel section is actually one inch per mile, or 1:63,360. Can someone fix that please? I don't see how to. McKay (talk) 02:38, 25 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'd be happy to attempt the change, except that I believe 1:50,000 is correct. —Stepheng3 (talk) 07:08, 25 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

On the map it links to, the menu upper right does state "1:50 000" in one option. This may be incorrect though: there are other mapping services linked from this template exhibiting similar errors. For example, under "Great Britain" we have maps described as "Ordnance Survey NPE 1:50000 (England / Wales), 1945-1955"; "Ordnance Survey NPE/7th 1:50000 (Scotland), 1945-1955" and "Ordnance Survey 7th series 1:50000, 1947-1960", and the webpages that these link to show "1:50k". However, the actual maps are identical to some printed maps in my posession which clearly state "Scale: One Inch to One Statute Mile = 1⁄63360", or similar. Maybe both websites were put together by somebody unaware of non-metric measurements. --Redrose64 (talk) 13:14, 25 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The actual 1880-ish maps of Palestine (27 sheets which I have in hi-res scans and my library has on paper) say "One Inch to a Statute Mile". At amudanan.co.il, these maps are overlaid onto modern 1:50000 maps so in some sense the presentation is at 1:50000. However I still think it is more accurate to call them 1:63360. Incidentally you can inspect the maps at the National Library of Australia. McKay (talk) 05:23, 26 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Google maps no longer free

Does this have any effect on the toolserver use of this template? Is there any indication whether Wikipedia / Wikimedia would be excluded from the paying websites? Fram (talk) 13:04, 2 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think so; we're not using the API, we're merely providing links to GM. </famous last words>--Tagishsimon (talk) 13:14, 2 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There are some links on this page to the services, that may be affected by these, but the "main" link in the Global services section is fortunately not using API. --Jklamo (talk) 19:05, 2 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, both of you. Fram (talk) 21:35, 2 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Serbia

Following site have street maps of Serbia. It should be listed as local map provider. www.planplus.rs --Milan.j (talk) 13:24, 5 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Template for Nokia Maps is incorrect

Shouldn't it just be: http://m.nokia.me/?c={latdegdec},{londegdec} — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.100.130.7 (talk) 09:45, 11 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That doesn't work for me. —Stepheng3 (talk) 20:58, 22 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

new subpage for asteroid 4 Vesta

Because of the ongoing Dawn (spacecraft) mission, I expect to start seeing coordinates on 4 Vesta in Wikipedia articles. I've taken the liberty of creating a subpage for globe:vesta. —Stepheng3 (talk) 22:06, 22 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yahoo maps / broadband

On the Dutch wikipedia we found that the url for Yahoo maps was no longer working . We changed maps.yahoo.com/broadband/ to maps.yahoo.com/ Now it works again. I think this needs to be done on all languages of this template, as all use /broadband/. HenkvD (talk) 09:49, 29 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I updated the templates in all languages, except for es: it: nv: pl: ru: and zh: as these were protected. I left a message on the discussion page of those templates. HenkvD (talk) 19:05, 31 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

nv

Done. thanks. Choyoołʼįįhí:Seb az86556 ^{> haneʼ} 20:50, 31 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

it

Done by user Bultro, pl

Done by user Yarl. HenkvD (talk) 18:00, 1 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

ru

Done by user TarzanASG. Still do be done: es and zh. HenkvD (talk) 18:43, 6 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A bit of culling...

The main table has quite a number of services, maybe it's time for some review:

MSN maps: simply redirects to Bing, should be removed
GeoNames: doesn't seem much more than an embellished version of Google
GPS Visualizer: same as GeoNames

Should we remove them from the main table? Maybe move them to another section? Voomie (talk) 13:58, 4 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with the implied argument: there are excess, redundant services cluttering the display. However, it would take a moderately map savvy user to recognize that their decades old friend, say MSN maps, is redundant to Bing. Dropping them without any way of making the replacement apparent would be even more confusing than the clutter. Instead, perhaps new annotations to that effect could be added for a transition period of, say, six months?:

Service	Map	Satellite	Topo	Other
Bing Maps^Popular (replaces MSN maps)	Map	Aerial		Bird's Eye
Blue Marble Navigator		Satellite
etc....	...	...	...	...

—EncMstr (talk) 16:43, 4 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I removed MSN in the Global and UK versions. Now what about the rest? A "main" and a "minor" division? Voomie (talk) 12:53, 5 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I advocate removing anything wholly redundant (e.g. MSN) but retaining, as is, embellished services such as GeoNames. I see no need to tread the major & minor path in a relatively short alpha-ordered list. --Tagishsimon (talk) 17:52, 5 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, I guess that with the Google/OSM link at the top and the preferential shading, we already give enough preference to the main sites. Voomie (talk) 12:20, 6 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Third Request to add United States Mapping Service: TerraFly

URL: http://vn4.cs.fiu.edu/cgi-bin/gnis.cgi?Lat={latdegdec}&Long={londegdec}&vid=&tfaction=&referer=tfhome

We would like to know if TerraFly can be added to the list of mapping services. TerraFly is part of the Florida International University HPDRC and CREST projects. The service has been running for more than 10 years and we would like to see it added to the Wikipedia United States Mapping Service listings. TerraFly.com homepage: http://www.terrafly.com

The original request was submitted on May 6, 2011 and last follow-up on July 12, 2011. Please see the last request for all the details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template_talk:GeoTemplate#Request_to_add_United_States_Mapping_Service:_TerraFly

We have been waiting for a response. Do you have any other questions? Is there a reason that TerraFly can not be added? Please let us know. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ajeff003 (talk • contribs) 17:01, 4 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Done - I've added the service (it could take a day to become live though). It was probably just forgotten last time, however on the zoom issue that was listed in previous discussions, would any of the zoom variables that are supported (see here) fit TerraFly? Zoom is not mandatory, but it is nice to have. Voomie (talk) 11:30, 5 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you.

Metric Resolution for PointData pages and maps therein is supplied as Res=

http://vn4.cs.fiu.edu/cgi-bin/gnis.cgi?Res=2.4&Lat=25.814980883446694&Long=-80.1308274245971&Res=0.075

Likewise for GeoQuery pages:

http://vn4.cs.fiu.edu/cgi-bin/arquery.cgi?lat=25.814981&long=-80.130827&vid=&category=osm_points&Res=1.2

For the map without the encompassing data page the parameter is also res=

http://tfcore.cs.fiu.edu/map/#Lat=25.814981&Lon=-80.130827&res=1.2&Legend=$$http://vn4.cs.fiu.edu//wm$${Environment:Hydrology@rtgauges-0-8-%2Bptrim-8-100-%2Bprism-1-100-.t5v};Real_estate:MLS_listings_for_sale_and_rent_in_Miami_area@re1n-0-2-%2Bre2n-0-2-%2Brntn-0-2-%2Brinn-0-4-%2Brldn-0-4-;{Parcels::address:Addresses_from_First_American_Parcel_Data:@FA_Point-0-1-.a;~owner:Property_owner@flpropertiesowner-0-0.5-;owner:Property_owner@flpropertiesowner-0.5-8-;year_built:Year_property_built_or_renovated@flpropertiesyear-0-2-;size:Sizes_of_property_interior_and_lot@flpropertiessize-0-2-;appraisal:Property_value@flpropertiesvalue-0-2-;~lines:Property_lines,_from_First_American,_zoomin:@FA_Parcel-0-0.8-.t00;lines:Property_lines,_from_First_American,_zoomout:@FA_Parcel-0.8-2-.t00};{People::income:Aggregate_Neighborhood_Income_and_number_of_homes,_per_Census-2000@blkgrpy-0.6-8-.d0v%2Bbg_mhinc-0.6-8-;population:People_per_block_per_Census_2000@blk_pop-0-4-};{Services::doctors:Physicians_specialties@physicianspecialty-0-4-;food:Restaurants_from_NavTeq@nv_restrnts-0-8-;~business:Yellow_Pages@nypages-0-1-;business:Yellow_Pages@nypages-1-4-};~Places@annomreal-0-5-+annodhs-0-5-+gnis2-0-5-+hotels-0-5-;Places@annomreal-5-20-+annodhs-5-20-+gnis2-5-20-+hotels-5-20-;{Roads::lines@street-0-30-.l_;~lines@street-30-100-.l_;~names:Roads,_and_streets@street-0-100-._n;OSM-names:Open_Street_Maps@osm-0-100-._n;OSM-lines:Open_Street_Maps@osm-0-100-.l_};{Towns::~towns:Cities,_towns@wtown-0-100-%2Bincorp-0-100-.00v;borders@incorp-0-100-.v00};plugin_photo&dlayerfield=L&DLayerLegend=QUERY&DLayerData=http%3A//vn4.cs.fiu.edu/cgi-bin/arquery.cgi%3F%26vid%3D%26category%3Dosm_points%26Res%3D1.2%26tfaction=shortdisplay%26filetype=.xml&DLayerSelect1=false&dlayerfield1=L&DLayerColor1=0x7fe5ff&DLayerLegend1=Wikipedia&DLayerData1=http%3A//vn4.cs.fiu.edu/cgi-bin/arquery.cgi%3Fcategory%3Dwikix2011%26tfaction=shortdisplay%26filetype=.xml&Panels=zoom+nav+overview+measure+download+legend&address=711+41+ST,++MIAMI,+FLORIDA+33140&vid=&tf_passtrough=%26tfaction%3Darqueryosm_points

Ajeff003 (talk) 13:48, 11 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Could you give a list of all the levels of scaling? That is, all the different values that "?res=" can take. Thanks, Voomie (talk) 13:25, 15 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Longitude error with MapQuest

GeoHack appears to be passing on +ve longitudes to MapQuest for (so far as I can tell) all longitude values between -1 and 0, so locations which should be in the English Midlands appear in East Anglia, for example. This seems to occur regardless of the coord format used - all are shown as decimal entries on the MapQuest page. The following examples should all end up close to Thame, Oxfordshire, but the first and second end up somewhere in Essex. I haven't got round to checking values beyond UK. (While we are about it - the scale with MapQuest is also not very helpful).

51|45|00|N|0|59|00|W 51°45′00″N 0°59′00″W / 51.75000°N 0.98333°W / 51.75000; -0.98333
51.75,-0.9851°45′N 0°59′W / 51.75°N 0.98°W / 51.75; -0.98
51.75,-1.051°45′N 1°00′W / 51.75°N 1.0°W / 51.75; -1.0. RobinLeicester (talk) 23:38, 16 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It's not just a problem between 0° and 0°59'59" W, but also between 0° and 0°59'59" S. Consider Mount Kenya, which is at 0°9′00″S 37°18′00″E / 0.15000°S 37.30000°E - MapQuest puts it too far north, by, as it happens, 2x9=18 minutes - at 0°9′00″N 37°18′00″E / 0.15000°N 37.30000°E.

I think the problem is that regardless of the supplied format, the coordinates are passed to MapQuest as separate d/m/s integer values, with the hemisphere being indicated by a sign on the degree value. Here is the actual link from the second "close to Thame" example: 51°45'0" -0°58'48", note that it contains &latdeg=51&latmin=45&latsec=0&longdeg=-0&longmin=58&longsec=48. Unfortunately for a longitude between 0°0'0" and 0°59'59" W this has given a value for the degrees of -0, which is not permissible mathematically, so MapQuest is ignoring the sign, even though there are non-zero minutes.

It occurred to me that for such values, the sign could be applied to the minutes instead, but that is worse: 51°45'0" 0°-58'48" - I don't think this is a mathematical error. I think that the default setting for MapQuest, when any invalid coordinates are passed (such as negative minutes), is to go to the centre of Amsterdam.

If I pass the decimal degrees without converting to d/m/s (i.e. &latdeg=51.75&longdeg=-0.98), it seems to work: 51.75 -0.98. --Redrose64 (talk) 11:18, 17 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I think that passing &latdeg={latdegdec}&longdeg={londegdec} as the general case should work. --Redrose64 (talk) 12:00, 17 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Estonian Land Board

It seems they have changed things and the xgis-latlon.php script no longer exists. The new method of accessing X-Gis is http://xgis.maaamet.ee/xGIS/XGis?app_id=UU82&user_id=at&punkt=Y,X&lang=2 The Y and X coordinates are in the L-EST system. More information in Estonian: http://geoportaal.maaamet.ee/est/Teenused/Poordumine-kaardirakendusse-labi-URLi-p9.html 82.131.30.48 (talk) 17:04, 1 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

area data

Hello, perhaps this is covered elsewhere. Is there a) a way to specify an area instead of a point in a wikipedia article? That is, could a bounding rectangle be specified instead of a single point? b) a way to display such a bounding rectangle in the geohack page? Thank you. Fotoguzzi (talk) 20:04, 2 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Currently, the closest mechanism is to specify a dim:X parameter (see this). On many—if not most—mapping services the map will be scaled so that an object of that dimension roughly fills the map view. There is no provision for displaying any shape though, just a point. —EncMstr (talk) 20:40, 2 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

There's discussion elsewhere - Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Highways#Discussion_of_Proposal_9 - about the possible use of shapefiles within Wikipedia and integrated with GeoHack. Too soon to say whether it will come to anything. --Tagishsimon (talk) 21:54, 2 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I see that it is a much more complex problem than I was imagining. I guess someone has to do something and see if anybody follows along. Fotoguzzi (talk) 00:45, 3 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You might now want to check out Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Geographical_coordinates#Highway_401 --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:07, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Paris meridian

Could someone add, for French regional data, coordinates with the Paris Meridian? It simply consists in adding E 2°20′14.025″ to all coordinates. Thanks, Voomie (talk) 22:54, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Why? It doesn't seem useful to use two different coordinate systems. Neither does the Paris Meridian article suggest to me that anyone much uses a coord system with a Parisian meridian. --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:06, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

We have similar for OSGB, it seems reasonable to add the necessary conversion code here. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 23:53, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, we also give OS coordinates when dealing with UK locations - so the same should be done for France. Concerning the claim they are no longer used, having in my possession several French topo maps, I can tell you that they all give longitudes with both the French and Greenwich meridians. Voomie (talk) 16:09, 26 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

We should also add the Irish grid reference system. Voomie (talk) 19:57, 7 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sary Shagan isn't in Liechtenstein!

Something has gone wrong somewhere! I click on 46°0′11″N 73°38′58″E / 46.00306°N 73.64944°E / 46.00306; 73.64944 which is part of the Sary Shagan test site in Kazakhstan. Geohack gives me regional services for.. Liechtenstein! Secretlondon (talk) 06:28, 19 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I thought maybe there was a glitch in the coordinate region approximation, but an explicit region code with KZ, 46°00′11″N 73°38′58″E / 46.003056°N 73.649444°E, produces the same results. Apparently KZ is somehow mixed up with LI. —EncMstr (talk) 08:05, 19 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, three country codes were somehow interchanged. Have fixed them. --Redrose64 (talk) 13:25, 19 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This is the edit that broke them. That person apparently didn't realise that the <div id="GEOTEMPLATE-KZ"> (and similar) belongs with the section following, and is not part of the preceding section. They made a similar error with Israel, Jordan and Taiwan, when attempting to add Palestine, which appears to have already been fixed (see here and here). --Redrose64 (talk) 13:52, 19 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for fixing this! Secretlondon (talk) 22:50, 19 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Topomapper dual view

Someone just added the dual view topomapper, so naturally I clicked on it to see what it does. I tried several articles, but the best I got was this. Is it set up correctly? Maybe I am expected to interact with the map before it becomes useful? —EncMstr (talk) 19:11, 26 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, it seems to bug at very low altitudes — but otherwise it's fine. I added a note to explain this. Voomie (talk) 01:51, 28 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

HTML that can't even stand a different font size

https://jira.toolserver.org/browse/GEOHACK-18 Jidanni (talk) 12:42, 28 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What's you point? Please make it here. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 13:21, 28 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wikimapia broken?

I don't know whether this is us or them but if you click on a link to wikimapia you don't get anything. However wikimapia itself seems to load okay. They seem to have updated their code a couple of days ago - could this have broken our links? Secretlondon (talk) 21:08, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Our links are to URLs like:

and according to User Guide: Wikimapia's URL, most of these are valid - it doesn't mention &spnx or &spny though, nor a meaning for &v=8. --Redrose64 (talk) 21:43, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

They have a forum thread blaming geohack: http://wikimapia.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=188950#p188950 and the &spnx=0.1&spny=0.1 Secretlondon (talk) 23:07, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

And taking those out seems to give working links. Secretlondon (talk) 23:10, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yup. That was my forum thread, and I was working towards proposing taking the &spnx={span}&spny={span} params out of the template, but I've not yet been able to figure out what the {span} tag does. I think it determines, in effect, the zoom level, but I've not yet been able to figure it out for sure. Best regards, TransporterMan (TALK) | DR goes to Wikimania! 01:42, 17 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The google maps links mostly (all?) use the {span} where it definitely does affect the zoom level: the higher the value, the greater the area shown. I propose to remove it solely from the wikimapia links (i.e. remove the &spnx={span}&spny={span} fields to give http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat={latdegdec}&lon={londegdec}&m=w etc.) which should at least get those working to some degree; when somebody has worked out the best way of setting a value for the &z= field, we can restore a zoom level to the wikimapia links. --Redrose64 (talk) 12:03, 17 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I concur and have changed the template, ~~but it's still including the params. I think I read something somewhere about changes not taking effect immediately, or maybe something else has to do be done...?~~ Regards, TransporterMan (TALK) | DR goes to Wikimania! 18:46, 18 March 2012 (UTC) Updated — TransporterMan (TALK) | DR goes to Wikimania! 19:19, 18 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The issue is fixed on our side. W8r 19 March 2012 —Preceding undated comment added 13:34, 19 March 2012 (UTC).[reply]

We do still need to get the zoom function working, however. There is a {osmzoom} parameter already generated by {{coord}} and used in the template for Open Street Maps which at least approximates the Wikimapia zoom levels (which according to this post at the Wikimapia forum can be fairly flexible). The {zoom} parameter used by several other services apparently has a maximum value of 9, whereas {osmzoom} can do 2-18. Wikimapia has a more or less standard maximum value of 19 and can go higher, per that forum post. Does anyone have an objection to setting the Wikimapia &z= field to {osmzoom} for the time being, at least? Best regards, TransporterMan (TALK) | DR goes to Wikimania! 14:05, 19 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Done, having heard no objection. Regards, TransporterMan (TALK) | DR goes to Wikimania! 13:37, 20 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

old-maps.co.uk

Could this be added to the template for locations in the Great Britain? URL format http://www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html?coords={osgb36easting},{osgb36northing} should work. Sdoerr (talk) 21:27, 28 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know how to do it, but I second the request. Regards, TransporterMan (TALK) | DR goes to Wikimania! 21:41, 28 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm. I have http://www.old-maps.co.uk/indexmappage2.aspx?action=forcexy&easting={osgb36easting}&northing={osgb36northing} Two examples to test with:

--Redrose64 (talk) 23:52, 28 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, have found that my second one redirects to http://www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html?txtXCoord=452373&txtYCoord=202779 so that would be http://www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html?txtXCoord={osgb36easting}&txtYCoord={osgb36northing} --Redrose64 (talk) 23:55, 28 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I was able to implement http://www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html?txtXCoord={osgb36easting}&txtYCoord={osgb36northing} and then tried http://www.old-maps.co.uk/indexmappage2.aspx?action=forcexy&easting={osgb36easting}&northing={osgb36northing} only to discover that both of them took you to the wrong place because {osgb36easting} and {osgb36northing} generate the wrong values. As I'm sure you know, you can get to old-maps.co.uk indirectly through the "Old OS maps" link. If you do, then old-maps.co.uk takes you to the correct place, but using the values provided by either of those urls will not. For example: Using the coords in the White_Tower_(Tower_of_London) article, via the "Old OS maps" route will take you to the correct place whether you use Wikimapia or go there via the "Old OS maps" route to old-maps.co.uk, but the urls using {osgb36easting} and {osgb36northing} will take you to a place in the moat of the Tower of London about 400 feet away from the correct place. That's because going via the "Old OS maps" route generates a easting and northing of <533621,180550> whereas {osgb36easting} and {osgb36northing} generates <533510,180605>. I've removed the changes I made to the template (though the removal has not yet percolated through the toolserver at this writing) and perhaps someone can figure out why {osgb36easting} and {osgb36northing} do not work like "Old OS maps" does. Regards, TransporterMan (TALK) | DR goes to Wikimania! 16:59, 4 April 2012 (UTC) Supplement: FWIW, I've just discovered and confirmed that the "Old OS maps" page uses the GNU GPU Jcoord library from jstott.me.uk to do its conversions. I've also made this inquiry to one of the GeoHack coders about it. — TransporterMan (TALK) | DR goes to Wikimania! 18:05, 4 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, the GPL Jcoord library is exactly the kind of thing GeoHack should be using. The problem is that GeoHack doesn't, GeoHack misses out a crucial stage in the conversion, and as a result all of GeoHack's OSGB-36 output is wrong. This also affects eg all the links to eg Streetmap.co.uk

Unfortunately I'm not a GeoHack coder (despite what TransporterMan wrote above). It should be very easy to patch in the missing code needed from something like Jcoord (or, rather, its PHP variant PHPcoord), but I've never got a UserID to hack it myself -- nor for that matter downloaded a test system to get some experience playing with PHP first, before going in to tweak such a mission-critical system. But it absolutely should be a very easy fix to make, for any GeoHack person that would take it on. Jheald (talk) 14:37, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the clarification (and sorry that I misidentified you as a coder). Let me see what I can scare up on this. Regards, TransporterMan (TALK) | DR goes to Wikimania! 16:27, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

deprecated PlanetEye maps (in Photos)

The PlanetEye photo maps have been shutdown for over a year but now their URLs are no longer working. They should be removed from the list of "photo" services. Here is an example of a URL that is broken, as taken from the Eiffel Tower page.

Done Yes, it throws a 404 error, so I've hidden the row. That way, should it be fixed at their end, we can reinstate it. --Redrose64 (talk) 17:07, 4 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Ayna maps

The Ayna link http://maps.ayna.com/ just brings up 'cannot find the server'. It's still linked to from http://www.ayna.com/ so it could be a technical problem. Secretlondon (talk) 09:46, 13 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

maps.mail.ru

Whatever page I try the maps.mail.ru regional service just gives me a map centred on central Moscow. eg from Lekhtusi_Radar_Station http://toolserver.org/~geohack/geohack.php?pagename=Lekhtusi_Radar_Station&params=60.275458_N_30.546017_E_type:landmark. The link http://maps.mail.ru/#x=30.546017&y=60.275458&z=8&mode=satellite redirects to http://maps.mail.ru/?z=10&ll=37.62,55.75.

I presume it doesn't like the way we formatting the URLs. Secretlondon (talk) 10:32, 13 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Edit request on 8 May 2012

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Hello. I would like to correct the URL format of Nokia maps. Currently it points to non existing map24 service with : ! scope="row" style="font-weight:normal; text-align:left;" | Nokia Maps | Map | | |

Source for this is the maps.nokia.com development team in Berlin Germany.

Jsilfver (talk) 14:15, 8 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Partly done: removed the title parameter, added osmzoom Diskurs (talk) 17:36, 8 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Polygons

I'm sure someone once wanted to do polygons here. By changing the Google links from q={latdegdec},{londegdec} to q={title}%20({latdegdec},{londegdec}) Google will now automatically show the boundaries of political divisions. For others it will show the article title in the search bar, making for a more informative page.
I also removed the (prev. MSN Maps); it's been long enough for people to learn.
Voomie (talk) 12:55, 26 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Change in behavior of Google Maps

See Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Geographical coordinates#Change in behavior of Google Maps for a problem with the lack of the green arrow after the changes made by User:Voomie yesterday. — Richardguk (talk) 14:59, 27 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I've reverted, for now. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 20:13, 27 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Another problem had been reported at VPT prior to your revert, so it seems that Google had been relying on the title instead of making any use of the parenthetical coordinates. — Richardguk (talk) 01:46, 28 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Local Lithuanian service

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I want to suggest a local Lithuanian map service maps.lt. Direct links would be:

Iksius (talk) 10:03, 27 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Not done: there already appears to be a link Mdann52 (talk) 15:45, 27 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Old Maps Online

Hi all,

I went to a remarkably interesting presentation yesterday about the recently launched Old Maps Online, and it seemed worth suggesting here.

It's quite an elegant service - it continually generates a set of maps matching your selected position and scale, optionally allowing filtering by period (so you can, eg, look for "maps of London between 1780 and 1850"). These aren't displayed on the map itself, but the service links directly out to the institution holding them - so you're directed straight to the map viewer service at the NYPL, Vision of Britain, etc. The partner institutions all have minimum data standards for quality and usability - so the images are all high-resolution and zoomable - and they can't be paywalled or restricted-login.

I'm not immediately sure how to construct a deeplink using a single pair of coordinates - the system they use expects a bounding box rather than a point - but if I can figure out how to surmount this, does it look like a useful service to include in the template? (disclaimer: I'm working with the BL, who are a contributor of images to the project) Andrew Gray (talk) 14:54, 1 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds very promising, and very useful. Presumably we could calculate a bounding box centred on the coord and sized according to the scale or dim parameter? I'd really like to see this in the template as I have often reached for old maps to support article writing or coording. The BL rocks, btw --Tagishsimon (talk) 16:38, 1 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I've filed an entry in their feature-request system to support single-point linking - at the moment, we can do this by making X1 and X2 the same X, as so, producing a zero-sized area, but this also zooms in to the closest zoom level. There's no support in the URL to force zooming, so I think we'd have to calculate an arbitrary box around the point ourselves, which might be difficult.

Yes, it does ;-) You should come to one of the events! Details when they're in the calendar... Andrew Gray (talk) 16:50, 1 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A quick update - I ran in to one of their team today, and this is "being worked on". Hopefully it'll be able to work soon! They also mentioned some problems with the Vision of Britain links, which I'm looking into. Andrew Gray (talk) 11:19, 6 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Edit request

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Please revert the edits made today. I can't even find the links I want because the format is so thoroughly changed and made complicated. 129.79.34.222 (talk) 13:45, 11 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It still alphabetized as before. Although, I've put 85% of most clicked links at the top (dewiki sort order). Our own WikiMiniAtlas is now always visible, the new layout is more useable on netbook screens (1024x600), and reduced amount text will make it easier for more people to find what they're looking for. — Dispenser 15:17, 11 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The new format makes inefficient use of screen area for those of us with wide (as in 1280px) monitors. It requires me to scroll down to see region-specific resources. Isn't there some way to make it better for everybody, not just Netbook users? —Stepheng3 (talk) 21:20, 11 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You now have to scroll down to find the relevant section which used to appear where the map now appears and makes things less efficient. Keith D (talk) 22:07, 11 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

95%+ of clicks are in the "Global services" section. Aside from the general unkempt (how long has MSN been dead?) it looks like only ACME and Ordnance Survey got more than a dozen clicks out of the tens of thousands a day. The German Wikipedia had layout for 2 years out problem. Nearly every website fixes its layout into 1000px column. So, should I shift the white-space from center to right? In other news, I've looked at the clicking heatmaps and there a hotspot where the plain-text coordinates (copy/paste?). — Dispenser 00:21, 12 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The request was to put it back to the old layout. I support that request. —Stepheng3 (talk) 15:32, 12 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Here's what I want: since User:Dschwen is doing a presentation on WikiMiniAtlas at Wikimania I want it visible "above the fold" on my 1600x1200 monitor for the duration. If I come back on Monday and find out this wasn't the case, I'll hard-code a "Google only" version for a week. (Hint: There can be multiple WMAs and it removes everything inside the container so you place the minimap instead.) — Dispenser 23:26, 12 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Not done: I can't see any major change between the current and previous versions. Mdann52 (talk) 10:31, 13 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

France Géoportail

Hello. Since a few days, the French IGN maps cannot be displayed with the same URL syntax : http://www.geoportail.gouv.fr has changed : &c= are still the coordinates, but &l= has evolved. &z= accepts a scale factor whose formula is 3.16906E-9 * {scale} (where {scale} is 25000, 50000, etc.). Can anybody modify geohack.php in order that it sends back a new variable {gpscale} so we can use it in all GeoTemplate's (France, Géoportail line): &z={gpscale}. (Like {mmscale} for MultiMap). Thanking you by advance, Jack ma (talk) 09:14, 12 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It seems to be in mapsources.php (seen in https://wiki.toolserver.org/view/GeoHack). I'll try to update it by adding $gpscale, but I'm not sure I have the rights. Jack ma (talk) 08:23, 12 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wikimapia

Courtesy notification of a discussion elsewhere :-

In addition please read - [2]

Google's terms would appear to state that you can't capture geo-codes or 'derive' from their imaging. What is WikiMapia doing if it isn't geo-coding or 'deriving' based on Google's imaging?

Sfan00 IMG (talk) 12:56, 12 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

New dewiki "Infobox style" layout omits link provided in old format

I note Dispenser's note that there are more changes to come next week, but thought I'd put in a word for the return of a direct link to a Bing OS map, which IIRC was available in the old format. I can't see it in the current format. thanks --Tagishsimon (talk) 18:31, 12 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The OpenStreetMaps "other maps" link takes me to a page saying "No language given" --Tagishsimon (talk) 18:47, 12 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Look like I shouldn't trust my own documentation :-). I've removed {lang} until I've implemented and tested it in the backend. Also, I'm unable to find "Bing OS" map in the old version and there just as many Bing links as before. — Dispenser 22:23, 12 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

In the 'old' style, there's a row marked "Bing Maps UK (prev. MSN Maps)", the second link for which is a Bing OS link. I couldn't find its counterpart in the dewiki version. The compatible table in that seems to start with what is the second row of the 'old' table, iirc. --Tagishsimon (talk) 22:34, 12 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

At Template:GeoTemplate#Great Britain it's the second of the four www.bing.com links:

[http://www.bing.com/maps/?mkt=en-gb&v=2&cp={latdegdec}~{londegdec}&lvl=14&sp=Point.{latdegdec}_{londegdec}_{title}&sty=s OS maps]

--Redrose64 (talk) 22:36, 12 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry I missed that. I deleted it because "Map", "Ariel", and "Bird's Eye" were were duplicates of what was the global section. — Dispenser 23:08, 12 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

2 Suggestions

http://os.openstreetmap.org which has an OSM style slipy map of the OS OpenStreetData
http://ooc.openstreetmap.org which has an OSM style slipy map for a number of Out of copyright Maps.

I'm not sure about the URL structure, but http://www.itoworld.com/map/main has a HUGE amount of dataset analysis maps based on OSM. Sfan00 IMG (talk) 00:01, 13 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I've added the OpenStreetData version. We already link to the latter, ooc. version. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 12:51, 6 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestion: add MapIt Global links to GeoHack pages

Would it be possible for you to add to each GeoHack page a link to the MapIt Global results for that point? This is a service that (among other things) can map latitude/longitude to the administrative boundaries in OpenStreetMap that cover that point. The link would be of the form: http://global.mapit.mysociety.org/point/4326/<longitude>,<latitude>.html. For example, here are the results for a point in Zürich. Mhl20 (talk) 13:11, 16 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It was already there, but in the UK section; I've moved it. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 12:58, 6 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Google Earth Satellite option opens Google maps

The Google Earth Satellite option opens Google maps. Seems to be like this on all pages. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.101.49.169 (talk) 10:30, 29 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It appears Google's killed their KML service. I've replaced with a link from the German Wikipedia. — Dispenser 00:41, 30 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

4 Vesta

Need to clarify whether we're using the NASA or IAU coordinate system. All NASA and Dawn publications use the NASA system, which is more precisely defined, but this is unacceptable to the IAU. The IAU system is based on a miscalculated rotational pole, so a third system has been proposed as a compromise. It appears that we're based on the USGS, which uses the NASA system. — kwami (talk) 21:39, 15 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

USGS National Map Viewer not working

The link in GeoHack for the National Map Viewer does not work. "Server not found" error is received.•••Life of Riley (T–C) 01:22, 1 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

report inaccuracies: link is stale

Hi, the link to report inaccuracies is wrong. It is built using …/index.php?title=Talk:{pagename}&…, where {pagename} is the name of the file (category?) with namespace. So reporting an inaccuracies that way will give a link like Talk:File:anImage.jpg, which of course does not work. The link must be File talk:anImage.jpg. This is not possible using the {pagename} variable, as it already contains the namespace. Is there a variable egal to {{PAGENAME}} to be used here? cheers --Herzi Pinki (talk) 08:55, 8 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

[1] ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrafly

[2] ttp://www.terrafly.com

[1]

[2]