Talk:WikiMiniAtlas

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To report bugs and wishlist items please use the WikiMiniAtlas Issue Tracker.

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[edit] Update: 12:44, 22 August 2007 (UTC) - Server-side update

Today's server-side update should make the WMA more responsive (labels should appear at least 3x faster). I rushed this update, as the previous version put quite a bit of strain on the Toolserver. In a nutshell: the maplabels are served as HTML snippets by custom HTTP servers bound to the loopback interface of the Toolserver, for security reasons. Before the update all label retrievals were proxied through a PHP-script, now I'm using mod_rewrite-proxying. This saves a 7Mb process spawn for each tile. --Dschwen 12:44, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WikiMiniAtlas on en:w

In case someone needs to find it, discussion about WikiMiniAtlas on the english Wikipedia apparently took place here. (SEWilco 17:44, 26 August 2007 (UTC))

[edit] The globe icon

There has been discussion about the globe icon at en:w:Template talk:coord. Now that the source of it has been identified, discussion has been directed to here. (SEWilco 17:46, 26 August 2007 (UTC))

After much wandering about, I believe I've found the right page. At the risk of being a pain, I think that there is an issue with the globe. Image:Erioll world.svg is under the GFDL and the image authorship is not available by clicking on the image. I consider myself fairly familiar with wiki formatting and I'm still not sure that I'm at the source of the image. Therefore every occurrence of the clickable globe is a violation of the terms of the image license. - BanyanTree 12:14, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
What's your suggestion on how to fix this? Would a note on the settings page of the Wikiminiatlas help (a link to the original image, or even an image credit)? Or should a replacement icon be found? --Dschwen 21:01, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
The only thing that is irritating me a little is that I'm not hell-bent on taking credit for the WikiMiniAtlas, my name isn't stuck anywhere on that map applet, and I believe it has been waaaay more work to program this than draw a globe icon. Well, I guess a license is a license... --Dschwen 21:04, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Problem(?) in "Washington Monument example" map

First, this is a great addition to WP!

When following the link to the WM, opening the map and drilling all the way down, where the White House should be is a link to Dhaka, Bangladesh!? I did a cursory check of both pages and didn't see any inappropriate coords. Where is this coming from?

Again, congrats on a valuable feature. Saintrain 16:23, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

This has the same underlying issue as the FAQ point about the red dot. Coordinates are extracted and combined from several language versions (using interlanguage links to connect the aricles). So most likely one of the foreign language versions has a broken coordinate (most likely error is the confusion of east and west). But this just gave me the idea of adding the source language of the coordinates as a tooltip to the lables. Stay tuned :-) --Dschwen 16:32, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
I understand a little better now, thanks. Is there a non-sql interface (even a text file) to Kolossos's or Stefan Kühn's Koordinatenfiles so that I can track down the page(s) in error? Thanks, Saintrain 18:51, 27 August 2007 (UTC).
Check this out de:Wikipedia:WikiProjekt_Georeferenzierung/Wikipedia-World/en, it is the english project page for the Koordinatenfiles. --Dschwen 09:29, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Inlined map feature request

Would it be possible to add to the API of WikiMiniAtlas to allow a one-time serving of a static image of a map that could be inlined where appropriate? Maybe a template with coord ranges, zoom level, image size, etc? I suppose that would require a separate image file for each instance (proliferating as coords got "adjusted", etc.).

Alternatively, allow a "live" map displayable inline (already "popped-up", sized and not covering text)? Saintrain 16:35, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

So you want to have a map such as the one on top of w:List of Minnesota state parks be displayed from coordinates in the same article? (SEWilco 19:43, 28 August 2007 (UTC))
Cool idea! I like that a lot. But as I (poorly, yet) understand how WMA works, it would require a serious redesign of the placename database usage. Ultimately your idea is a great target. (Sooner, actually, or it wouldn't be much use :-)
What I was thinking was how to improve an article like w:Lake_Tanganyika that has a static, unlabeled image instead of a real map. What I'd like to see is something like: replace the [[Image:...]] with [[WMA:CoordLeft=28 |CoordRight=32 |CoordTop=-9.5 |CoordBottom=-2 |Zoom=5 |250px |Caption |etc |etc}} or equivalent. (Maybe even a <WMA> extension?)
The only instances of WMA that I've seen "piggyback" on coorX, etc., templates, so always present as a globe icon. I haven't seen it yet (I'm looking) but an inlined, already-popped-up, pre-zoomed WMA map should be feasible. (Yes, I capable, willing, interested and volunteering! If I can just get all the code in one place!) Saintrain 01:17, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Globe icon causes unfortunate line breaks in en's Infobox Mountain

I appreciate the effort that went into the WikiMiniAtlas: in general, it is a nice feature.

en's WikiProject Mountain is having problems, because the extra space used by the globe icon causes odd line breaks in many mountains' infoboxes. For example, see Mount Whitney, Humphreys Peak, Mount Edgecumbe (under IE7 on Windows)

Is there some way to fix this? Is there some option to turn off the feature? In en, mountain articles often use coordinates redundantly: in the title of the article, in the infobox, and in the external links section. If we could somehow turn it off for the infobox, that would be best.

I'm really open to different alternatives: what can we do? (I don't think that hacking on monobook.js is a general solution, because we want the readers to have a good infobox experience.)

Thanks! Hike395 00:13, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Give me some time to figure out a solution. --Dschwen 09:21, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Coord column does not sort

In w:List of Registered Historic Places in Kings County, New York the column of coordinates does not sort. Is that due to the WikiMiniAtlas manipulation of the text? (SEWilco 17:54, 28 August 2007 (UTC))

It shouldn't be. But let me check. I'm planning on adding smaller globes after the links anyhow. This is likely to fix the sorting issue too. --Dschwen 17:30, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] other languages

It would be nice to see a list of Wikimedia projects that support WikiMiniAtlas. I know en.wikipedia dose, but what other projects do? --Steinninn 01:33, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Added a FAQ point. --Dschwen 17:29, 1 September 2007 (UTC)
Thanks --Steinninn 17:47, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Also on Wikipedia

I put a copy of this page up at w:Wikipedia:WikiMiniAtlas. --Steinninn 01:55, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Mars?

So we have Earth (from OnEarth JPL WMS server) and Moon (OnMoon)... How about adding Mars as well (http://OnMars.jpl.nasa.gov/wms.cgi)?

[edit] and other worlds...

I am actually here posting because I tried to format the coordinates in the en:Gusev Crater article with the standard {{coor d}} template. I set the Globe parameter with globe:Mars but when you click the WikiMiniAtlas icon you get the Earth imagery. As the above poster noted it would be neat to get support for Mars in the Atlas but whether it does or doesn't happen the application needs to at least examine the "globe" parameter and act accordingly. If the globe parameter specifies a globe which is not supported it should either display "Not found" or something in the window, or simply not have the little globe icon and Atlas link in the first place. It would be cool to get support for these other globes, but simply checking the tag and acting accordingly should be fairly easy to implement (and should be done anyway, there may end up being coordinates on all the bodies in our Solar system and there won't likely be map support for every last one). As a side note kudos to all those involved in the production of this tool, a free encyclopedia should not have to rely on non-free imagery and/or map rendering services such as Google Maps. I wish I had the coding skills to contribute but my knowledge of web-development languages is lacking. -en:User:AndrewBuck November 25, 2007

[edit] Looks good

Wow! This is so cool :-) Okay, I previously had some reservations about the free mapping services as compared to Google Maps based on how they looked and behaved, but from playing with this I now think this could work :-)

A few suggestions and hopefully constructive criticisms:

  • Rolling the mouse wheel - can this maybe zoom in or zoom out?
  • Could double-clicking on a point make it centre the map to that point and zoom in?
  • In my JS debugging tools, I was getting some warnings, maybe they're useful, maybe not:

Anyway, it looks great, and congrats! -- All the best, Nickj 02:39, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for your detailed feedback! I already had the mousewheel thing implemented, but removed it again because it was easy to roll it several steps at once which would trigger an enormous amount of requests, choking the script. I'll check if I can find a way to avoid this. Double clicking should be easy to add, I'll look into that too. The first warning message is ok, it is a common way to keep the event handler code compact. The second one worries me, I'll have to do some investigating about that. The last one I frequently see myself, as far as I know it is not a script error, but a failure of the XHR. Maybe I should return a dummy instead of an empty doc. --Dschwen 06:46, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
Note to self: http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2005/09/xmlhttp_notes_a_1.html --Dschwen 06:57, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
Working on mousewheel support. Annoying. Konqueror has no wheel support, my firefox always fires the event twice! --Dschwen 13:17, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Landsat mode

Please note, that the Landsat mode is currently not fetching new data anymore. For now you'll have to live with what's cached on the toolserver. I'm sorting it out, and when it's back it'll be faster than ever. --Dschwen 19:15, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Initial zoom

This is becoming great, but I have one question:

Is it possible to define an initial zoom? E.g.: when clicking on the Mini Atlas at en:Amsterdam; it shows Europe and a lot more of the planet. I think it's a lot better to only show The Netherlands or at least Western Europe. Same with all other cities off course. It even becomes more useless when we want to use for a landmark, e.g.en:Arc The Triomph. Cheers, --Jeroenvrp 00:36, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

I have to work with what I get. For coordinates without a dim parameter I can only give default zoom levels according to the type parameter. I just implemented new default zoomlevels for city (zoom 4) and landmark (zoom 8) (I'm open to more suggestions). Next step will be implementing the dim parameter. By the way why is en:Amsterdam tagged with region:US? :-) --Dschwen 13:23, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
It may be very nive to support scale parameter and/or more type (now only landmark and city types seems supported). Aoineko 07:32, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
Isn't scale deprecated? Shouldn't it be dim? Well, if I get to it in the next few days I'll support both. Please make suggestions for default zoomlevels for other types. --Dschwen 11:46, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
Did you get around to this? If so, is there a page where they are demonstrated? I can't figure out how to use them, so I really would like to know whether I'm trying the impossible or not. Aliter 03:23, 26 November 2007 (UTC)
Just started working on that. Do you have a few reasonable examples for both dim and scale where I can test it? Note that a dim value of 10 (meters) won't magically summon a super high resolution areal photography map ;-)! By the way where is scale defined. I'd have to consider screen resolution for that (default might be 72dpi). --Dschwen 21:15, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
No, sorry. Since WikiMiniAtlas is our main reason for creating those links to begin with, they've been changed to enforce a different scale by identifying them as a different (wrong) catagory that defaults to the right scale, for the time being. I could, of course create a group of test links for you, but I expect you could do so faster yourself. Aliter 21:34, 16 December 2007 (UTC)
Hi! I suggest you some things to change in with zoom level:
  • When type:mountain is put the zoom level is the minimum one. I think it's too big for many mountains, especially for those who need a more accurate view. I suggest you to put the same resolution as city has.
  • Is it possible to make a zoom of, i don't know, 10, instead of 8 for landmark? This zoom level it's too accurate. I would suggest to put 8 for village and include inside it suburbs and little villages and then a higher zoom for landmarks. We find this problem in eu:wiki as we are putting coordinates to all the villages in the Basque Country. Some of them are very little, around 20 citizens, and we put landmark when we know that they're not. So when a database dump would be made some day they'll appear as landmark. If we put village the zoom level will be the whole world.
Well... that's it!-Theklan 00:38, 21 May 2008 (UTC)
It would also be easy for me to adapt the zoom size to the population of the city. I don't think it is a good idea to code cities as landmarks, as it breaks the semantics. --Dschwen 04:51, 30 May 2008 (UTC)
Ok! That's a good idea. I haven't coded cities as landmarks, but I did it with burroughs and little villages inside a town, as the city zoom level was too big for this kind of places. It would be great to have it with population level, but be aware that in many langueages we use a point instead of a comma in thousands notatin (i.e 10.000 citizens and not 10,000 citizens).
I have made a change in our general burrough and little village template and now the code is type:city(citizens). You can see it, for example, here eu:Eritze (Itza) for a little village of 85 citizens, and here for a burrough in Arrasate (eu:Garagartza) without citizenship information and a random value of 100 citizens (as this kind of places without citizen information are usually little. -Theklan 23:01, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Automatic category atlas

First of all, thanks for the work on this script, which is arriving on fr.wikipedia, and should be very useful... My question is not directly linked to WikiMiniAtlas, but it could maybe reuse some of its code.

I would like to see a solution to generate a map which could be displayed on a category page and which would show all geolocated articles belonging to the category. For example, let's say I'm looking for a lighthouse of California which I don't know the name, but know the location. On w:Category:Lighthouses_in_California, I could browse the articles in their alphabetical order, but I could also pick the one I'm interested in on the map.

Right now, to have a similar result, one should find a map, geolocate it, copy and paste all coordinates from the articles, and if the coordinates or the category are updated, the map isn't. This automatically generated category map would save a lot of time and allow to focus on better geolocation of articles, and more complex static maps... Julien--84.98.21.222 08:33, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

This is a pretty good idea. I was thinking about a category filter for the WikiMiniAtlas. The necessary data is available to me, it is just a matter of adjusting my label serving backend. However this means a serious redesign (which is necessary anyways). It'll take a few weeks as I'm currently moving. --Dschwen 09:39, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for your quick answer. There is no hurry, and I would be happy to help testing it if needed. Julien--84.98.21.222 11:00, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Apple Inc, KFC?

Why are these businesses located on WMA as if they were cities? I think this is silly and unprofessional. --Indolences 03:43, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Take this issue to the respective wikipedia articles, and ask why geocoding was added to them. The WikiMiniAtlas merely displays what's coded by the article authors. --Dschwen 07:30, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
The problem isn't with the respective articles. It is good that they have geocoding. It is useful to be able to see where something is when reading an article about it. The problem is that other articles shouldn't be showing the geocodes for Apple and other non-notable locations.24.188.132.100 16:12, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
Thank you. I tried this but no one responded. I have tried removing it myself but it has been some time since I did this and the labels still show up. See also: w:Talk:Apple_Inc.#Geocoding.3F. --Indolences 09:18, 2 October 2007 (UTC)
I know, there is no instant label update yet. It can take weeks until a new database dump is available. Then the changes become visible. --Dschwen 13:25, 2 October 2007 (UTC)
Ok thanks that's what I wanted to know. Is there some special syntax so a particular location is viewable from a long zoom? Thanks. --Indolences 19:55, 2 October 2007 (UTC)
No, I use a formula based on article length and (in cases of cities) population to determine a weighting factor. In each 128px x 128px square on the map the four links with the highest weight are drawn on the map. --Dschwen 20:07, 2 October 2007 (UTC)
Wow that was a quick response! That makes me feel better; some fanboy didn't make the home of a company have the same status as Mexico City. Thanks for this neat tool. --Indolences 20:16, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Eswiki

What do we need to work on so we can get spanish labels on wikiminatlas? for instance es:Múnich already displays the atlas with the little globe, but we (most people interested) are clueless about adding it to other pages, and also what needs to be worked to get spanish labels. drini [es:] [commons:] 00:12, 18 September 2007 (U

Spanish labels are working now (see my talk page). Adding new blue globes is a matter of adding geocoding templates. I'm not up to date which templates are used on the es.wikipedia. --Dschwen 18:29, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Availability of server side source code

I would like to deploy your excellent WikiMiniAtlas plugin on my own wiki, feeding it my own geolocation data. The missing pieces seem to be the database that provides the label data (see inquiry to Kolossos) and some additional server side component of WMA. At least, I was not able to figure out from MediaWiki:Wikiminiatlas.js how label data is retrieved from Kolossos's DB (disclaimer: I don't know JavaScript). Regarding your code:

  1. Is the source code available under an open source license?
  2. Have you considered publishing it here?
  3. Is there an architecture diagram or description somewhere that shows how all the pieces fit together?

Thanks for your time. --Rcalmbac 23:23, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

Quick answer: Yes the code is licensed freely, I will put it into the SVN as soon as I finish moving and figure out how SVN works :-), no there is no diagram yet (but I can make one). There is a short list at [1] which is not quite up to date (the labelproxy was replaced by an apache reverse proxy setting). I do not access Kolossos' DB directly, instead I import the data into a custom server program (the labelserver). I'd be glad to assist you with your deployment in a few weeks. --Dschwen 06:36, 22 September 2007 (UTC)
OK, I got my own label server running and I'm using your reverse proxy trick to forward label requests either to my own label server or to yours on the toolserver, depending on the chosen label source. Very cool! Two more issues:
  1. Kolossos's DB dump (linked to from here) has a varchar datatype for the "style" column with a lot more than 10 possible values. Your label server input routine expects style to be an int (range 0-9?). How do you map from one to the other? Code available?
  2. From a comment on this talk page (search for "psize") I conclude that psize is the number of characters in the article. Is that still true? --Rcalmbac 06:40, 28 September 2007 (UTC)
1. I use a code snippet like this (perl, you you'll get the gist)
       switch(lc($type))
       {
               case "mountain"  { $style = 2; }
               case "country"   { $style = 3; }
               case "city"      { $style = 5; }
               else { $style = 0; }
       }


       if($style==5 || $pop>1000)
       {
               if($pop<1000000)  { $style = 8; }
               if($pop<500000)   { $style = 7; }
               if($pop<100000)   { $style = 6; }
               if($pop<10000)    { $style = 5; }
               if($pop>=1000000) { $style = 9; }
       }
2. Yes, you are right. --Dschwen 20:28, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Labels

The labels should probably exclude the first (or the last) coma and everything after it, i.e. "Austin, Texas" should be "Austin". Alternatively, they could display the bolded text from the first sentence of the article. Zocky 15:27, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Error with Wikiminiatlas.js in french WP

Hi,

I just found an error in Wikiminiatlas.js, which leads to wrong longitudes in french WP, but not in english WP (why ?).

Calculations of longitudes are wrong :

marker.lon=(1.0*RegExp.$5) + (RegExp.$6/60.0) + (RegExp.$6/3600.0); (number of minutes is used for calculating seconds)

while calculations of latitudes are OK :

marker.lat=(1.0*RegExp.$1) + (RegExp.$2/60.0) + (RegExp.$3/3600.0);

Now, it's up to you. Croquant 14:46, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, I corrected that after you mentioned it on MediaWiki_talk:Wikiminiatlas.js#Error_with_Wikiminiatlas.js_in_french_WP. Try to flush your browser cache to get the new version. --Dschwen 13:36, 28 September 2007 (UTC)
I noticed there is a second copy of the wikiminiatlas.js code here that is somewhat older than the copy on Meta. Maybe good to update it for the benefit of the de.WP users who have it enabled in their monobook.js. WikiMiniAtlas does not seem to be enabled globally on the German Wikipedia? --Rcalmbac 22:59, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Support of WikiMiniAtlas on eo:WP

Please read User_talk:Dschwen#WikiMiniAtalas_auf_Esperanto. Thanks Arno Lagrange ✉ 15:53, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Read it, thanks. It'll take a few days to add the translation though I'm not sure I have data for the esperanto labels. If you want to speed up the process add you translation to commons:Commons:WikiMiniAtlas/Translations. --Dschwen 01:06, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Faulty (absolute) server reference

Hey,

This is quite cute, but unfortunately it breaks browsing with the secured server, as a non-HTTPS request is made (which will then trigger a warning to users). To avoid this, when running off secure.wikimedia.org the script should construct the URL to the JS file so as to use HTTPS - that is, instead of:

http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Wikiminiatlas.js&action=raw&...

it should have:

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/meta/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Wikiminiatlas.js&action=raw&...

I would fix this myself but can't even find where it's transcluded to the page. :-)

James F. (talk) 11:48, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Ok, thanks for the bug report, I'll get to it as soon as I have a little time. --Dschwen 20:53, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
Now on second thought, this inclusion does not take place in the wikiminiatlas, but will have to be fixed by the administrators of the respective wikipedias :-(. --Dschwen 20:30, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Icons for other globes

I raised this issue a while back somewhere else, but I guess this is the right place for it so I'll bring it up here too. The globe icon is neat and all, but I've previously made extensive use of the coordinate templates with the "globe" parameter to format locations on other celestial bodies and now the articles I did that on are filled with little pictures of Earth. For example, see en:List of features on the Moon. If fixing this is a big and low-priority hassle, could the extension at least be tweaked so that it doesn't show the icon at all when the globe parameter doesn't match something it can handle? Bryan Derksen 23:36, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

To report bugs and wishlist items please use the WikiMiniAtlas Issue Tracker.

[edit] Fy - problems with a template

Translating this page to Frisian, the legenda got a whole bunch of links where other languages have fieldvalues, generated from a template. I commented them out, but what is the expected behaviour? Aliter 03:55, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the translation! The {{/layer}} template inclusion calls a template relative to the path of the current page. The template is located at WikiMiniAtlas/fy/layer but the frisian translation subpage tries to include WikiMiniAtlas/layer, which didn't exist (I just made it a redirect to the correct location). But the layer information is of technical nature (describes where exactly the displayed data is taken from) and not that important for the manual page. --Dschwen 15:05, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't see the difference between those two links. But I've just uncommented everything, except for ice floats and coastlines, I think. I also did a translation of interface term on Commons. Is there else that is needed before we include this as a map system on Fy:? I assumed once we used a map, any coordinates we used would show up on the map, or at least be havested from the category:MiniAtlas by MiniAtlasBot, but I understand this is still some way off. Aliter 04:01, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, you couldn't see the difference because there was none :-). Typo! Corrected it now. What is the category:MiniAtlas? There is no bot to harvest the coordinates, this work is done on database dumps, offline, every two to three months. Check de:Wikipedia:WikiProjekt_Georeferenzierung/Wikipedia-World/en, unfortunately frisian coordinate extraction is not yet supported. If you have a significant amount of geotagged aritcles you can propose or ask for the addition of frisian to the supported languages at that page. --Dschwen 13:48, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

IC. Would it work if you addressed it as {{WikiMiniAtlas/layer}}, or maybe {{:WikiMiniAtlas/layer}}?

The idea of having a category:MiniAtlas was that a bot could simply check what was in that category; no need to go page hunting. The category you simply include in the template that adds the geotag. A slightly less powerful way to do this is check the "What links here". Eg. pages with coördinates at fy: can be gathered from fy:Wiki:Whatlinkshere/Berjocht:Koördinaten and following.

You're not having much luck with your links it seems. The one to de: doesn't seem to exist.

I know Frisian tags are not supported yet. Not that they'd be much work, 175 page of the 5600 -> 1 in 32. More if you count indirect tags, I guess. Basically, I'm just looking at making a map available from the geotags. I just wanted to make sure I'd translated all that was necessary to do everything in Frisian. Our current solution means we need to switch to a different language, and it's this I'm trying to improve upon. Aliter 04:59, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Adjust text size in settings?

Hi. I just discovered the WikiMiniAtlas. I went to the MiniAtlas example at en:Washington Monument.

The text on the map is too large for me. The text labels overlap each other.

I use a large text size when browsing. So it looks like the Atlas is using the large text size indicated by my browser setting.

Can there be a text size setting in the settings for the MiniAtlas?

I also suggest a default font and text size setting. Maps usually require some very specific sans-serif fonts at small text sizes to work well.

A lot more people will probably use the MiniAtlas if a good small default font is used automatically. Let people choose other sizes and fonts as an option. I think this will work a lot better. --Timeshifter 15:11, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

To report bugs and wishlist items please use the WikiMiniAtlas Issue Tracker.
"WikiMiniAtlas Issue Tracker" link does not work for me. Feel free to copy my above comment anywhere. --Timeshifter 00:48, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
Thanks, fixed. I'll take you comment under consideration as soon as cookie-based user configuration is implemented. You might want to add this as a wishlistitem to help me and yourself keep track of it. --Dschwen 03:04, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WikiMiniAtlas on tawiki

I am trying to get the wikiminiatlas working on the Tamil Wikipedia. The required code was added to the ta:MediaWiki:Common.js. The globe is still not showing up. Can anyone please check what is missing? Thanks, Ganeshk 06:59, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

You have an error somewhere in your site javascript which breaks the execution. The WikiMiniAtlas code is never reached. Fix the error and the WMA will show up. My browser complains about the variable pgcounter_setup not being declared. --Dschwen 12:30, 18 October 2007 (UTC)
Dschwen, I had them move the required code to the very top. The globe is still not showing up. Could you please check why? Thanks, Ganeshk 06:31, 27 October 2007 (UTC)
Yes, there is a call to a yet undefined function pgcounter_setup(); in ta:MediaWiki:Common.js. Get rid of it! Then the rest of the JS should be executed fine. The position of the WMA in common.js does not matter as it only triggers a secondary JS code to be loaded. Its execution is always scheduled after the whole common.js has been executed. So an error anywhere in this file will screw up the WMA. I'm just surprised that none of the ta.wp JS guys has spotted that bug yet (am I missing something here?). --Dschwen 19:54, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Data errors

What is to be done when a data error is found? Specifically, my example is en:Tokelau. The WikiMiniAtlas coordinates correctly point at the center island in the group, en:Nukunonu. The label for the NW island en:Atafu reads "Tokelau", though, and there is no label for the group as there is with some other island groups. --76.208.71.92 21:39, 25 October 2007 (UTC) (en:User:Dhartung)

[edit] Fy

We're currently working on coordinates on fy:, so I activated WikiMiniAtlas. Unfortunately, we're getting an English interface at the moment. (Also, the map is empty, but that's because Frisian isn't in the Georeferencing project.) Is the interface not yet available in Frisian, or are you reusing the language indicator of the coördinates page, which isn't there as there is no Frisian coördinates page as yet? If the latter, is there a way to overrule this in the javascript settings? Aliter 03:22, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

We now use a Frisian language GeoReferencing page, so that can't be it. This leaves the option that the Frisian translation of the interface has not yet been incorporated into the script. Aliter 03:01, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Yes, sorry, it hasn't yet. I'll do that tomorrow morning (yawn!). --Dschwen 05:46, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Apart from the suggested extra translations, everything is Frisian now! Aliter 03:23, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] OpenStreetMap and OpenLayers?

Hi, would it be possible to use OpenStreetMap.org data (free and public data) as high resolution vector data to complement the VMAP0 dataset? Additionally, would it make sense to use the open source OpenLayers.org javascript as mashup engine? Good luck. 132.208.25.230 23:58, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

a) yes, and it will be implemented (needs backend changes I'm working on). b) no, it does not make sense to me to throw away 2 years of work to use a different engine which does not support wikipedia labels and thumbnails the way the WMA currently does. --Dschwen 00:07, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Incorrect link (joshua tree)

There is a link on the map to "Joshua Tree". However, when I click it, it takes me to the article about instead of the U2 album instead of the US national park. 24.188.132.100 16:22, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Some of the labels are generated from geocoded articles in different languages (linked by interlanguage links). Apparently a languagelink was created between the national park in one language to the U2 album in the other language (english?). If you feel like solving a puzzle, try to hunt down the page with the wrong interlanguage link. Good luck :-) --Dschwen 22:21, 29 December 2007 (UTC)
Ha, sorry, I investigated myself. The link is not wrong. The label actually points to the Joshua tree, the tree that is pictured on the cover of the U2 album. --Dschwen 22:29, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Incorrect map data

After a recent server reorganization my geodata was lost, the restoration was unfortunately incomplete. All coastline/ocean info for the north america region is currently unavailable, causing the water to be rendered as land. I've found the reason, and will fix it within the next few days when I have access to the server again. The tedious part will be purging the tainted cache files... --Dschwen 11:56, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

This is fixed for a couple of days now, and I just updated the map generation software again. As a bonus swamp areas and tiny roads are now added to the map and the width of the roads scales with the zoom level. Please note that for display speed reasons old tiles (if existing) are served while the new tiles are generated and that you'll see the new tiles only when you either clear your cache, change the zoomlevel back and forth or pan around. --Dschwen 19:40, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Update: 04:15, 17 January 2008 (UTC) - Map changes

During the last few days I fixed a bug in the VMAP0 map which was caused by missing ocean datafiles for the north america region. I also implemented an asynchonous jobqueue for the map renderer, which is now one continuously running process for each zoomlevel. I used that chance to make some subtle changes to the renderer, a new set of roads is added to the map (check out Madagascar at high zoom levels), and the thickness of the roads varies with zoomlevel for a more natural look. Furthermore I added the PGS dataset to the map. PGS is a fairly high quality coastline. But it's drawback is the lack of a well defined inside/outside. So for now this coastline is overlayd over the old data as a thin transparent line, only visible at the highest zoomlevel. The webserver is instructed to hand out old files from the cache while rendering the new tiles. So it might take some scrolling back and forth to see the new tiles. --Dschwen 04:15, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Linked example and IE

  • en:Washington Monument doesn't have "-icon in the top right corner", at this moment it is located in the infobox on the right
  • Nothing happens if I click on the icon in IE6. Is this by design? Please add some compatibility information on the main page

∴ AlexSm 16:23, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

  • Oh, thanks for noting, it used to have one. Hm, I'll have to look if I have access to an IE6 anywhere. A couple of months ago it worked with that browser. I wonder what changed to break it. Do you have any idea, does IE6 report any script errors? --Dschwen 20:34, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] en:Črni Kal Viaduct: discrepancy between WikiMiniAtlas and Geopedia

I've asked this question at en:Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Geographical coordinates already but no one has replied so I'll ask here too.

For the article en:Črni Kal Viaduct: Why do I get different results when I click the blue globe (at the bottom of the infobox) and when I click "coordinates/GeoHack/Slovenian/Geopedia"? Does this have something to do with the Gauss-Kruger projection used by the Geopedia? Could this be fixed? For me the prime method for determining coordinates is by using the Geopedia where the objects in Slovenia (like Črni Kal Viaduct) have been marked already.

Another question: Why does GeoHack not show the main map of Geopedia but shows the Wikipedia - SI layer instead? --Eleassar my talk 13:26, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

What do you mean by getting different results? To me it looks pretty much the same. Keep in mind that the rail and road data on the WMA is not as accurate as the data on google maps for example. Geopedia seems to be broken (not working in Konqueror). This is the first time I've heard of that site. I'll try later with a different browser. Sorry I cannot be of more help. --Dschwen 15:27, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your help. That's no surprise as Geopedia is a rather new project and covers Slovenia only. What I mean by different results is that in the WMA the red circle does not point to the viaduct (road) but a bit off. In Geopedia it points where it should. I've asked at the Geopedia technical forum and they've replied that perhaps it's a "problem" of the local transformation of the UTM coordinates (whatever that means). They say that the WMA probably does not use the correct parameters of transformation. --Eleassar my talk 17:14, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Black triangle equals close box??

Who came up with the idea to use a black triangle as the close box? I don't think that matches any interface conventions in the known universe. Kaldari 18:15, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

I see that this was already reported as a bug in Jira in January. Kaldari 18:23, 15 June 2008 (UTC)
Actually it equals a fold-in box. --Dschwen 20:44, 15 June 2008 (UTC)
Okay, I changed it [2]. I'm convinced that it is bad usability if people are confused. There is no point if I'm the only one who thinks the symbol makes sense :-). --Dschwen 14:48, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
Thanks for the change! The new close box is beautiful (as beautiful as such things can be). Kaldari 19:22, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
I think now it's better also! -Theklan 17:52, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Tile rendering bug (fixed)

Due to an update of the Mapnik library on the toolserver and its IO-plugins the WikiMiniAtlas maprenderer was broken for the last 9 days. I just noticed it today. Nobody complained before. I had to delete about 15500 wrongly rendered tiles from the cache (out of approximately a million rendered so far). --Dschwen 21:58, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

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