a simple mapping workflow

developing a workflow for making maps, with following features:

• represent the following data: tracks, waypoints (+description and icons), (free) text, images and other media)
• use data collected by garmin handhelds, by notes and digital photocams)
• makes workflow easy (no console, few programs or one integrated webbased service run on our site...)

start of this page at [wcc], august 2006

tools and infos:

get data

• with gartrip and a serial cable connection, see description on CamoDatenTransfer
• save tracks and waypoints on your computer in gpx format
• use the following syntax:
  creator+date(yy-mm-dd)+free name.gpx like osm_06_08_11_campII_wp.gpx

work with data

gartrip

• first visualization with gartrip build-in mapping function, no export possible, so you must take a screenshot of the map (as we are doing this already)

RDFmapper

make a map with [RDFmapper]

step1: map background ("wallpaper" :) of the trackpoints

• convert gpx to shp (shapefile, a vector format), for use in mapserver and other tools, to SVG (vector), to save for further, flexibel use, to bitmap (gif) for display on webpages
• gpx 2 shp e.g. with [gpx2shp], with binaries for *nix and win, syntax gpx2shp -t osm_track_file.gpx
• shp 2 svg e.g. with [shp2svg], perl script, thus a perl interpreter has to be installed (at unix it will be anyway) with ogis2svg --input osm_2006-05-26_freedom_tracks_trk.shp --output osm_2006_05_26_freedom_tracks.svg --roundval 0.1 --- rem: svg output doesnt work yet
• alternativly: use [gpsvisualizer], a free webservice, to convert gpx data to svg directly. store on your harddisk
• make an xml file (description follows) to describe the map, based on your map
• possibly, [1] could be used to locate waypoints on a german-wide so-called "political" map (in svg format)

step2: convert waypoints (gpx) to geotagged RDF, called [RDFmap]

step3: use RDFmapper service with the xml mapfile and the RDFmap file to make a flash-based, interactive map with all waypoints and given data

mapserver and mapscript

setting up a simple perl-script and a mapserver installation, that handles gpx data input, transforms it into to shapefile format and generate a mapfile definition for mapserver.

(2006-09-10) a current developement version of this script is located at: [gpx2shp.pl]

see Tools/MakeAMapDev for a rudimentary technical documentation.

sample map outputs (click to see map in fullsize):

...with an unedited waypoint file...

...with an waypoint file, annoteted with text...

wiki syntax to embed this:

[https://maps.offene-kartierung.de/cgi-bin/mapserv?map=/var/www/vhosts/maps.offene-kartierung.de/httpsdocs/osm_2006-05-26_utopia_wp1.map&mode=map
https://maps.offene-kartierung.de/cgi-bin/mapserv?map=/var/www/vhosts/maps.offene-kartierung.de/httpsdocs/osm_2006-05-26_utopia_wp1.map&mode=map&map_size=300+200&map_waypoints_class_label_size=tiny]

...which can be embedded into this wiki after a small hack at wiki-osm.pl:

 sub ImageAllowed? {
  my ($url) = @_;
  my ($site, $imagePrefixes);

  $imagePrefixes = 'http:|https:|ftp:';
  $imagePrefixes .= '|file:'  if (!$LimitFileUrl?);
  # hack to embed mapserver output
  return 1 if ( $url =~ /^https:\/\/maps.offene-kartierung.de\/cgi-bin\/mapserv/);
  (...)
 }