Template talk:GeoTemplate

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Contents 1 Added links to Google satellite/hybrid maps 2 Error in CH1903 transformation (?) - Suggestions of additional maps 3 TopoZone.com and NAD83 4 Current URL has annoying bug 5 Added links to five Japanese map site 6 Internationalisation 6.1 Hungarian 7 Map of Czech Republic 8 Selection of links 9 Wikimapia 10 Polish links. 11 USMapServer 12 Adding a section for Map Based Projects 13 Yahoo Maps 14 Added links to Flash Earth 15 I miss GeoNames and Tagzania 16 Map Previews 17 GeoHack page deletion 18 Problems 19 Unreadable page layout 20 OS Getamap 21 Passing the 'Type' parameter? 22 Parsing Other Coordinate formats 23 Poor usability 24 How to offset coordinates 25 GeoHack Improvement 26 What about a new extension (Special:GeoHack) ? 27 A link containing correct coordinates goes to a page with incorrect coordinates 28 czech republic and experiment 29 Windows Live Local 30 Geo microformat 31 Map of Poland 32 Request Revision in the 'Global Systems' 33 Windows Live Local 34 Decimals 35 maidenhead 36 Geo microformat on GeoHack 37 Request: List specific country resources first 38 Degree Confluence Project 39 mapy.atlas.cz 40 Geo microformat - successfully applied 41 Useage 42 Geo button 43 Too much spam. How about just having useful links to maps? 44 Foreign-language versions 45 Canadian Link 46 Passing a name parameter

[edit] Added links to Google satellite/hybrid maps

I'm a little skittish about editing something in someone else's user space, but I have added links to Google hybrid and satellite maps. I did this because on some coordinates I've added (e.g., those for Estadio Augusto César Sandino and Estadio Cristóbal Labra), which are in Cuba, there is no street map, but Google hybrid and satellite maps work well. Please drop me a line on my talk page if this is inappropriate. Rolando (talk) 16:55, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Error in CH1903 transformation (?) - Suggestions of additional maps

I think that this is a great tool! Thank you very much for contributing it!

I tried it out, and I think that there is a small error for the Swiss coordinate system. The transformation WGS84 -> CH1903 fails by typically 200 m. On the page http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schweizer_Landeskoordinaten there is a pseudo code for the transformation, and there is also a small example for the center of La Chaux-des-Breuleux at N 47° 13' 15", E 7° 1' 41". This leads on the Swiss meter based coordinate system to 230071, 568902. The present tool delivers 229921, 568834. I have also tried other locations, where the CH1903 based maps (e.g. map.search.ch) were always offset a little. I am not 100% sure if you agree with me, so I don’t try to change anything myself (probably I would not be able to).

I also would like to suggest other map systems.
For Japan: http://map.goo.ne.jp/map.php?MAP=E{londegabs}.{lonminint}.{lonsecdec}.???N{latdegabs}.{latminint}.{latsecdec}.???&ZM=12 . There where I put ??? I am not sure if this are the milliseconds. This system has great map details and also additional informations about hotels (if you understand Japanese :-) ).
For France: http://www.geoportail.fr, but I don’t know the API to directly address coordinates.
For Austria: http://www.austrianmap.at/ . But this seems to be a JS application, and has probably no direct coordinate access neither.

[edit] TopoZone.com and NAD83

I have noticed that your tool geohack.php uses a hyperlink to TopoZone.com that yields a result which interprets the input coordinates as being NAD27. I believe it is more common to use NAD83/WGS84 based on Wikipedia:WikiProject Geographical coordinates#Geodetic system which says that "All coordinates should be referenced to WGS84, or an equivalent datum". It would be simple to change your hyperlink by adding &datum=nad83 to the end of it. If you need more information you can leave a note here or on my talk page. --Droll 07:04, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Current URL has annoying bug

< Moved from Template talk:Coor URL>

RAF Gan is located less than one degree below the equator. This URL incorrectly reports it as North instead of South. This throws off every map link.

• http://tools.wikimedia.de/~magnus/geo/geohack.php?params=0_41_S_73_9_E_type:island (incorrectly north)
• http://tools.wikimedia.de/~magnus/geo/geohack.php?params=1_41_S_73_9_E_type:island (correctly south)

I have to say compared with the previous map link server this url is a step backwards. Its missing wikimapia and is generally has links that are pretty useless.

--MarsRover 21:16, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

< /Moved from Template talk:Coor URL>

[edit] Added links to five Japanese map site

I have added Japanese map sites because there was none of it. --Izumi5 14:18, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

I have corrected some (in fact, many) mistakes in the links. --Izumi5 07:40, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Internationalisation

What about subpages in different languages? Not everyone knows English and all Wikipedia links go to en. --88.76.219.217 11:03, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hungarian

Please find a way to make this page localisable (nice word huh :)). I'm hereby volounteering for the Hungarian translation. Please contact me at bdamokos [at] gmail [dot] com . Regards, Dami --85.238.73.101 16:25, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Map of Czech Republic

Hallo Magnus,
du hast diese Seite anstelle der ehemaligen nationalen Quellen-Verzeichnisse erstellt. Dabei sind einige nationale Quellen verlorengegangen, z. B. auch die hervorragende Quelle www.mapy.cz, die direktes Anklicken von guter Landkarte und detaillierten Luftbildern des vollständigen Staatsgebiets von Tschechien erlaubte. Wäre es möglich, sie in diese Liste wieder aufzunehmen? Es würde mich freuen, wenn du das veranlassen könntest. MfG --de:Benutzer:KaHe

Danke.MfG --de:Benutzer:KaHepillemann

[edit] Selection of links

I removed a link to whereto.org. They have only Google Maps with a few tags added, all but one of them in the USA. I think this extension, that is widely used in different language wikipedias should only contain links to websites with a really useful content. That means: Google Maps only once - the original one - and not all sites that use this service for whatever purpose. --88.76.203.102 22:27, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikimapia

Is there a particular reason why Wikimapia is not in the list? I see this question was (kind of) asked above, but there was no answer. Thanks.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 12:17, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

• Probably the same rationale as the removal of WhereTo.org link - seeing that it's gmaps based. I personally disagree -- I think both Whereto and Wikimapia add something significant to gmaps. May be we need a chapter for "This location on Maps based projects"? "This location on maps mash-ups" or something along these lines. Placeopedia and wayfaring links can go there as well.. Amaltsev 19:24, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Is there a record of discussions regarding removals from/additions to this list, do you know? In other words, who's in charge of this list?—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 19:36, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Presumably User:Magnus Manske is in charge since it's in his userspace, but I really have no idea.. Amaltsev 19:49, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, looks like he's away for the time being. I'll wait till he's back; this is not all that urgent anyway.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 19:53, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Looks like Wikimapia has finally been add to the list but unfortunately is misspelled and at bottom of list. Is it possible that this geo template can be publicly edited by the community like all other pages and articles? --MarsRover 20:37, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

Well, the owner seems to be absent, and the page is being edited to everyone's heart content. I, for one, don't see any harm in correcting a simple typo.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 17:09, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

May be I'm biased, but Wikimapia at the top of the list above google maps its based on and placed there by its creator? I really think we need a chapter for "Map-based projects" where projects like wikimapia, whereto.org, everytrail.com, etc will go. There is a difference between various maps -- yahoo, microsoft, mapquest, gmaps, etc -- primary providers (from user's point of view at least), and mash-up projects however popular or not they are. Amaltsev 01:54, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

I like to see wikimapia as a choice on the same google line. "google (wikimapia,hybrid,satellite)". And the google line should be the first line. Normally I am for organization and categorization but in this case I would sort by popularity and by usefulness (McFly?) --MarsRover 07:35, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

I think placing it where you placed it falsely implies a relationship with Google. And then again, wikimapia is not the only project that allows to wiki-edit places on google maps. Why the preferential treatment? Amaltsev 22:50, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

Who preferred to put a dead "McFly" link as second choice here? I just trying to be practical and not having to have the user scroll each time they bring up this page. If we had a poll to find the most common links and made sure they're at the top I am fine with that. Also, we should have Yahoo maps near the top of the list. I don't think its even in the list. --MarsRover 00:02, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Polish links.

Hi.

We have a template for links to locations. You might add them

• this ones general (realy cool and I belive it should be on top of it all - it is "editable" for all)

http://wikimapia.org/#y={{#expr: ({{{degreesN|0}}}+(({{{minutesN|0}}}+({{{secondsN|0}}}/60))/60))*1000000 round 0 }}&x={{#expr: ({{{degreesE|0}}}+(({{{minutesE|0}}}+({{{secondsE|0}}}/60))/60))*1000000 round 0 }}&z={{{z|12}}}&l=28&m=h

• and this one is local

http://mapa.szukacz.pl/?n={{#expr: ({{{degreesN|0}}}+(({{{minutesN|0}}}+({{{secondsN|0}}}/60))/60)) round 6 }}&e={{#expr: ({{{degreesE|0}}}+(({{{minutesE|0}}}+({{{secondsE|0}}}/60))/60)) round 6 }}&z={{{z|3}}}&t={{PAGENAMEE}}&m={{PAGENAMEE}}

Nux (talk) 23:07, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] USMapServer

User Middleforkmaps added a link to usmapserver.com; This link reverse-geocodes coordinates into named city pages

[edit] Adding a section for Map Based Projects

Here is what I'd put to the main template in reference to the "Wikimapia" discussion above. I am the guy behind whereto.org, so I don't want to be the one to modify the actual template, but here goes. Amaltsev 02:18, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

Would you mind spelling it "Map-based projects"? —Michael Z. 2006-12-01 17:04 Z

[edit] Yahoo Maps

I added Yahoo Maps. I set the mag for now to a value of 6, a not to close view... mag 5 would be another good possibility, but I guess for now 6 is enough... is there a way to use the range-values (as supplied for google maps) for this?

Short Doku of the Yahoo Maps Query String:

[http://maps.yahoo.com/broadband/#mvt=m&lat={latdegdec}&lon={londegdec}&mag=6&q1={latdegdec},{londegdec} Find this location]

Key	Value(s)	Description
mvt	m, s, h	map, sattelite, hybrid view
lat	0.0 (numeric)	Latitude, Decemal Degrees
lon	0.0 (numeric)	Longitude, Decemal Degrees
mag	1-16 (int)	Zoom-Level, 1=closest
q1	mixed string	Search-Query

--PSIplus Ψ 16:55, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

I updated the entry after yahoo changed the url (added broadband/ sub-url) ... --PSIplus Ψ 22:11, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Added links to Flash Earth

I have added links to Flash Earth, a web site with Satellite and aerial imagery of the Earth in Flash. I hope you don't mind. Ric36 18:13, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] I miss GeoNames and Tagzania

I miss GeoNames and Tagzania. They were in earlier versions of the coordinates link.

[edit] Map Previews

Would it make sense to add little 64x64 pictures as preview to distinguish street maps from satellite maps and so on?--Noiv 01:00, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] GeoHack page deletion

Hi Magnus, I just noticed that your incredibly useful GeoHack tool page seems to have been deleted, and protected to prevent recreation. Is it being replaced, or is it to be no more? I've contacted the admin too. --Leigh 10:34, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

Update - it appears to have been restored. --Leigh 12:29, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Problems

Hello, I attempted to click on the coor template in Novocherkassk and Primorsk, Leningrad Oblast (among many others) and you page did not recognize coors. Formerly the links worked alright. Could you explain what's going on? Thanks, Ghirla ^-трёп- 11:13, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

I fixed Novocherkassk; see my edit. Don't leave blank params for seconds in {{coor dm}}. Omit the params complately. Use seconds only in coor dms. jnestorius^(talk) 01:07, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Previously it worked just fine. Now hundreds coor templates need "fixing"! --Ghirla ^-трёп- 08:31, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Unreadable page layout

What the heck? The Map sources/GeoHack page is now completely unreadable and unusable in the latest version of Safari (2.0.4). A picture is worth a thousand words. —Michael Z. 2006-12-01 17:01 Z

Well, that sucks. —Tokek 06:23, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

Would you try to fix Safari or Template:TOCright? Removing TOCright, just breaks the layout of this page. -- User:Docu

Works and worked well in Konqueror... So blame Apple ;-) --PSIplus Ψ 22:15, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

Well, removing TOCright fixes the page for Safari. Please provide the browser name or a screenshot of the "broken" page so I know what you're talking about. --Tokek 13:04, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

Please check if my test page gets corrupted on Safari browser. I don't have Apple/Safari. --Pasixxxx 17:03, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

Some observations:

• The layout bug only occurs at tools.wikimedia.de, not at en.wikipedia.org
• The normal TOC doesn't cause problems, but TOCRight does
• My guess is that en.wikipedia.org uses some JavaScript files that are missing at tools.wikimedia.de that fixes the layout problem for Safari. I couldn't find CSS differences last time I checked.

—Tokek 12:12, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

On second thought, the NOTOC solution is not that bad. Although left TOC doesn't cause problems like right TOC, having no TOC is good because it brings the Yahoo! and Google! maps closer to the top. —Tokek 13:30, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

What about using the "dirty" method by adding <div style="float:right;margin:10px;">__TOC__</div> to the top, wouldn't that prevent the missing-js-issue? --PSIplus Ψ 22:02, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

So... I applied my version of TOC, and it seems to work quite well... Tested it on many Browsers and Plattforms (namely: Win32 IE6/7 Firefox, GNU/Linux Konqueror Firefox Opera wine/ie6) and it works pretty well... I'm unsure about Safari, so please test it! But while this method worked before on another page for safari, I'm optimistic that this finally resolves the issue. --PSIplus Ψ 18:41, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

Good, it solved the problem. I tried it using BrowserCamp and it looks good. --PSIplus Ψ 18:45, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

I didn't know a site like BrowsrCamp existed... Didn't look good when I passed this address though. This address (for editing) is different from the final destination where the Template:Coor links takes the user to (which is why the preview feature can't work). —Tokek 04:09, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

What the... LOL! Cool! I'll "fix" it :-) --PSIplus Ψ 12:52, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

Hah! It's done! :-D ... It's a table-based layout, quite easy, quite dirty, quite working... After all: Coult to take a look at my suggestion and tell me what you think about it? ... Have Fun! --PSIplus Ψ 13:08, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

Indeed, it's working! That's a pretty neat table trick.—Tokek 00:45, 25 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] OS Getamap

.... doesn't seem to work. Could someone check it to see whether it's just me or whether it generally isn't working... e.g. TQ387888.

Actually, accessing via the OS site itself isn't working either so it's probably not a problem with this page, but if someone could test it anyway for me that'd be great...

Ta! C2r 17:35, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Passing the 'Type' parameter?

It seems that there is a parameter named 'type' which is passed from geographic pages into the geohack.php script, but which then is translated into an assumed scale (eg type:country beomes scale:10000000). Am I correct in believing that the 'type:' is then *not* passed through and thus not made accessible? Take for example a small island nation such as Dominica. Obviously a scale of 10,000,000 is entirely inappropriate. However, given a lat-long and type:country, one's map site could do a point-in-polygon query and thus appropriately set the extent and scale as well as extracting the proper geographic feature. Similarly, I have noticed that on country pages (e.g. France and Spain) geographic coordinates for a country's capital also pass the type:country parameter where perhaps they should pass type:city instead? Thanks, Middleforkmaps 16:44, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Parsing Other Coordinate formats

Would it be easy to modify this script to allow it to parse this format of coordinates:

29.871264,31.216381

when passed to the get string? If I do a search on Google Maps for a valid lat/long coordinate separated by a comma, it parses it fine, but this script doesn't seem to understand the coordinates without a north/south east/west designation.

google map example --Dvmorris 10:43, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Poor usability

This page is definitely poor from a usability standpoint and should be overhauled. What is the point in listing really every geohack page on the planet, without even diffentiating between more useful and less useful links? There is no point in showing more than 6 links at the most. Maybe there should be a first and a second layer of this page. The first layer for the non-techie users, who might not even speak English, which displays the above mentioned "6 links", and a link from this page to a second page which list "all" this services. That would be infinitely more useful than this. Please, can we not change this? Thanks for consideration, Greetings, Longbow4u 17:52, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

You are probably right. For example, YouTube doesn't provide a list of video players for each video. Having two map links could cover personal preference for about 99% of the population. Special needs for special places can be covered via adding links directly to those articles' External links section, which is probably a better navigation solution anyway. Wikipedia is not a directory (WP:NOT). —Tokek 13:22, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

You are right, page needs big cleanup. In addition many links are using same photo or map layers (from GE or NASA for example) --Jklamo 10:53, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How to offset coordinates

is there anyway to offset a coordinate by adding or subtracting, for e.g to generate

minx=71.820000&miny=17.960000&maxx=73.820000&maxy=19.960000

from 18.96 and 72.82 by adding and subtracting 1 for each -- ^{PlaneMad|YakYak} 20:45, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

Any help please? -- ^{PlaneMad|YakYak} 12:26, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] GeoHack Improvement

I got a fine idea for the GeoHack-Tool: Add the ability to specify a lang-parameter in query-string. Therefor, allow localised Versions of the GeoTool for the different wikipedias. That would make the tool even more interesting by allowing localised versions, for example a german one, witch moves the central european relevant geo-links to the top.

While more and more language-versions of wp grow faster and faster, and even the marked for map-tools is growing, the geohack would be overloaded sooner or later. If you like, I would make the programming for this, as well as creating and maintaining the translated and localised german-speaking version. I think this would be very nice :-) --PSIplus Ψ 19:02, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

Okay, I created a patch implementing this:

--- geohack.php 2006-12-22 20:03:23.000000000 +0100
+++ geohack.php 2006-12-22 20:18:53.000000000 +0100
@@ -10,12 +10,35 @@
 include "geo_param.php" ;
 include "mapsources.php" ;

-# Read template
-do {
-       $page = @file_get_contents ( 'http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Magnus_Manske/GeoTemplate' ) ;
-} while ( false === $page ) ;
+/* Localised template URLs */
+$t_i18n=array
+(
+  "en"=>array
+  (
+    "template"=>"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Magnus_Manske/GeoTemplate",
+    "page"=>"http://en.wikipedia.org/w",
+    "style"=>"http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/monobook/main.css"
+  ),
+  "de"=>array
+  (
+    "template"=>"http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:PSIplus/GeoTemplate",
+    "page"=>"http://de.wikipedia.org/w",
+    "style"=>"http://de.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/monobook/main.css"
+  ),
+);
+
+$lang=$_GET["lang"];
+if(!$t_i18n[$lang]) $lang="en";
+$x_i18n=&$t_i18n[$lang];
+
+/* Read template */
+do
+{
+  $page=@file_get_contents($x_i18n["template"]);
+}
+while(false===$page);

-$page = str_replace ( ' href="/w' , ' href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w' , $page ) ;
+$page=str_replace(' href="/w',$x_i18n["page"],$page);

 # Separate content
 $page = array_pop ( explode ( '<!-- start content -->' , $page , 2 ) ) ;
@@ -43,7 +66,7 @@

 # Output
 print "<html><head>" ;
-print '<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/monobook/main.css" >' ;
+print '<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="'.htmlentities($x_i18n["style"]).'" >' ;
 print '</head><body style="margin-left:5px; margin-right:5px;">' ;
 #print get_common_header ( "geohack.php" ) ;
 print '

I wrote it, haven't had a chance to test it, that should make it... I created a Version of the GeoTemplate in my user-page (but haven't translated it yet) ... Just tell me if you want to use this and I begin to translate :-) --PSIplus Ψ 19:28, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

Who do I have to bribe for something to happen here? ;-) --PSIplus Ψ 19:48, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] What about a new extension (Special:GeoHack) ?

You should submit this to bugzilla   <STyx 18:55, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] A link containing correct coordinates goes to a page with incorrect coordinates

This link: http://tools.wikimedia.de/~magnus/geo/geohack.php?params=34_74_S_150_83_E_region:AU_type:city

Ends up on a page relating to these totally incorrect coordinates:

35° 14′ 0″ S 151° 23′ 0″E

... which basically is useless.

Why is this happening and can it be corrected?

74'-60'=14' -> 34_74 -> 34° + 1° + 14' = 35° 14' S => -35.14 regards --XN 13:18, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Many thanks - finally worked out that I needed to add decimal points to the minutes. Ended up with this, which is pretty accurate:

http://tools.wikimedia.de/~magnus/geo/geohack.php?params=34_44.7_S_150_49.65_E_region:AU_type:city

[edit] czech republic and experiment

I added following code into your page with various links to various maps into the chapter Czech Republic.

• Find this location (Satellite, Hybrid) on Mapy.cz (experiment).

But when I visit this page with some coordinates I can see only the previous version. And when I click on "edit" I can see the new source code, not the old one. Could you please explain me what's wrong?

--147.230.151.146 16:12, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

It's already working. No problem. --147.230.151.146 18:52, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Windows Live Local

...doesn't seem to work; it just dumps the user at the main search page. Fix or remove? –EdC 14:04, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Agree -Coolhandscot 18:23, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Commented out. Anyone who knows how to fix it, please do so. –EdC 20:56, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Commented back in. It works fine for all the examples that I tried. Are you clicking on "Windows Live Local" instead of "Find this location"? If there is a problem link, include here and I'll take a look at it. Heptazane 21:42, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

It appears to serve up different content depending on the User agent string. I tried a couple of agent strings listed at that article; about half worked and half didn't. I don't think we can include it until it works for all legitimate browsers. –EdC 23:00, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

nb. "Windows Live Local" points at the Wikipedia article. –EdC 23:02, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Supporting every browser on earth should not be a requirement for being in this page. To clarify I added a comment that not all browsers are supported. Google Maps lists the following browsers as being supported: IE 6.0+, Firefox 0.8+, Safari 1.2.4+, Netscape 7.1+, Mozilla 1.4+, Opera 8.02+. Should it not be included because there are others that it does not support? Heptazane 23:52, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Well, there's a difference between supporting some browsers and locking out all browsers except a handful. Here's what Windows Live Local does:

Browser	Locked out
IE 7.0 on Windows XP SP2	No
Firefox 2.0 on Ubuntu Linux	No
Firefox 3.0a1 on Ubuntu Linux	Yes
IceWeasel 2.0.0.1 on Debian Linux	Yes
Epiphany 2.14.3 on Debian Linux	Yes
Safari 3.0 (v521) on Mac OS X	Yes
Netscape 8.1 on Windows XP	Yes
Mozilla 1.7.8 on Linux	Yes
Opera 9.10 on Windows XP	Yes

Is there really any point in linking to a site that refuses access to the majority of mainstream browsers? –EdC 00:30, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

By contrast, Google Maps works (at least to a minimal level) in every browser I've seen, including text-based browsers (w3m etc.); it doesn't lock out any users. –EdC 00:39, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

If you check out Usage share of web browsers, you'll note that IE+Mozilla is 90-95% of the market, so the statement "majority of mainstream browsers" is, at best, not relevant because almost every last person that uses the link will see the page. Heptazane 19:27, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Of 6 Mozilla-based browsers listed above, Windows Live Local locks out all but one. Perhaps we should only be considering IE usage share, which is steadily dropping. In any case, even if Windows Live Local gives access to 95% of users, that's still 1 in 20 (probably more, since Wikipedia users are more technologically capable than the majority, but anyway) that will click on that link, get dumped at the main search page, and assume that Wikipedia is broken. Is that really acceptable? All the other links in that first section at least try to serve up relevant content to users, regardless of whether their browser is supported. –EdC 23:09, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

It appears to have got a little better (allowing in Epiphany), but it still locks out Opera, Safari, Netscape etc. –EdC 22:32, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Considering that Google Earth is listed as a source, and that Google Earth is closed-source commercial software that's not available on a majority of operating systems (where's Google Earth for Solaris, OS/2, HP/UX, S/390, and Amiga?), why is there so much banter about Live Local? I really find it confusing that we need all sorts of disclaimers that it only works on "some versions" of Firefox. Plenty of other browsers have subpar JavaScript support, but we don't list disclaimers for other mapping sites. White 720 01:02, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Geo microformat

It would be good if your display of co-ordinates used the Geo microformat in the mark-up. Please let me know if you need further information. Andy Mabbett 08:38, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Tricky; the Geo microformat wants decimal degrees, but we allow dms in the various coor templates (see Template:Coor d et al). Might be possible to do something with m:ParserFunctions, but will it be worth the overhead? –EdC 12:16, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I think the effort would be worthwhile but I'll raise the issue on the microformats mailing list. Andy Mabbett 12:29, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

I raised the decimal coordinates issue on the microformats wiki. No replies so far, but keep watching... Andy Mabbett 08:44, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

I think this has now been resolved; see Template:Coor/new/doc and please add comments of support (or criticism!). Andy Mabbett 09:40, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Map of Poland

At http://mapa.szukacz.pl is a map of Poland, which can be used to find any city in Poland and take a look on it at this map. Can you add this to that script? /Sorry for my English

Could you provide an example of a link to a particular location? –EdC 21:52, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Request Revision in the 'Global Systems'

USMapServer.com/WorldMapServer would like to request that its position in the list of 'Global Systems' be raised, for the following reasons:

• It provides detailed maps to the individual street level (US);
• It is the only? site which (attemps to) reverse-geocodes coordinates to a named map named/place, with a static page name which (tries to) correspond to the original Wikipedia page name - Gmaps, Ymaps, and MapQ do not do so.
• It contains content prepared in-house and is not a G*gle mashup;

Thank you for your consideration. Middleforkmaps 04:36, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Correct me if I am wrong, but as far as I can tell, this service provides only a low level of detail outside the US, and has no 3D facilities. Viewfinder 11:21, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Thats how it appeared to me too - outside the US it appears to be useful only for whole-country scale images, since the resolution seems to be too poor to see even large cities. (eg most cities in England), and there is only imagery, no map data. Usability also could be better (could possibly be due to my system setup). --Ozhiker 15:49, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Windows Live Local

The "find this location" links call up live local, but then takes me to a completely wrong location. Yes, I am using IE. I propose that this link is not fixed and should be deleted. Viewfinder 01:02, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

What page are you linking from that takes you to the wrong location? Heptazane 05:32, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Mount Everest 27°59′17″N, 86°55′31″ECoordinates: 27°59′17″N, 86°55′31″E. Not that I, personally, am too concerned, because the 3D image of Mount Everest on Live Local is absolute c**p. Lhotse is not shown as a separate mountain, there is no South Col. Compare it with accurate topography on Google Earth and Nasa World Wind. But for other parts the world, live local have better 2D imagery. Viewfinder 08:17, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Hang on a minute, I just rechecked it. The link is OK now! Someone seems to have fixed something, although I do not know what. I withdraw my first post to this section. But not my second. Viewfinder 08:25, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Decimals

How can I obtain decimals for geocordinates just by "clicking"?

I know how to calculate on my pocket calculator - but usually I need something like 43.231 deg rather than 43° 14' 22"

I added it at the top of the page. Hope this helps. -- User:Docu

[edit] maidenhead

you could add maidenhead grids, my jidanni.org site has a program. Also add some nearby confluence.org confulences. User:Jidanni

You should also add the Military grid reference system. Also, I bet it would be an extreme stretch to add LORAN TD coordinates. --  Denelson83  02:46, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

The other grids would go to meta:Gis rather than here. -- User:Docu

[edit] Geo microformat on GeoHack

Please add a Geo microformat to http://tools.wikimedia.de/~magnus/geo/geohack.php. It should be relatively easy to do, given the existing mark-up.

All it needs is for

<table>
<tr align="right">
<td><small>52.686° N</small></td>
</tr>
<tr align="right">
<td><small>2.193° W</small></td>

to become

<table class="geo">
<tr align="right">
<td><small><abbr class="latitude" title="52.686">52.686° N</abbr></small></td>
</tr>
<tr align="right">
<td><small><abbr class="longitude" title="-2.193">2.193° W</abbr></small></td>

if abbr is honoured, or alternatively to add an additional table

<table class="geo">
<tr align="right">
<td><small class="latitude">52.686</small></td>
</tr>
<tr align="right">
<td><small class="longitude">-2.193/small></td>

Personally, my preference would be for the latter in any case, as I prefer to see negative decimal values than Westings; and it would also facilitate copy & pasting of them as plain text.

Thank you. Andy Mabbett 09:24, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Well, everything except the <abbr> stuff can be done by simply editing the template itself, right? I'll look into generating the <abbr> tags soon. --Magnus Manske 10:42, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Yes. Do you mean to imply that I can do it? I'm not sure I know enough not to do damage (and shouldn't such a widely-used template be protected, anyway?) Andy Mabbett 11:09, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

I think it would be reasonable to just change the second table to negatives since the first one already shows westings. This doesn't appear to be a regular template though, since the parameters are in single braces like {latNS} so parserfunctions probably won't work correctly. Is this specially parsed by the geohack script? —Quarl ^(talk) 2007-03-27 11:12Z

No idea - perhaps someone else can answer, please? I'm also confused by the relationship between Template:GeoTemplate and GeoHack. Andy Mabbett 11:18, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

I found a much simpler way to apply GEO, so did. I'm still not clear about the relationship between Template:GeoTemplate and GeoHack, though! Andy Mabbett 10:58, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Request: List specific country resources first

Would it possible to modify the script, so that resources specific to the relevant country get returned first ?

ie if the co-ordinate reference is in Germany, show resources for Germany first; if the co-ordinates are in the UK, show resources for the UK first.

This would hugely increase the usefullness, IMO Jheald

[edit] Degree Confluence Project

What about linking to the nearest point on the Degree Confluence Project? Andy Mabbett 11:39, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

The following could give a link, but not necessarily to the nearest point:

http://www.confluence.org/confluence.php?lat={latdegint}&lon={londegint}

http://www.confluence.org/confluence.php?lat={latdegdec}&lon={londegdec}

You may want to add them. -- User:Docu

Thank you; I've added the former, I'm not sure why we'd also need the latter? It seems to me that there are actually four relevant confluences for any point (other than actual confluences, of course) - those to the NW, NE, SW and SE; or, for, say, 52-32N 2-52W, those at 53N3W, 53N2W, 52N3W, 52N2W. Can anyone do the clever stuff, to produce these? Thank you. Andy Mabbett 18:52, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] mapy.atlas.cz

I was trying to modify the template to add http://mapy.atlas.cz, which uses following format:

http://mapy.atlas.cz/?q=49%C2%B058%2708.07%22N%3B%2014%C2%B007%2759.40%22E

It should be something like:

http://mapy.atlas.cz/?q={latdegabs}°{latminint}′{latsecdec}″{latNS}; {londegabs}°{lonminint}′{lonsecdec}″{lonEW}

and at the end behind # something like @app=0 for map and @app=2 for aerial pictures. Could you please let me do the right modifications? Or you you make these modifications? Also some testing with scaling should be done. I think it is parameter @sidx=8

Please answer to cs:Wikipedista diskuse:Jx.

--EnJx 18:34, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Geo microformat - successfully applied

How does this look: [1] ? Andy Mabbett 10:21, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Useage

Do we have any stats, on how many pages (directly or via other templates) call this template ? Or how many times it is served in, say, a day or month? Andy Mabbett 10:32, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Geo button

I've restored the small "Geo" button (not "banner", a it was described in the edit summary) to the top of this page. Why was it removed? This isn't in the "article space", and the button serves a useful purpose in alerting users to the presence of the Geo microfromat. Andy Mabbett 10:43, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

It was removed as it has no relation to the place it's displayed. The space is generally used only for featured article tags, something that applies to the entire page rather than to an element somewhere further down. BTW the source site the button comes from calls it a "Microformat Banner". -- User:Docu

The Geo microformat applies to the whole page. I'm sure that, if and when this template becomes a featured article, there will be room for that tag. The source page, http://microformats.org/wiki/buttons, refers to it as a "button". The original location is http://rbach.priv.at/2006/buttons/geo.png. Wikipedia thinks it's a button not a banner. Andy Mabbett 13:55, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Someone just changed it on http://microformats.org/wiki?title=buttons&diff=next&oldid=15083 was that you? Besides, please avoid adding links to Wikipedia just to promote sites you participate in. If it applies to the page as a whole, you wouldn't have added once more further down. -- User:Docu

No, I changed a mistaken reference to a separate, and different, single button. "please avoid adding links to Wikipedia just to promote sites you participate in" Please avoid making false accusations. " If it applies to the page as a whole, you wouldn't have added once more further down" Given that it does; and that I did; you are clearly mistaken. Andy Mabbett 16:30, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Ok, I confused "promotion" and "advocacy" (you are the editor of http://microformats.org/wiki?title=advocacy&action=history after all).

As there is no consensus to add the logo here, I suppose we will have to remove them for now. -- User:Docu

OK: "please avoid adding links to Wikipedia just to advocate sites you participate in" Please avoid making false accusations. There is no consensus to remove them, either. I fail to see why you insist on making an issue of this. Andy Mabbett 18:13, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Too much spam. How about just having useful links to maps?

The purpose of this page is too provide useful maps given coordinates. Not to promote a mapping web site or project.

• Some mapping links to do not bring up a map for the coordinates. Both India map links merely bring up a website.
• We have "Geo microformat" links inserted in two places that brings up a poorly written article about a mapping project.
• Most of the mapping websites are frankly not that good. We have a twelve links to "Wikipedia-World" and it just brings up labels, no map.

I tried to remove the India and Geo microformat links and someone just plops them back in. I haven't tried to delete the weak entries like "Wikipedia-World", yet. If we want to allow promotion just put a section at the bottom called "Spam" and allow it there. --MarsRover 19:05, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

I dont see why the Indian maps links should be removed as both the sites contain very detailed maps of India which are quite rare to find. Unfortunately passing the coordinates are a bit complicate, ive tried using expressions and have also asked for help, but to no avail. Maybe someone in the future canwrite the proper code for it. Its still a map resource even if it doesnt directly take you to the location -- ^{PlaneMad|YakYak} 20:27, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

The India section needs to go further down as the sites doen't provide direct links (the main purpose of this page). Other mapping sites requiring manual input of the coordinates are listed there as well (Template:GeoTemplate#Map_sources_without_direct_links).

As there isn't much agreement on the addition of the geo button, I removed it.

Wikipedia-World has the advantage that it's a wikimedia hosted project and does in fact plot the labels according to the coordinates (one link per language) and lists Wikipedia articles about nearby locations, a feature (at least partially) included in Egil's GIS extension (if it were enabled). -- User:Docu

The Geo microformat is not a "mapping project". If you feel that the article is poorly written, at least say why you think so, if you can't improve it yourself. Andy Mabbett 22:14, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

I would have to agree that the Geo microformat article is not well written. To anyone not familiar with HTML, it would be completely meaningless. Missing are things like: What sort of intigration it provides with mapping software, how extensively and where it is currently used, what software/hardware supports the format, the fact that it is actually a draft specification, released by an un-named group, etc. The entire text description is only the first two lines, all the rest is HTML code implementations which normal people will scratch their heads at.

I also don't think that the microformat deserves a logo, especially at the top of the page - none of the other items in the list show logos, despite virtually all having an official logo. What makes the microformat special? A logo next to the link might be acceptable to most people, but the logo at the top of the page probably won't. --Ozhiker 23:20, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

I'll try to attend to the points you raise (for which: thank you), probably tomorrow. The difference between geo and the other links on the template which might have logos , is that the Geo microformat is "hidden" in the page; the button is intended to alert users to its presence. Andy Mabbett 23:44, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

I also think, that geo microformat logo is too much on top. (Even higher than "Discuss" and "Edit".) And it looks like simple banner, does it have any interesting function, except information "This page contains a Geo microformat"? I don't think so. (In this way we could have a button with "This page contains TITLE tag" or "This page contains BODY, DIV, SPAN...".) If I understand it well, then I guess that one day when browsers recognize DIV CLASS="geo" they will show automatically this button somewhere in statusbar or toolbar, so there is no need to put this image into the page.

Actually right now it reminds me buttons like "This page is (X)HTML valid". The (X)HTML is also hidden somewhere inside the page and BFU does'n care about it. But those valid-buttons are usually at the bottom of the page, not in the upper right corner.

-EnJx 00:07, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Foreign-language versions

I've found the German version of this template, and added the Geo microformat to it. Are there any versions in other languages? Andy Mabbett 14:47, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Canadian Link

I'd like to suggest adding a link to 'The Atlas of Canada' in the North American sources, epecially their topographic maps at:

http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/topo/map

These are searchable by latitude/longitude so should fit well in GeoHack. There are a wealth of other special topic maps available - all in all a wonderful source for information re: Canada. Thanks for GeoHack, its a useful tool that enhances Wikipedia tremendously! I just wish more articles had those little co-ordinate links in the top right-hand corner. Is there any sort of bot or editor that could do this or must it be done manually? Macadavy 04:33, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Geographical_coordinates and its talk page. Andy Mabbett 08:48, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Passing a name parameter

How can I pass a name parameter to GeoHack? In the way I can pass one to google maps ? e.g. http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=30.787419,31.821367&spn=0.3,0.3&q=30.787419,31.821367(Avaris)