I was always a big fan of the KML-overlays, even with its limited support (Google Earth only), but I have always seen the complicated KML creation process as a main draw-back. There are other issues with old KML-overlays:
· Wikimedia Commons does not understand the concept of file sub-page so those kml files always clog all kind of maintenance lists as broken files, files without license, files with no categories, etc.
· Affine coordinate transformation is also limiting
Map Warper seems like a good solution, but I think that we should retain as many solutions as possible. May be a field with links to several overlay links tools, like old kml-overlay (Google Earth), map-warper (own OSM), geo-polygon (Google Maps), etc. Any other tools out there I am missing?
Jarek T.
-----Original Message-----
From: maps-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:maps-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Tim Alder
Sent: Friday, June 21, 2013 4:56 AM
To: Map integration
Subject: Re: [Maps-l] Wikimaps: About the template for maps
Hello,
I wondering why the new template support the old KML-overlay.
The problems with our KML-solution from 2007 are that the user need special software (Google Earth) and that the solution supports only affine coordinate transformation. Especially for historical maps I believe we need more complex transformations especially for handling in inaccuracy. But we can use mapswraper also for geocoding aerial photos.
So the solution is much more flexible. It's also important that the interface is as simple as possible so there should be one click to come to an useful, selfexplaining application.
So perhaps I will use the day to modify the template.
But maps-wraper need some modification like I mention before.
*Uploading file from Commons over an URL parameter (!!) *replacing image ID number by image name from commons (!) *remove User-accounts or usage of O-Auth/OpenID to work with the Wikimedia-Account (!!)
I got from Susanna the question where to store the parameters:
At the beginning I though about Maps-wraper more as an external webservice so it would be necessary to store all parameters additionally in Commons. Now I understand we have maps-wraper inside our own environment (labs), so we have control over it and have different backups of the parameters. So now I believe it's could be more easily and more consistent to store the parameter only inside maps-wraper.
Later a bot can transfer the parameter perhaps to Commons/WikiDATA, but this is not necessary for the first hack.
With parameters I mean a list of matching points. Also if I know that for modern maps that are generated by users in a GIS-system, it would be nice to support GDAL <http://www.gdal.org/gdalwarp.html> for transformations. But I don't believe that maps-wraper support it.
Greetings Tim
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