Release Notes

Submitted by admin on Sun, 02/15/2009 - 12:49

Version 0.4 (23 April 2009)

The April monthly update has been delayed. It was deployed on 24th April 2009.

User interfaces have been improved. It has been simplified for the common user with advanced menus in the More... options. We have integrated flash components to allow a richer user interface. During this period we have also tried to make the portal code cleaner and modular.

The following are the list of features deployed with this release

  • Performance: deployed on physical host located in India, client side performance improvements to reduce client/server calls, use tiling for mapserver images
  • Automatic zoom: Enable automatic zoom-in for better usability
  • Data Upload: KML data upload functionality (beta quality)
  • Flash UI: Attractive flash UI for LayerSelector and LayerOrdering windows for better usability.
  • UI redesign: design changes in UI to simplify the interfaces.
  • Code re-organization: Separated core platform and applications(IBP, UAP) code, cleaned up database, UI and processing code for better maintainability

The following are the platform expansion activities during this release:

  • The India water portal has shown interest in using drupal and the map module as maplocate for its site. This will be a significant development in deploying an instance of the platform in true open source spirit. It will also help in maturing and generalizing the platform.
  • The code has been reorganized to make it more modular. The subversion repository has been reorganized so that we can release the source code as an open source project. It still needs to have packaging, build and deployment scripts worked out to release it as a usable open source project.
  • The Stockholm resilience center has contracted with the technology partners GSLAB for the development of the portal for the Urban Mapping project. This project will server maps of 12 cities of the world.
  • As a voluntary effort, a group of developers got together to try embed a light weight map component to an election information portal electionspot. The data for the portal was mined out of the election commission site and linked to the map.

Version 0.3 (04 March 2009)

The monthly update version of the portal was deployed on 2nd March 2009. This release comes in quick succession of the previous release. There are incremental changes to user interface. And two new features; "Download data" in various formats and "Get Map URL"; have been added. The following are the list of features deployed with this release
  • The home page has been separated from the map page and now launches in a separate tab.
  • User interfaces of the map pages, like icons, map pop-ups have been changed.
  • Code reorganization to progress towards an open source project. The platform code has now been separated form the user interfaces and the data layer.
  • MapLocator is the name of the platform for the generic map-based content management system integrating with Drupal.
  • Download data from certain layers in various public formats including kml, kml, shape, and txt files formats.
  • "Get Map URL" feature added. This allows a user to get the map URL with multiple layers turned on and with a specified zoom extent. The URL can be copied and pasted on any page so that it provides a link to the portal with the layers turned on.

Version 0.2 (16 February 2009)

The monthly update version of the portal was deployed on 16th February 2009. This release focused on improvements in user interfaces and deploying on-going improvements in the participation workflow and provide URLs for maps data on the portal, so that search engines can access the data list for better indexing and search hits. The following are the list of features deployed with this release
  • Home page is now more information rich, and the map page has been moved inside
  • Full screen map with a toolbar and text labels
  • Floating, resizable panels for selecting and ordering layers, legend and layer data
  • URL redirection to all layers to allow search site indexing by search engines.
  • Ability to extract information from other internet sites that maintain geocoded information and provide APIs to access geocded information. Currently photos and images from Flickr and Panoramio can be accessed from the site
  • Line layers can now be displayed along with features and popups have been enabled
  • Participation workflow improved
The following data additions and improvements have been done and deployed:
  • New BRT Vegetation Layer
  • New Mandla Drainage Layer
  • New Papagni Drainage Layer
  • Boundaries of all India polygon layers redone for better fit on base map

Version 0.11 (31 December 2008)

Critical and essential bugs were fixed in this patch deployed on 31st December 2008.
  • UI freeze sporadically. UI hangs sporadically with a "Please wait.." message, while doing some operations.
  • Layer name in the tree view flows to two lines when it becomes bold on selection.
  • Pop up of the highlighted feature on a layer stays on the map even when the layer is made inactive using "Layer Manager/Ordering".
  • Pop up doesn't get panned into the screen (close button remains hidden) when map is at minimum zoom level.
  • Legend of polygon layer shows only the Layer name on switching between "Search" and "Theme/Geography" tabs.
  • Tree view goes into inconsistent state on switching between "Themes" and "Geography" tab. A layer that is removed in one tab remains selected in the other tab.
  • Pop up doesn't show up for features on a polygon layer, when it is made active by removing another layer.
  • Pop up doesn't show up for features on "India Rainfall zone" layer.
  • Client screen resolutions above 1600 x 1200 pixels did not render polygon layers. This has been fixed.

Version 0.1 (15 December 2008)

The first version of the portal Version 0.1, was launched on 15th December 2008. This was the culmination of six months of development effort. Specifications for the portal platform was drawn up in May 2008 and development started in June 2008. Development was organized by the Agile method of software development with continuous integration and monthly deployments on a staging server. Simultaneously a team of GIS engineers started the data curation effort. And by November 2008, the platform with data were deployed on a test server. After testing, portal was officially launched to the public on December 2008. The salient features of the portal are:
  • Geographical visualization using Google maps
  • Ability to serve custom layers and overlay them on the base maps
  • Ability to query a feature and show details on the feature
  • Comprehensive user management
  • Integration with Drupal content management framework
  • First cut of participation framework with ability to manage user-generated content
The spread of data on the portal include the following:
  • A total of 93 maps curated and deployed on the portal.
  • Maps from 13 geographical zone curated and deployed on the portal
  • Thirty maps covering themes on the Indian sub-continent have been curated and deployed.
  • Initiated 6 participatory layers

this is some more guideline

Submitted by william583 on Fri, 10/23/2009 - 15:01.

this is some more guideline about the map making...well you really done a great job but i am just giving some more.. hope you like this. My goal is to create integrated maps, maps intended to be read alongside the text, highlighting important places mentioned in the article.
In general, integrated maps:
* Will work together with the accompanying article. The purpose of an integrated map is to provide context for placenames and other information in the article.
* Will be sharply defined and clear when viewed within the article. Too many maps in Wikipedia are shrunken 642-383 so small or drawn with so much detail that they cannot be read or understood from the article.
* Will have colors based on the semi-official ones at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Maps.
* Will not require a magnifying glass and maxi-zoom to read the details. 642-373 Like a Wikipedia article, a map can be improved by leaving out information/data.
* Will be easy to interpret.
While large comprehensive maps have their own encyclopedic uses, they do not work well as a guide to places and other information in the article -- editor will almost always reduce that map's size to the point where it requires the visitor to click to another screen just to read it. But then the map is divorced from the text and the visitor can no longer easily locate places. She will usually just give up rather than click-and-load back-and-forth. 646-230 An integrated map, on the other hard, can be read from the article itself. This allows the visitor, as she reads thru the text, to locate the various unfamiliar placenames on the map and then go back to reading with a quick eye movement

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