Jonah Adkins jonahadkins

Suggestions from Twitter for more "elegant" web mapping applications

Specifically I'm looking for web mapping applications that include multiple layers and don't look like an ArcGIS clone -- perhaps something that looks like it was designed by a designer rather than a GIS tech :) This is a list of responses from Twitter, many of which do look GIS-y so more suggestions are welcome...

General information about setting up a developer environment on a mac

With a Homebrewed Python installation, tips from NPR news apps team: http://blog.apps.npr.org/2013/06/06/how-to-setup-a-developers-environment.html
Hitchhiker's guide to Python (mac): http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/starting/install3/osx/#install3-osx
https://hackercodex.com/guide/mac-development-configuration/
https://hackercodex.com/guide/python-development-environment-on-mac-osx/
python 2/3, virtuanlenv, virtualenvwrapper: http://www.marinamele.com/2014/07/install-python3-on-mac-os-x-and-use-virtualenv-and-virtualenvwrapper.html
setting up virtualenvwrapper in you bash_profile: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23997403/installed-virtualenv-and-virtualenvwrapper-python-says-no-module-named-virtuale
KyngChaos installers for geo: http://www.kyngchaos.com/
Anaconda for data science: https://www.continuum.io/downloads

ddp_export.py

The purpose of this script is to bulk export data driven pages from ArcGIS. It generates output as JPG and/or PDF based on user input. This by inspired by an answer [the question about exporting data driven pages on GIS Stack Exchage] (http://gis.stackexchange.com/a/67520/27257).

To run this script:

Open up cmd.exe (Command Prompt)
Copy the location of where this script is located
In the command prompt navigate to the directory containing this script: cd <path to directory>
In the command prompt run the script: python ddp_export.py
Follow the instructions.

Creating coastal vignettes for web mapping.

Summary

To start with I downloaded Natural Earth 1:50m land shapefile. This was then reprojected to Web Mercator / EPSG:3857. I ran a series of buffers on the reprojected shapefile within QGIS. These were then combined, exported to Mapbox and styled. The final map turned out like this:

View the full web map on Mapbox.

MapRoulette Challenge Tutorial (ßeta)

This tutorial is for MapRoulette 1 which is no longer active. Please see the MapRoulette 2 wiki for up to date documentation.

You have played MapRoulette. You have seen some of the fun challenges. If you are reading this, you are probably thinking: 'I have a great idea for the next MapRoulette challenge!'

Great! That is exactly what I am here to explain step by step. So let's get started!

Getting Started

I recently made my first map with MapBox's new WebGL+JavaScript API. There aren't many examples of how to do this yet, even on MapBox's API page, so I'll document my own experience here.

The Van Gogh Map

My map is made of several textures taken from Van Gogh paintings. The long-term goal is to allow a user to select which artworks they want to take textures from, but for now there is just one setting.

Why are we changing maps?

tmux shortcuts & cheatsheet

start new:

tmux

start new with session name:

tmux new -s myname

	# Data courtesy of Zillow, attribution required: https://www.zillow.com/howto/api/neighborhood-boundaries.htm
	# Requires GDAL/OGR: http://www.gdal.org/

	STATES=("AL" "AK" "AZ" "AR" "CA" "CO" "CT" "DC" "DE" "FL" "GA" "HI" "ID" "IL" "IN" "IA" "KS" "KY" "LA" "ME" "MD" "MA" "MI" "MN" "MS" "MO" "MT" "NE" "NV" "NH" "NJ" "NM" "NY" "NC" "ND" "OH" "OK" "OR" "PA" "RI" "SC" "SD" "TN" "TX" "UT" "VT" "VA" "WA" "WV" "WI")
	rm -rf zillow_neighborhoods.*

	for s in "${STATES[@]}"; do
	echo "Processing $s"
	wget -c https://www.zillowstatic.com/static/shp/ZillowNeighborhoods-$s.zip -O $s.zip
	unzip $s.zip

	========================================== ==========================================
	TMUX COMMAND WINDOW (TAB)
	========================================== ==========================================

	List tmux ls List ^b w
	New new -s <session> Create ^b c
	Attach att -t <session> Rename ^b , <name>
	Rename rename-session -t <old> <new> Last ^b l (lower-L)
	Kill kill-session -t <session> Close ^b &