Mapfolio

A Node.js-Angular.js project that makes Salesforce.com mappable.

Overview

The Red Cross is using an instance of Salesforce.com (called ECOS) to store Project and Disaster Response information throughout the organization. Projects and Disasters in ECOS are assigned a unique identifier that ties each project or disaster to an administrative boundary (from GADM). A nightly Extract, Transform and Load operation (ETL) connects to the Salesforce.com API and pulls down the latest information in the ECOS System. The data is routed to a PostgreSQL/PostGIS instance that has corresponding GADM geometry. Through some preprocessing and other trickery, the data is massaged into a format that is well suited for map display.

Main Components

There are 4 main components that make up the Mapfolio project:

Spatial Server (Node.js API and app host)

Spatial Server is the NodeJS Server that acts as the API from which the web application consumes data. This consumes data from the PostGIS database. This is currently a read-only tool.

SpatialServer UI.

Specific SQL queries to perform the logic we need is done by creating an SQL view. This view in turn automatically becomes an endpoint in Spatial Server. Spatial Server also hosts the GeoAngular web app as static files.

More About the Red Cross Spatial Server Instance

GeoAngular (Angular.js Web App)

This is the front-end JavaScript application that utilizes AngularJS, Leaflet, and Bootstrap.

GeoAngular UI.

The core feature of the architecture in GeoAngular is the use of AngularJS' ngRouter to reflect all states of the application--both the map as well as the stories and other applicable views.

More About the Red Cross GeoAngular/Mapfolio App

ETL (Node.js SalesForce ETL)

This is our custum ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) tool that consumes data from Salesforce and inserts it into our PostGIS database.

ETL console output.

The basic idea behind this tool is that we have a set of queries that gets us all of what we need from Salesforce. These queries in turn have their own table in PostGIS. These are referred to as "Query Tables." All of the tables created and updated by Succubus have the prefix sf_ in the PostGIS database.

More About the Red Cross ETL

Vector Tiles

Version 2.0 of Mapfolio uses Mapbox Vector Tiles on top of Leaflet for global boundary rendering. To find out more about making and hosting these vector tiles, read this. More about styling vector tiles in the Leaflet.MapboxVectorTile plugin here.