Map and location links

[frcroth]

This is a bit out there, but I think could be fun and useful. With #470 we have locations in minutes. We also have a lot of other locations in documents spread around myHPI.

Idea: Create a map of the campus (Inspiration https://github.com/hpi-swt2/compass-portal-blue, https://github.com/hpi-swt2/compass-portal-red). Add important locations, FSR-office, mensa, Studiref, etc. Then add the ability to create links to specific locations on this map. For example if a page is about some process and mentions "visit the Studiref...", add the ability to click on Studiref and instantly see it on the campus map.

The locations from minutes can then be adapted to use this as well.

[jeriox]

nice one. my first two thoughts on that:

• maybe OpenStreetMap is sufficient? this would remove the need to maintain a dataset
• CCC has really nice indoor maps and navigation (https://37c3.c3nav.de/), maybe one can re-use the tech from there

[dasGoogle]

Based of having a list of locations, names and links, this is pretty easy to build, i.e. using Leaflet.

OSM sounds like a good idea. If the information and detail there are not sufficient, one could also use this as an opportunity to improve their data.

What I do see as issues however are the following:

• How do we manage permissions here: Do we only show pages that are available to the user with their current permissions? This might be a bit weird if there then are more restricted pages and people see different content on their pages
• Is this a performance issue as with the main menu? Can we perform caching?
• How do we handle multiple pages that are closeby? Do we just show them?
• Do we allow anyone to add a location to a page or do we limit that, i.e., by only showing pages that are also a part of the main menu for the current user. Otherwise, I see that this might become kind of spammy (e.g., if all FSR minutes hat a meeting room as their location)
• We need an admin component for setting the location. This is a lot of pain if you don't have a map view there, trust me.
• How do we manage the content of the map. I mentioned above that taking the locations from pages would be an option, but we have a lot of 1:n relations there (i.e., a lot of printer locations). So, do we introduce an additional data type for locations? This might be quite some pain to keep updated.

[frcroth]

About permissions and all this: In my idea, the map is the same for everyone (and available to all students, if the map would be public we could argue if we need two different maps). It does not necessarily link to pages, unless there are relevant information pages (e.g. FSR-Büro links to fachschaftsrat/overview). The primary use case of the links is the other direction. Links on information pages (and also pages of any other permission level) can link to locations on the map. So no, I would not let the map be a menu of pages. It is primarily a new store of information that can be linked to.

I agree that a map view would be very beneficial for setting the locaiton.