Collaboration of open source maps apps

[jancborchardt]

We have a boatload of people interested in creating an open, better maps experience. Now we need to collaborate to make sure it works across systems and not only work in our own small world. We need to make it seamless for people to have their search history, favorite places, routes etc. on all their different devices.

@houqp and @eMerzh want to work on an ownCloud Maps app. We exchanged some ideas already and @houqp pushed a basic prototype the other day. I’ll oversee the design. As a start it should be very simple, full-content map with no sidebar, search field and any elements slightly transparent over the map. See the new Google Maps or GNOME Maps. Also cc @owncloud/designers

@moonlite is working on GNOME Maps as GSoC student with mentor @zeenix. ownCloud is already in GNOME Online Accounts – Mattias, can you ping Debarshi about integration of Maps with that?

@AndreiDuma and @utkuaydin work on synchronization of KDE’s Marble maps app with ownCloud, their mentor is @Earthwings. Since that seems to include an ownCloud app, we need to collaborate here especially to create a proper »Maps« app and not just a »Marble« app.

Also cc @zimba12 and @Raydiation because they participated in the mailing list thread.

[Earthwings]

The main purpose of the Marble owncloud app is to be the synchronization backend for Marble clients (Desktop and mobile applications) which accepts KML files for various file types (routes, bookmarks, tracks, possibly more in the future). Its web user interface has the ability to visualize the KML files with only limited editing capabilities (see http://nienhueser.de/marble/owncloud.png for a current screenshot). We can try to extend that wrt. some collaboration with a maps app focusing more on content creation after GSoC.

[jancborchardt]

For the ownCloud Maps app at least (and what I talked to @moonlite about on GNOME Maps), we want to focus on use cases which people use Google Maps for right now. Which is having a map, searching for places and POIs, looking for restaurants, marking favorite places, and routing. I think editing capabilities are way out of scope for now.

[Earthwings]

When saying editing capabilities above I meant the KML files -- like changing bookmarks, adding via points to a route and so on.

Where's the map data located in the planned owncloud maps app? Will it be shipped with the app? If the plan is to aggregate online services only I kind of fail to see the point of putting it inside owncloud. Could be some public website as well.

[j-ed]

https://github.com/moonlite about on GNOME Maps), we want to focus on use cases which people use Google Maps for right now. Which is having a map, searching for places and POIs, looking for restaurants, marking favorite places, and routing. I think editing capabilities are way out of scope for now.

Wouldn't it be a good idea to use OpenStreetMap (http://www.openstreetmap.org/) as reference or at least as an option. From my point of view information is very often more detailed than at Google maps.

[houqp]

@jancborchardt , thanks a lot for taking care of this :)

@j-ed, what do you mean by using OpenStreetMap? We are only using the tiles from fit.

@Earthwings , so we are on the same page. the maps app also focuses on simple operations for now. i.e. bookmarks editing, route editing and searches. I guess the main difference is maps app aims to provide interfaces for data synchronization between multiple map clients (marble, gnome maps, etc)

Currently the code I pushed to the repo only have frontend code, all the data are mocked in javascript. I haven't started working on the backend yet because I am waiting for input from everyone else.

What I am thinking now is to store data in a custom db schema and export to different formats (KML, geojson) on request. What do you guys think about that? @eMerzh, any thoughts?

@moonlite, what format does gnome maps uses to store data? does it already have a data synchronization protocol now?

BTW, @Earthwings , @AndreiDuma, I looked a little bit into the owncloud marble app, seems that currently it only stores routes?

[mattiasb]

On tis, 2013-08-06 at 00:59 -0700, {Qingping,Dave} Hou wrote:

@moonlite, what format does gnome maps uses to store data? does it already have a data synchronization protocol now?

We don't have anything like that right now. I'm busy with my GSoC right now but we have been talking about adding some way to save favorite places and routes in the future and that would be perfect simple things to sync with OwnCloud.

[Earthwings]

@houqp Bookmarks and track storage as well as viewing will be part of the Marble owncloud app soon. Parts of that are already implemented.

[jancborchardt]

@Earthwings and exactly for that reason I’d like the Maps and Marble apps to work together, or rather merge. They are both maps apps, and having a specific gated »Marble« app is not really valuable for many people. If the Maps app is polished, it will most probably be shipped with the ownCloud release, unlike a special app for only Marble.

[houqp]

@moonlite , cool, so have you decided what format will be used to store the data?

@Earthwings , do you have design document for the marble app right now? Or I will take sometime to read through the code. will be great if two apps can be merged together.

[mattiasb]

No idea yet, but syncing with owncloud can be done regardless of our internal storage format :-)

[Earthwings]

@houqp We have API documentation, @AndreiDuma can you publish it?

[AndreiDuma]

@houqp We store and sync bookmarks too.

Here's the API scheme: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AQ9KyDkfZQKzzh9T5Y8frurbA5rCxMp3FrJPNYXvhQA/edit?usp=sharing

[houqp]

thanks @AndreiDuma and @Earthwings for the information.

I will use this repo's wiki for design documentation and will let's you guys know when I have the daft done.

[MoriTanosuke]

I created a simple App a couple of days ago to display GPX files inside of owncloud, maybe you can get some info out of it: http://forum.owncloud.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=14135&p=36535#p36535 It's based on LeafletJS to display the map and a plugin for that JS framework.

[jancborchardt]

@brantje since you’re the new developer of ownCloud Maps, check this issue out. :)

[jancborchardt]

cc @jonasdn from GNOME Maps as well :)

[jancborchardt]

@jonasdn I opened an issue in the gnome-maps tracker about integration and which elements we could sync: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=753406 cc @brantje :)

[jancborchardt]

cc @DJaeger and @Henni as well to fill you in on this.

A little update: @jonasdn (of GNOME Maps) and I talked at GUADEC (the GNOME conference). We want to do a GNOME+ownCloud joint proposal for next year’s Google Summer of Code on syncing the Maps apps: https://wiki.gnome.org/Outreach/SummerOfCode/2016/Ideas#Untriaged_Ideas – see »Synchronize GNOME Maps With ownCloud« :)

[zeenix]

Wow, I only saw these messages now. :)

[DJaeger]

@jancborchardt: Has that to be approved by the Gnome project? Should the integration of Gnome Accounts into Gnome Maps (or reversed?) be part of the GSoC proposal or is it only a dependency for it?

[jancborchardt]

@DJaeger see the link I posted in my previous comment – it’s already a proposal. :)