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Open Canal Map


Amber34

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I did a search but can't see this has been posted already.

Someone far cleverer than me has created a google map of all canals and locks.

It can be opened on phone or desktop.  He is still adding other useful information to it, such as sanitary stations, and is asking those who use it to submit information for him to add.
 

Apparently you can add a shortcut on your home screen, but I've yet to master that skill :)  Link below for anyone interested

 

http://opencanalmap.uk/ 

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24 minutes ago, toms1 said:

Hi, I'm the author of Open Canal Map - It was build using Canal and River Trust Open Data but now you can all add places to the map - see the link below to add a palce to the map.

It's had a great response so far with over 4700 views and 57 user submitted places added to the map in just one week!

Go to http://opencanalmap.uk/ - to view the map and add local information...

 

phone.jpg

Thats a nice piece of work Tom's I attempted the same thing a long time ago before the open data was available from CRT, decided it was too much maintenance and abandoned it. 

I use an app called Locus Map Pro which has an open API have you considered something like incorporating the data you have into one, or indeed many, of these apps?

One route could be through an app add on or maybe addition to the originating source data.

An app add or two on could be a source of income to help you fund the Web site just a thought

My coding and data manipulation  skills are now so rusty, together with Anno Domini, that I wouldn't even attempt it myself. 

I am on a monthly data cap at the moment so I try not to use Google maps firstly because it's so slow and secondly because of data usage. 

If you are interested I could research the existing map apps for you. 

Again good luck with it

Edited by reg
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That's interesting - I'll have a look at the API's - I'm slightly cautious about making an app for it since that will mean a lot more maintenance, all the different versions of Android and iOS and quirks of different hardware. Nice thing about using Google Maps App to run it is I just have one place to keep the data up to date and I've got quite an easy system of getting it from the website into the maps - just takes 20 mins or so when I update it every few days. I'll probably have a go at making KML files for some other platforms in future. I use Alpine Quest for walking and have OS maps for it - would be nice to have this map as a layer in that one day.

But yea if you find anything that looks easy let me know :)

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44 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

The main problem I see is signal loss, unless its an offline map the data is unreachable at times whilst cruising

A very valid point and one I've been thinking about. 

There is an app called BRouter, which I use, which provides offline data for a number of host Android applications. Basically you use the app to download a large data file and the forget about it until you want to download update data. You then select BRouter as your offline source from within your host application in my case that is Locus Maps Pro. 

Details here 

http://brouter.de/brouter/

It's going to take me sometime to plough through the documentation but it looks promising. 

Another option is OpenStreetMaps

http://www.openstreetmap.org/help

May be other options available 

An ideal would be something like BRouter but for UK canals e.g OpenCanalMap.

Whilst I would be happy to have the data in BRouter it is a very large file. A standalone canal only file would be much smaller and therefore maybe of more use to more canal users with limited data capacity. The other advantage of a standalone product would be that it would be customised towards cabal related data. 

So my current main criteria is for 

Offline canal data for use in existing Android mapping apps

Smallish data footprint

Ease of maintenance. 

Not trying to step on Toms1 toes here but happy to do some research and investigation. I know from a Facebook thread he is on elsewhere that he appreciates user input. 

 

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Hi Reg,

I've managed to get a slightly wonky version of the map to view offline - I think I just need to embed the images into the KML file to make it look nice - I'll have a go at that sometime soonish.

It worked with Alpine Quest on my tablet - see screenshot below.

So follow the other screenshot to download the data then try it in your offline map viewer.

I also read somewhere that a free app called maps.me might be able to load kml files - but I didn't get that to work.

 

3 hours ago, reg said:

A very valid point and one I've been thinking about. 

There is an app called BRouter, which I use, which provides offline data for a number of host Android applications. Basically you use the app to download a large data file and the forget about it until you want to download update data. You then select BRouter as your offline source from within your host application in my case that is Locus Maps Pro. 

Details here 

http://brouter.de/brouter/

It's going to take me sometime to plough through the documentation but it looks promising. 

Another option is OpenStreetMaps

http://www.openstreetmap.org/help

May be other options available 

An ideal would be something like BRouter but for UK canals e.g OpenCanalMap.

Whilst I would be happy to have the data in BRouter it is a very large file. A standalone canal only file would be much smaller and therefore maybe of more use to more canal users with limited data capacity. The other advantage of a standalone product would be that it would be customised towards cabal related data. 

So my current main criteria is for 

Offline canal data for use in existing Android mapping apps

Smallish data footprint

Ease of maintenance. 

Not trying to step on Toms1 toes here but happy to do some research and investigation. I know from a Facebook thread he is on elsewhere that he appreciates user input. 

 

 

export.png

Screenshot_2017-08-08-19-06-47.png

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That looks good

I can't get at the data as it takes me to a https locked link.

I have tried the KLM export and import function on Locus maps pro and it works well. I will check to see if the function is available on the free vetsion

Also the following may explain why there are problems with the data in maps.me. doesn't surprise me as I think whilst maps. Me is excellent, I have a copy, considering it is both free and add free it understandably does not have the sophistication of the higher end apps. 

From maps.me site

Can I use my bookmarks/routes from other apps (like, Google Maps)?

You can import bookmarks and tracks in KML format. For example, from Google My Maps, Google Earth and other services which support KML format.

Note:

  • the app supports only two tags from KML – Point (pins) and LineString (tracks). Polygons (and some other features like custom icons, layers and so on) are not supported.
  • you can’t use imported tracks for navigation as we use our own algorithm of routing. But, you can enable auto-follow mode. In this mode you don’t need to do any manual map dragging, because your position is always on a screen. And you can see your track, and drive close to it.

ETA 

Just followed the import link in the above and it says you have to email the kml file to yourself and then open it with maps. Me. Or manually copy it to the apps folder. Seems a bit of a work around. 

https://support.maps.me/hc/en-us/articles/207895029

Edited by reg
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As I said I can't actually get at your source data. The test I did were with my own little file. 

If I can get it I'll test it out for you

I believe it's just a straight import function from the locus menu. I'll check it out tonight. 

Eta

Just had a look and it works with kmz files (kml zipped) so that is useful. 

Edited by reg
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Just another though I know another user on here uses the OsmAnd app. I'll pm him and see if he is willing to test it out on that. 

If anyone uses OrxMaps and could test it on that then that would be useful. 

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Looks good 

my son for the fun off it has started to make an app for the iPhone for the Gloucester Sharpness Canal. I don't understand a single thing he is doing it's beyond me. Think he is going to submit it soon to Apple. 

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OK TOM have now loaded it into Locus Maps Pro(I'll refer to it as LMP) 

Very straight forward process in Locus just need to download the data file and then use the import feature from the Locus Map menu. 

Should also work with the free version of Locus maps although I haven't tried it. 

Some issues with it as it stands the main ones being

Data file is 10mb, not an issue as such but the whole data file loads when Locus Maps starts up this considerably slows down the startup process. 

Data information a bit confusing in that it displays meaningless distance information I. E meaningless in terms of the LMP. 

These just need a bit of playing around with, which I intend to do. May take a bit of time though

Overall a good starting point. 

Edited by reg
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MAPS. MED=DOESN'T WORK

As expected doesn't work well with MAPS. ME all data points are there but MAPS.ME draws many extra straight lines 

Suspect it's due to this info from the site

"you can’t use imported tracks for navigation as we use our own algorithm of routing"

So current status

Locus Maps Pro = WORKS (with reservations given in earlier post) 

MAPS. MED=DOESN'T WORK

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O. K. TOM

Got it Working well with Locus Maps Pro (Should work with free version as well if someone wants to try it) 

Initially it loads with ALL 266 canals(stored as Tracks )  and points I. E locks, winding holes, tunnels etc of which there are 2992 points. this makes it very slow the first time you load it. However once it has been loaded you can switch of tracks(canals) and points (locks etc) 

I have mine set to show all 2992 points

I then set my All my  Tracks(canals) to not show, once this was done I switched on the tracks I wanted to show, effectively as each track is a named canal I can switch on any canal or combination of canals I want to display. 

Summary

CANALS are stored as TRACKS

TUNNELS are stored as TRACKS (Presumably due to the length) 

Everything else is stored as POINTS (Locks, bridges, aqueducts, winding holes etc) 

TRACKS (CANALS and TUNNELS) can be turned on and off individually  or in groups

POINTS can be turned on and off. Their is no major overhead in turning all POINTS on so this is what I have done (easy to hide all at once if you want to). 

Will do a write up for you at some point bit difficult in android so need to resurrect my laptop, not sure when that will be. 

 

 

 

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Hi Reg,

Thanks for all the good work :) - I've just tried it in Google Earth - I exported as .kmz file this time - leave the 2 checkboxes unticked in the export. It saved all the icons and the styling I'd set in Maps. I wonder if we can find something that loads the kmz file then we've got all the nice styling in the map.

 

levels.jpg

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1 hour ago, toms1 said:

Hi Reg,

Thanks for all the good work :) - I've just tried it in Google Earth - I exported as .kmz file this time - leave the 2 checkboxes unticked in the export. It saved all the icons and the styling I'd set in Maps. I wonder if we can find something that loads the kmz file then we've got all the nice styling in the map.

 

levels.jpg

That looks impressive. Well worth pursuing. 

I have limited data left for the month so will concentrate on Locus Maps Pro as I can do a lot of that offline. 

Also have removed Google maps as I only have 2g left on my tablet due to a lot of offline map data. 

Are you able to tidy up the data before creating a Kmz file?

Reason I ask is because there is some extraneous and confusing info in the point derail as it stands e.g. Has a lot of distance info that isn't relevant I. E it has become static data and hence meaningless. Not a priority after all you set the priorities not me. 

Can let you know at some point how the ideal data could be presented but I need to research in depth how Locus Pro handles the point info. 

 

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On 08/08/2017 at 13:54, Hudds Lad said:

The main problem I see is signal loss, unless its an offline map the data is unreachable at times whilst cruising

Just to say that that is the bit I'm working on.

Tom's doing the hard work and I'm looking at putting it into offline maps.

The screen shots above were both from offline maps. 

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Cheers Reg - it looks great. I've tried it with AlpineQuest but that doesn't like the kmz file :(

So I guess so far the options for offline viewing are Locus Maps or Google Earth. Should mention as well that as long as you've loaded the area into Google Maps it will stay in the cache when you go out of reception - but Locus Maps would be the better solution for someone with no data contract.

I'll check out the Locus Maps Free over the weekend and post something on the website if that works.

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