(FR) possibility of geographical grouping (clustering) — just like gpsvisualizer.com

[zWhdmB5T]

(FR) possibility of geographical grouping (clustering) — just like gpsvisualizer.com

Dear all,

right now, it's already possible to switch on/off the groups of marker/line.

Please, cf:

Now, I would like to have the possibility of geographical grouping (clustering) — just like gpsvisualizer.com offers it. This is very useful when you have major clusters of items in different regions of map (or maybe clusters of items related to different categories).

Please, cf:

(Note: the maps posted are not ready for production, they are just proof of concept to illustrate this issue. — But we would like to turn the facilmap into ready for production state.)

Thank you for any help!

[cdauth]

Could you explain the purpose of this? What is the advantage of only showing the markers around a certain area? And how does this work in GPS Visualizer? Do you configure the clusters by hand, or does it generate them for you?

[zWhdmB5T]

@cdauth Thank you for your interest! Sure, I can serve with some details…

The function as well as purpose is quite obvious when you look at the corresponding screenshots. I grouped them for 1) facilmap and 2) gpsvisualizer. I did highlight what is temporarily switched on, thus visible, by green — or switched off, thus invisible, by red.

At 1) facilmap you can just switch on/off marker/line completely — but not clustered. At 2) gpsvisualizer there are offered so far marker only — but you can cluster them, most probably for different areas of map (to not get overwhelmed) or (if you like) for special specific categories (if you likely have "definded" some…). In the examples above there are 2 clusters: one cluster for the area of "the city of Uelzen" and one cluster for "the rural commune of Aue" (south of Uelzen).

I can serve you with a much more detailed map (which is in ready for production state!): https://www.gpsvisualizer.com/atlas/map?url=https%3A//docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1h1xRbTdH_3BAlOasuZT1_7Gd3XbJNjjncGzfM6eynWs/edit%3Fusp%3Dsharing&mc=1&tl=1&wl=1&tw=30&to=0.5 . There, you currently have a total of 8(!) clusters. Some do geographically overlap, some are geographically clearly delimited. They correspond to specific rural or municipal communes… or sphere of influence due to local bike club.

Editing 1) facilmapis much(!) easier than 2) gpsvisualizer! 1) is just Point 'n Click… and that's easy like that. But 2) is a mess: you have to maintain a specific spreadsheet with all the details. Filling in details is not of nice and pragmatic UI/UX. For the clusters, you use an attribute.

Our (specific) purpose: we (local bike club) want to use 1) facilmap more likely over to 2) gpsvisualizer for its clear and nice UI/UX. Thank you so far for that product and service! We want to offer a map of peril points for the whole "county of Uelzen" (not just "city of Uelzen"). Using a) marker and b) lineis very nice and useful to denote a) specific single peril points (marker) or b) a whole street of houses (line). But we want to do it for the county! My wish/request would be clustering for different geographical areas (like "town of Uelzen" and "rural commune of Aue" currently), i.e. different areas of the county.

[cdauth]

If I understand your map correctly, you are manually specifying the cluster in the “folder” column of the spreadsheet that is the data source of your map.

If it would be sufficient for you to keep manually specifying the cluster for each marker, rather than having it automatically detected, one way to achieve that would be to add a dropdown field for your marker type where you can select the cluster for each marker. Currently, dropdown fields are shown in the legend if they have the “Control marker colour/icon/shape” setting enabled. Assuming that you don’t want different marker styles for different clusters, as a workaround for now you could for example enable the “Control marker shape” option for the dropdown but specify the same shape for each option. Unfortunately, this means that the marker shape will be fixed for all markers and cannot be changed.

I have some ideas how I could make this use case easier for you:

• I could add a checkbox to the dropdown settings where you can manually enable the dropdown to be displayed in the legend, regardless of whether it controls the marker style. This would be quite easy to implement.
• I could introduce a way to add custom items with custom filter expressions to the legend. This would be more difficult to implement.

What do you think?

[zWhdmB5T]

If it would be sufficient for you to keep manually specifying the cluster for each marker, rather than having it automatically detected, one way to achieve that would be to add a dropdown field for your marker type where you can select the cluster for each marker.

I don't really get what you mean by "automatically detected" — but we rather would be fine to be able to manually set it…
…if it's done by good UI/UX. — Please, see below for my examples where I introduced a further data field named Category with values Stadtwald and Hansestadt, so far, currently.

Currently, dropdown fields are shown in the legend if they have the “Control marker colour/icon/shape” setting enabled.

I don't find this! Can you, please, provide a screenshot showing details/workflow.

I have some ideas how I could make this use case easier for you:

I could add a checkbox to the dropdown settings where you can manually enable the dropdown to be displayed in the legend, regardless of whether it controls the marker style. This would be quite easy to implement.

I could introduce a way to add custom items with custom filter expressions to the legend. This would be more difficult to implement.

Continuing with my work-around mentioned above: I use data field Category, please see above. And currently, I use Filters, please see below. But the UI/UX for using Filters for this purpose is not nice and pragmatic. (And I don't find your dropdown as mentioned…)

data field Category

Filters: (data.Category)=="Stadtwald"

Filters: (data.Category)=="Hansestadt"

Conclusion

So, if this work-around/workflow I have shown above would be more accessible (better UI/UX) I would be satisfied and fine. I like the data fields you can add and the Filters you can use — I just found out recent moment that there actually is Filters…!

Additional note, i.e. potential bug

Editing line settings in order to add data fields (like Category in this case) is NOT possible for me.

[zWhdmB5T]

Generally speaking: thank you for your project, product, service, any efforts. So far I rather like it, missing just a few.

[cdauth]

I don't really get what you mean by "automatically detected" — but we rather would be fine to be able to manually set it…
…if it's done by good UI/UX. — Please, see below for my examples where I introduced a further data field named Category with values Stadtwald and Hansestadt, so far, currently.

What I mean by “automatically detected” would be that the software assigns each marker to a cluster, so you don’t have to do it by hand. Either you would specify an area for each cluster (and the software would detect whether a marker is in one of the cluster areas) or the software would even create clusters by itself. That would be much more complicated to implement and would probably also lead to a very complex UI.

Currently, dropdown fields are shown in the legend if they have the “Control marker colour/icon/shape” setting enabled.

I don't find this! Can you, please, provide a screenshot showing details/workflow.

If you choose the dropdown field type for your category field (which is probably more suitable than a free-text field anyways), you can click the “Edit” button to edit the dropdown items. There on the top there is the option to make the dropdown items control the style of the marker.

[zWhdmB5T]

What I mean by “automatically detected” would be that the software assigns each marker to a cluster, so you don’t have to do it by hand. Either you would specify an area for each cluster (and the software would detect whether a marker is in one of the cluster areas) or the software would even create clusters by itself. That would be much more complicated to implement and would probably also lead to a very complex UI.

Oh, OK. No, no need for that! Please, do not hastily work on it. This does NOT really fit our needs. — It's much better to use

• Category field of type Dropdown
• or Category field of type Text of single line
  This DOES fit us!
  A detailed legend already works for: Category field of type Dropdown.
  I would be happy (but don't fully depend on) if also works in legend: Category field of type Single line text`.

Please, have a look at my adapted example: https://facilmap.org/ADFC-UE_Lesen_ZaDMznAceCsl#q=v3038

Thank you for our conversation! There is probably not so much to add. I now have a much better understanding of the already implemented functions. Sorry for any humble or dumb questions before. But for me, getting this out of the ready-to-use product hasn't been obvious or intuitive, before. Sorry, again.

[cdauth]

I have added an option to the settings of dropdown/checkbox fields that allows to explicitly show this field in the legend, even if it doesn’t control the marker/line style. I feel like this feature still needs some improvements (it’s a bit confusing that there are now legend items that don’t contain any style information), but for now I don’t have any concrete ideas, and at least it provides the necessary functionality.

I have also fixed the bug that the edit type item in the “Change type” dropdown didn’t work. This bug was only present for line types, not for marker types, and thus I did not notice it.

For you map be advised that I am planning to make some changes to how images are handled in the near future, tracked in #123:

• I will probably set a maximum width on the images so that you don’t have to scroll horizontally. Clicking the image should then open it full size.
• There will be an option to upload images for markers and lines, so that you don’t have to embed them from an external source anymore.

I hope your use case is possible in an acceptable way now. Let me know if you have any ideas for other improvements!

[zWhdmB5T]

@cdauth Thank you! Right now, I am rather satisfied! I am fine with! Thank you for your help and efforts! Very appreciated!