Status of Travel Mapping

[oscar]

I can't be of much help on the "front end", since I never got beyond simple HTML (many generations ago) for my own rather basic websites, let alone anything like PHP or even JavaScript.

As soon as I get GitHub access to the project (my GitHub username is ovoss -- Jim, did you get my e-mailed request for access?) and can figure out how to use GitHub and our repository structure, I'll start with minor updates to existing route files that won't break anyone's route files. More significant changes can follow, once we have something like an Updates page to notify users of those changes. Separately, I'll also start on a new instruction manual, with drafts put out for comments in simple HTML and parked on one of my own webspaces, though once it's ready for prime time I would need some help translating it to a more modern format working better with the rest of Travel Mapping.

[sammi]

I'm still hoping that others will take the lead on the web front end, as the time I can put into the project is going to me much more limited than it was during the initial implementation push.  For now, I should be able to throw together a page that will at least let people get to the new draft HB in an easier way and without knowing the wpt file names, as well as a way to get to the Google Maps overlay mapping without having to know all of the region/system codes and an obscure URL.  Slight chance this weekend, better chance in about a week.  I could pretty easily put together a static page based on current data, but it would make more sense to use PHP and get all of the info right from the DB.

I'd like to work on the web frontend (I did already put some work in on the waypoint editor and part of the front page), although I have so many projects I want to work on. I'll try to get some of this stuff done though.

[Jim]

Highway updates are now pulled into the DB from the updates.csv file.  There's also a very simple (but complete) page that displays all updates in a big HTML table:

http://www.teresco.org/~terescoj/travelmapping/devel/updates.php

As with CHM, I expect this list would only have new routes and systems, and other changes that would potentially affect an existing .list file.  This would include extensions, truncations, deletions, renamings of routes or points.  If we recenter a point or relabel a point no one is using, for example, no updates entry would be needed.

[yakra]

Date;Region;Route;Description. (Still semicolon-separated, right?) Looks pretty self-explanatory in format.
How is it used & implemented?
(One of these days I'm gonna hop on board the GitHub train...)

[Jim]

Date;Region;Route;Description. (Still semicolon-separated, right?) Looks pretty self-explanatory in format.
How is it used & implemented?

Simple enough: just add entries to the file as you make newsworthy changes.  Next update, they'll be used in DB population.

(One of these days I'm gonna hop on board the GitHub train...)

Good news on that: I'm working right now on a project-specific document that's aimed at those who will be contributing to the highway data updates to outline how to use GitHub to do all of this.  Hope to have something to post tonight, but we'll see.

[Duke87]

Something seems to have gotten seriously garbled. I'm noticing all of a sudden in region maps stuff is showing as clinched that I never marked and not clinched that I have. At least for NY and RI.

[Jim]

Something seems to have gotten seriously garbled. I'm noticing all of a sudden in region maps stuff is showing as clinched that I never marked and not clinched that I have. At least for NY and RI.

Could you give me some specific examples to investigate?  My own maps look OK.

[SD Mapman]

Yeah, and the index page won't work for me. Is there something I'm supposed to do that I don't see?

[Jim]

Yeah, and the index page won't work for me. Is there something I'm supposed to do that I don't see?

You mean at http://www.teresco.org/~terescoj/travelmapping/ ?

That's only experimental, and doesn't do anything useful yet.  It's just my place to see about populating menus and creating links from the DB.  For now, you still need to enter the URLs manually to get to your maps for a given region or set of systems, or your log file with errors and stats.

[Jim]

I just ran an update with a whole bunch of Europe changes from Si now incorporated.  My own maps and stats look fine, and please let me know if you see problems.

[michih]

I just ran an update with a whole bunch of Europe changes from Si now incorporated.  My own maps and stats look fine, and please let me know if you see problems.

How to figure out what's the shortcut of a new route, for instance: 15-07-24   Switzerland   A4 (Thayngen)   New Route 

[Jim]

I just ran an update with a whole bunch of Europe changes from Si now incorporated.  My own maps and stats look fine, and please let me know if you see problems.

How to figure out what's the shortcut of a new route, for instance: 15-07-24   Switzerland   A4 (Thayngen)   New Route 

This is certainly not a long-term solution, but at the moment, one way to find them is to look in the .csv files in https://github.com/TravelMapping/HighwayData/tree/master/hwy_data/_systems

As the project matures, I am expecting we'll develop a usable highway browser with at least as much functionality as the old one from the CHM project.

A short term thing we could do is require the route be specified in the updates.csv file using the "root" name like "ma.i091".  Since those are unique, I could then look up other information about the route from the DB to be displayed in the updates page on the web.

A medium term thing would be that once the above entry is there and loaded into the DB, each entry in the updates table could be a link to the draft HB view of that route.

[english si]

A short term thing we could do is require the route be specified in the updates.csv file using the "root" name like "ma.i091".  Since those are unique, I could then look up other information about the route from the DB to be displayed in the updates page on the web.

A medium term thing would be that once the above entry is there and loaded into the DB, each entry in the updates table could be a link to the draft HB view of that route.

Both of these sound good. The latter is something I've wanted for ages. I will update (in a fork) the updates.csv file with routes for non-deleted files later today.

michih - che.a004tha

[yakra]

Simple enough: just add entries to the file as you make newsworthy changes.  Next update, they'll be used in DB population.

So, it's one master file rather than a small one detailing the changes in my own individual update.
Do I want to take care to add entries alphabetically, or does updates.php sort it automatically?

[Jim]

Simple enough: just add entries to the file as you make newsworthy changes.  Next update, they'll be used in DB population.

So, it's one master file rather than a small one detailing the changes in my own individual update.
Do I want to take care to add entries alphabetically, or does updates.php sort it automatically?

I'd just make edits at the end. We can sort by things other than date with PHP later.

[michih]

I just ran an update with a whole bunch of Europe changes from Si now incorporated.  My own maps and stats look fine, and please let me know if you see problems.

How to figure out what's the shortcut of a new route, for instance: 15-07-24   Switzerland   A4 (Thayngen)   New Route 

This is certainly not a long-term solution, but at the moment, one way to find them is to look in the .csv files in https://github.com/TravelMapping/HighwayData/tree/master/hwy_data/_systems

That's perfect

michih - che.a004tha

In combination, I get the data I need 

[Jim]

The updates.php page now has links to highway browser pages using the new "root" fields Si added today.  Enjoy.

[Jim]

I got on a bit of a roll, and this was more fun than the things I should be doing/working on...

I enhanced my draft highway browser tonight.  Main items, some more interesting than others:

• New URL: http://www.teresco.org/~terescoj/travelmapping/devel/hb.php
• If you don't give it any parameters, instead of a blank page with an empty map, it gives a crude but complete table showing all of the routes in the system, with a link to the highway browser for each in the last column.
• The PHP code has been updated to use a more modern and apparently more secure interface to mysql.
• You can still provide parameters directly if you already know your route's "root", so http://www.teresco.org/~terescoj/travelmapping/devel/hb.php?r=ny.ny103 will still take you directly to the excitement that is NY 103.
• You can still tack on a u= parameter to get clinched segments shaded for a given user, such as http://www.teresco.org/~terescoj/travelmapping/devel/hb.php?r=ny.ny028&u=terescoj

The main good news is that there's at least a way now that the end user can figure out what routes we have and what the waypoint names are for those routes.

Of course, it's ugly and that's a huge table.  Eventually I'd make it easier to select by various criteria like in the CHM HB, but I also wouldn't be upset if someone else beats me to it.  The code for this as I've implemented so far will be in GitHub shortly.

[mapcat]

Nice work, Jim!

Couple questions:

Would it be possible to set it up so that if I add ?u=mapcat (or something similar) to the end of http://www.teresco.org/~terescoj/travelmapping/devel/hb.php, it will automatically add that string to the url of whatever route I select?  IOW, if I click on ak.ia001, it would direct me to http://www.teresco.org/~terescoj/travelmapping/devel/hb.php?r=ak.ia001&u=mapcat instead of just http://www.teresco.org/~terescoj/travelmapping/devel/hb.php?r=ak.ia001.

Also, does the appearance of the AK, MT, NM, UT, and VT state highway sets in the table mean that they'll be activated soon?

Thanks!

[Jim]

Would it be possible to set it up so that if I add ?u=mapcat (or something similar) to the end of http://www.teresco.org/~terescoj/travelmapping/devel/hb.php, it will automatically add that string to the url of whatever route I select?  IOW, if I click on ak.ia001, it would direct me to http://www.teresco.org/~terescoj/travelmapping/devel/hb.php?r=ak.ia001&u=mapcat instead of just http://www.teresco.org/~terescoj/travelmapping/devel/hb.php?r=ak.ia001.

Also, does the appearance of the AK, MT, NM, UT, and VT state highway sets in the table mean that they'll be activated soon?

Thanks!

Thanks - I'll see about propagating the u= parameter next time I can put some effort into this part.

I made no distinction here between active and in-development systems, though I should.  I do hope they'll be activated sooner rather than later, but their appearance here is nothing more than me not remembering to denote them as in-development somehow in the table.

[Duke87]

The problem I was having was with the "view every route in this region" view, which with your recent revamp I'm not getting at all ("rg=RI&u=duke87" just takes me to the main list). I know it was marking Western NY as mostly done for me when there shouldn't be much, and my percent completion for NY had magically jumped from the 50s into the 60s.

I'm on the road currently and seeing all this on my phone. I haven't been able to check if the same thing happens on an actual computer.

[NWI_Irish96]

Is there a new system that is ready for travelers to submit files?

[Jim]

The problem I was having was with the "view every route in this region" view, which with your recent revamp I'm not getting at all ("rg=RI&u=duke87" just takes me to the main list). I know it was marking Western NY as mostly done for me when there shouldn't be much, and my percent completion for NY had magically jumped from the 50s into the 60s.

I'm on the road currently and seeing all this on my phone. I haven't been able to check if the same thing happens on an actual computer.

That functionality was superceded by the map viewer and had some definite problems, so I removed it from the draft highway browser.  If it does something that you can't do/see with mapview.php, still in its old location, let me know.

[Jim]

Is there a new system that is ready for travelers to submit files?

"Ready" is a strong word, but you're welcome to send me .list files to be included in the system we have in development.  Many things aren't pretty yet but it's a start.  PM for my email address.

[Jim]

GitHub user Thing342 ("Thing 342" here, I assume) has contributed an enhancement that allows filtering of the routes in the draft browser by system and/or region.  I'll gladly pull this into the new version unless anyone finds some major flaws with it.  Give it a try at:

http://www.teresco.org/~terescoj/travelmapping/Thing342-devel/hb.php

Thanks for the contribution, Thing342.