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Show HN: MapHub – A Google My Maps Alternative, Based on OpenStreetMap Data
- krat0sprakhar 11y agoI've long left Google maps and moved onto Mapbox for all my mapping needs in side-projects. Can someone please point out how MapHub is better / different from Mapbox?
- hyperknot 11y agoHi, I made MapHub. So MapBox I believe is targeting developers to create custom map solutions, not simple users who would like to share a list of favourite hiking trails, make a guide for their neighbourhood or just insert an embed on a website. The point of using MapBox I think is more if you have loads of data, or if you are looking for a custom map solution, like Strava or Foursquare uses them in their mobile app.
- dagurp 11y agoThis is brilliant. Easy to use and the tutorial is actually helpful.
- dublinben 11y agoI love this. Anything that makes it easier for people to create custom maps using their data and OSM is fantastic in my book.
- paulrouget 11y agoThe demo is great! Looks very promising. Question: would it be possible to add metro lines (not just the stations)?
- hyperknot 11y agoHi! Yes, definitely possible! Actually, if you go to the basemaps tab in the right side, you can find some specialised basemaps, for example Thunderforest / Transport has a great visual style for train and metro lines. Now, talking about integrating it into MapHub rendered maps, it's definitely possible. I am using the open source osm2vectortiles [1] project, and the older, open source MapBox tm2 styles [2] to render the tiles, so changes can even be contributed by the community! [1] https://github.com/osm2vectortiles/osm2vectortiles https://github.com/osm2vectortiles/osm2vectortiles [2] https://github.com/mapbox/mapbox-studio-osm-bright.tm2 https://github.com/mapbox/mapbox-studio-osm-bright.tm2
- Bedon292 11y agoVery cool. Love the ability to create a simple map, and have so many different basemaps it works with. Will definitely be keeping an eye on it.
- benjlang 11y agoGood job! Check out what I'm working on: http://mapme.com/ http://mapme.com/ http://mapme.com/stories http://mapme.com/stories If you ever want to chat maps, ben@mapme.com :)
- hangonhn 11y agoI just gave this a twirl and already dislike it. I can't even use it unless I sign up. So now I have to give you something before you've demonstrated any value to me. Also, why is "category" required? Is a global namespace of map names the smartest thing to do? How often do you think people will create a map called "SF" or "Golden Gate Park"? There will be name collision all the time.
- dabernathy89 11y agoWow - I wish I had known about this a week ago. I spent a few hours building an Austin "travel guide" for friends and family, but the best thing I could think of to use was a Google Doc + a Google Map. I even thought about starting to build a web app like what you've built. I'm definitely going to port my scrappy little Google Doc into Map Me soon. A couple of comments: - Tags are really useful, but they are too hidden in the UI. I don't know that most regular users would know to go to the "Filter" menu and then click "Tags". - The biggest issue I have so far - in the Classic view, I can't see a way to get my descriptions to show up except at the individual pin level. It would be very useful if they could display in the list, like in the Story view. - Nested categories would be great.
- aembleton 11y agoAwesome, I can import a GPX file. Going to have a good play with this tonight.
- Mizza 11y agoIt's nice that this isn't Google, and it's a good product, but it's still a non-Free product. I'm still looking for a FaiF version of something like this - does anybody know of one? Seems like a slap in the face to all of the OSM developers to use an entirely Free stack with a proprietary veneer on it.
- hyperknot 11y agoHi, I made MapHub. There is nothing I have against open sourcing parts or the full MapHub product, but it's a very delicate decision, so I'd like to wait and think more about it. Would a GitLab like business model make it more attractive for you?
- Mizza 11y agoExactly! I'm still happy to use a hosted version of the service, but I want to be able to improve it if I need to, or run my own service if yours die, etc.
- a3_nm 11y agoContrary to what the parent comment suggested, there's no problem with using OSM data for a proprietary service, but the home page says "An open platform", which I think is very misleading. Your platform is built on open data, but apparently it is not at all "open" itself.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- thomersch_ 11y agoYou might like http://umap.openstreetmap.fr/ http://umap.openstreetmap.fr/. But honestly, even if it's proprietary, OpenStreetMappers don't mind. We're happy that someone is using our data, that's what we are there for.
- Doctor_Fegg 11y ago+1. OSM loves things being built on it, of whatever licence.
- chippy 11y agoNice. I love the choice of basemaps, including the lovely Thunderforest ones which you don't see many places! I liked the download as KML - it loaded up okay in Google Earth. Would be good to have map state in the URL bar, e.g. map position and probably basemap selected for sharing which I would imagine is in your list.
- hyperknot 11y agoThanks! Yes, position is definitely on our list, as well as to linking to individual points. Can you explain how would you use the basemap in the URL bar? If you select a basemap on your own map, it'd be saved so there is no need to overwrite it in the URL.
- chippy 11y agoAhh yes it is saved, but since it's possible for any user to change the basemap of any map in their own session (but not save it) they may want to have that choice persist if they then share it further. It's a possibility I guess. You could use a short code to show base=T1 for example
- hyperknot 11y agoI see, so you would like to have the option to override the basemap by an URL parameter before sharing! Noted.
- JorgeGT 11y agoVery interesting and good looking! Only a small comment: using images under Creative Commons licensing is not as simple as grabbing the image and using it as you please. Both your top [1] and bottom [2] images are licensed with the BY clause, meaning you must give appropriate credit. [1] https://www.planet.com/gallery/orange-river/ https://www.planet.com/gallery/orange-river/ [2] https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/21604970430 https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/21604970430
- hyperknot 11y agoSorry, it was on my todo list, I'll update them as soon as possible!
- swah 11y agoWell played, I'd do the same..
- mmishu 11y agoHow did you figure that out?
- JorgeGT 11y agoI recognized the JAXA ship of the bottom image and it amused me for a bit that they chose a pic of a cargo ship instead of an imaging satellite. Then it was a matter of reverse image search, usually public space images are CC-BY so I figured I should mention that so they don't get into trouble for something easily fixable.
- hyperknot 11y agoThank you for raising my attention to the missing attribution links, I have added them for both pictures including the correct license type.
- JorgeGT 11y agoYou're welcome! It's a small detail but better safe than sorry with these kind of issues.
- glaberficken 11y agoVery nice to use, the tutorial is simple and well done. One major road block for me was the signup to save page kept giving me a "Try again" error Tried different emails and passwords but it kept giving the same non descriptive "Try again" error.
- hyperknot 11y agoI'm sorry to hear that this bug is still present. I've tried to diagnose it so many times, but it only happens randomly and only when running through CloudFlare. I believe that at the core of the issues is that some requests arrive twice, thus the system is trying to register the same user twice.
- glaberficken 11y agoI don't think that's the reason, otherwise I would be able to login with the users I tried to register. And I can´t I get "No account matches..."
- hyperknot 11y agoSorry, it's a different error, I've just found out, your password should be at least 8 characters in length, is it possible that you are trying a shorter one?
- glaberficken 11y agoOk that works, you really need to provide meaningful hints for that, otherwise i'm afraid your signup numbers will be really low.
- hyperknot 11y agoI fixed it now. Thanks for your comment showing it!
- hangonhn 11y agoMore than anything else, can you please add a distance calculator for the track tool? They had this in Google Maps classic but the new one removed it. I used Google Maps to plan the runs for my running team and the inability to estimate the distance is a huge problem. Google Maps has it as two separate tools now. So now I have to draw each leg of a running route twice: once to estimate where the mile is and another to actually save the route.
- hyperknot 11y agoWhat kind of distance tool would you use for your running team? We have one built in, where once finishing a track you can save it's length on the right side. It's only in metric units at the moment. Would you like to have points on each kilometer / mile along the route?
- hangonhn 11y agoIt would be great if it would keep updating the distance as I drag the track along. Basically my use case is like this: I need to plan a route from starting point and it has to go for X number of miles. To satisfy that requirement I have to figure out which way to turn or which streets to take and how much farther I have to draw the route. Here's an example of such a map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zyGHTR9wg3w8.ki2OYJV5zJkQ&usp=sharing https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zyGHTR9wg3w8.ki2OYJV5... It would be great if there is a number under the cursor that tells me how long my current track is as I move the cursor and add waypoints and maybe another number to tell me the distance between the last way point and the cursor. Does that make sense?
- testrecord 11y agoHey this looks cool. I see it's a beta, but some ideas that would be really useful to me and maybe others. MapBox (particularly the desktop version) can create custom stylesheets and do high quality image exports. I like those features if I don't plan to leave the map on the web (e.g. print, email). It would be good also to view the square area covered inside a polygon and be able to edit one once it's placed.
- hyperknot 11y agoHi! Would a PDF export be good for your print / email case? About square area, do you mean to calculate the area in square kilometres and display it for polygons? You should be able to edit a polygon once it's placed, just click the "move" icon in the top right corner of the sidebar.
- testrecord 11y ago1) Yeah, definitely. I suppose one could screenshot, but having a little more fine-tuning as far as dimensions, image size, etc is far more useful. 2) For sure, much like the border distance. 3) Ah, I didn't see the edit icon. Very cool.
- c0nsumer 11y agoIs there a way to query OSM tags directly to build maps? For example, I do a bunch of mountain bike trail mapping, and due to judicious tagging I can pretty easily select all the assets I'd like in a map with a series of queries. Can I select ways using a query and have them become something I wish to call out?
- maxerickson 11y agoIt's not all shiny and integrated, but you can export a gpx or kml from Overpass Turbo: http://overpass-turbo.eu/s/fly http://overpass-turbo.eu/s/fly (click 'Run' and then 'Export') (I think there is a fair chance you are aware of it, posting for other readers too) uMap mentioned elsewhere on this page has support for some formats output directly by Overpass API, which powers Overpass Turbo. Overpass Turbo has javascript for converting those formats to KML and GPX. So in uMap, you can generate a layer by pasting in the query, no need to push it through kml or gpx.
- hyperknot 11y agoDo you know overpass turbo [1]? You can use it to make a query over an area and export it to a GeoJSON file, which you can directly import to MapHub. [1] https://overpass-turbo.eu/ https://overpass-turbo.eu/
- c0nsumer 11y agoI didn't until a few minutes ago... Sounds like this'll do what's needed. One thing I'm not clear on is if it updates as the OSM data changes?
- hyperknot 11y agoNo, it won't, unless you manually update it. I am working on making an API for developers, where you can create/update map data programmatically, so you will be able to do it in a cron job for example.
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- chris-at 11y agojust some feedback: I got stuck in the tutorial at "Give a title to your map." - it just sits there and won't go away (no next button). yes, I gave it a title.
- hyperknot 11y agoI'm sorry that you are experiencing this bug. There should be a done button appearing once you enter any character. What browser / device are you using? Are you in the tutorial?
- benmathes 11y agoWould love to upload/import KML, as I have a bunch of detailed climbing/hiking maps in google that I don't have time to recreate.
- twphonebillsoon 11y agoNeat project. I haven't signed up and tried it out yet, but I see that this allows you to upload map data on top of OpenStreetMap stuff and share it. Depending on how the data is mixed in, the OpenStreetMap ODBL might require users to share their data back with the OSM project. Are you aware of this? Do you notify your users of this as well? The ODBL is kind of like copyleft license for databases (gross oversimplification)
- hyperknot 11y agoHi. When someone uploads a GPX or KML file, we have no knowledge about where is that data coming from, so we cannot display a notice either. Same as if someone would upload a GeoJSON to GitHub, GitHub would have no idea about where was that GeoJSON sourced from. I believe users should take care about giving proper credits in the map descriptions, and if not the author should be notified about it (which we'll be addressing with an issues like feature in the future).
- twphonebillsoon 11y agoI'm not a lawyer so don't take any of this as fact. Its not an attribution issue. Its more that if the data is mixed into the database in a certain way, that data must also be made available under terms similar to the ODBl. So if I have the locations of the best Thai restaurants in a city, and I add this data to OpenStreetMap data, refine it based on the existing OSM data and present it, I must make my restaurant data available under the terms of the ODBl. If you are just overlaying data on top of image tiles generated from OSM data I think you are okay, but once you mix the data it becomes weird. For example if the OSM data has a few of those restaurants in it, and you modify your data set to remove them so there's no duplicates, I think thats a case where you must share your data back with the OSM project. You can check out the OSM (non-dev) mailing lists for more discussion on this.
- hyperknot 11y agoHi. I think I understand your issue now. So, most importantly, any data what a user creates / uploads to MapHub is totally independent from the "big" OSM database. Think about it as two totally separate datasets, we will never mix them!
- 0XAFFE 11y agoCreating a track from a route (Graphhopper/Mapzen) would be very cool.
- hyperknot 11y agoDo you mean calculating driving / walking / cycling directions from A to B? If so, it's definitely on out roadmap!
- nicoboo 11y agoIt's working greatly. I stress-tested it with a few of my custom geo reference data for administrative or socio-demographic statistics. Feel free to reach me by mail if you want to test it further (FR-IRIS)
- maxxxxx 11y agoThis is really nice! Is there a chance to get elevation profiles for GPX tracks? Or an elevation profile for a manually drawn track? this would be super helpful for hiking planning.
- hyperknot 11y agoHi, yes, I totally agree, calculating elevation profiles for imported and drawn tracks is a very important feature which we are working on.
- photon_off 11y agoIt would great if I could use this site without first having to make an account. Jsbin and jsfiddle support anonymous usage quite well, and because of that are incredibly useful.
- hyperknot 11y agoHi, jsbin/jsfiddle/gist like sharing is one feature we are discussing, but it is quite a delicate issue and not without risks, so we still haven't decided about it yet.
- zimpenfish 11y agoDunno if it's the site or Iron or what but I get dodgy UTF8 output and a lack of UK postcodes from the search. e.g. searching for E14 9TP, I get this - https://rjp.is/tmp/badsearchwonkyutf8.png https://rjp.is/tmp/badsearchwonkyutf8.png
- hyperknot 11y agoHi, sorry to hear that. At the moment, we are using Mapzen Search [1] for geocoding, and unfortunately it has issues like this. They are working actively on fixing it, and we are also looking into implementing our own hybrid approach which would combine multiple search providers. [1] https://mapzen.com/projects/search https://mapzen.com/projects/search