Discussion Forums  >  Maps, Device Location, Tracking

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sepala
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05/14/12 07:22 AM (11 years ago)

Use a GeoRSS feed to populate a map- solved!

I have been trying to do this for some time now and just worked it out so I thought I would share with anyone who is interested! As far as I can see with the BT map you have to either enter points (markers) manually in BT or you can link to a JSON file with a list of the coordinates in a very specific format. Both of these work great but I need to have a map where the markers are automatically updated from a feed as they change all the time. Is has been difficult to find info on how to do this but at last I have! I am not sure if it is possible with the BT map but I have used the Google Maps API which I have a bit of experience with. What I have done is added a KML Layer to a google map that pulls its markers from a GeoRSS feed. It also adds info windows to each marker: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/layers I created this feed using Yahoo Pipes as was the raw data was in XML format. You can do the same with data in JSON format too. You play around with the data in pipes and you can get the info windows in the map to display what you want. However the easiest thing to do is just use an GeoRSS feed that already exists. The cool thing is that Flickr provide GeoRSS feed so using this method you can easily plot the photos from a Flickr Gallery onto a map within a BT app. I know that many other BTers use Flicker for their app photo galleries so this might be useful. I am still playing around and it isn't perfect with it but here is what I have so far if anyone is interested: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9874181/GeoRSSMap%20copy.html This is also just a demo for how it works with a Flickr feed: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9874181/NepalGeoRSSMap.html The map updates automatically as new photos with geo location data are added to the Flickr gallery. When you email an image from a BT app to flickr the location data isn't sent so the photos need to be added to the map in Flickr manually, but I am sure there is a way around this. I have seen a couple of posts on the forum about such a function so I hope that this saves someone some time and headaches!
 
Fred@mySkylla com
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05/14/12 07:34 AM (11 years ago)
Very nice Fred
 
aquila198
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05/14/12 12:24 PM (11 years ago)
That's a fantastic solution you've developed Sepala.
 
sepala
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05/14/12 02:24 PM (11 years ago)
Thanks guys! It is still quite basic at the moment but I will post to this thread if/when I make any improvements.
 
RonBo
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07/04/12 08:45 PM (11 years ago)
"When you email an image from a BT app to flickr the location data isn't sent so the photos need to be added to the map in Flickr manually, but I am sure there is a way around this. " I have not been able to figure out how to add geo info to a FLICKR photo when emailed. Does anyone have any insight how to do this?
 

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