Ulf, thanks bring me up to speed. I'd love to make this happen, so I've
written some responses inline.
*TL;DR;* I disagree with privacy concerns raised in the PR and (in my
non-legal-expert-opinion) think we should be able to do this w/o affecting
user privacy or complicated workarounds.
On Fri, Mar 20, 2015 at 10:47 AM, Ulf Buermeyer <ub2125(a)columbia.edu> wrote:
Hi Brian & all,
that's basically what I implemented last year (but for articles with
geocoordinates):
https://github.com/wikimedia/apps-ios-wikipedia/pull/3
The addition was rejected for policy reasons (see discussion in the PR)
- iOS hits Apple servers to download maps and thereby reveals the users'
locations to Apple.
This was before I joined the org. Though I'm reluctant to, I'd like to
revisit this debate because I feel we'd be adding a non-trivial amount of
complexity (maintenance cost) to the app when it can be avoided.
First, showing a map with annotations on it does not require knowing the
user's location. We can simply render a map for a given coordinate region
and decorate it with annotations from the article. To put it plainly, does
looking up map data about Egypt tell Apple that I'm Egypt?
Second, and most importantly, we're already giving Apple the user's
location for the Nearby feature. If we wanted to show the user's location,
we could simply ask for it.
Thus we thought we might rather use OpenStreetMap data: If you cache the
tiles on a proxy operated by Wikimedia, then nobody's privacy will be
harmed. The OSM tile server guys would probably prefer you to do that
anyway (server load on their side would be HUGE if that's rolled out in
production).
Only issue (besides setting up the proxy) was to keep
iOS from loading
Apple data. That's now feasible as of iOS7 using [MKOverlay
canReplaceMapContent] => YES.
IMO, the cost of implementing and maintaining all of this does not justify
the benefit to the user. We can add a lot of user value with other
features, and in this case simply prompt the user with an "Open With..."
dialog to view it in an app of their choice. This shouldn't be necessary,
as we can render maps in the Wikipedia app without requiring user location.
Best, Ulf
On 20/03/15 15:38, Brian Gerstle wrote:
Adding a native map view to display nearby
locations on a map sounds
like a great feature! Are there any links to mock-ups of what the
feature is supposed to look like? I ask because it's not clear why we
need custom map tiles or URL protocols instead of simple annotations &
annotation views. These are straightforward to implement and fully
backwards compatible.
On Fri, Mar 20, 2015 at 9:43 AM, Adam Baso <abaso(a)wikimedia.org
<mailto:abaso@wikimedia.org>> wrote:
Migrating thread to mobile-l, with Ulf's permission.
On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 11:29 PM, Ulf Buermeyer <ub2125(a)columbia.edu
<mailto:ub2125@columbia.edu>> wrote:
Hi all,
if you're deprecating iOS6 then the solution might be to just
implement
[MKOverlay canReplaceMapContent]
and return YES. This effectively prevents iOS from loading Apple
map
content:
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/MapKit/Reference/MKOv…
As for the MKTileOverlay, that would be an option as well, I'm
just not
sure how efficient it is for caching OSM content - the
documentation is
silent on that point:
https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/MapKit/Ref…
And as I already have the drawing code we could go with that.
Best, Ulf
On 19/03/15 01:49, Adam Baso wrote:
> Oops, /now/ I'm CC'ing Max.
>
> On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 10:07 PM, Monte Hurd <
mhurd(a)wikimedia.org
<mailto:mhurd@wikimedia.org>
> <mailto:mhurd@wikimedia.org
<mailto:mhurd@wikimedia.org>>>
wrote:
>
> Ulf, I was also thinking we could maybe use a custom
NSURLProtocol
> to intercept the MKMapView's
requests for the apple map
tiles
> (instead of a "overlay
only" mode - would have the same
effect I
> think). Thoughts?
>
>
> On Mar 18, 2015, at 8:45 PM, Adam Baso <
abaso(a)wikimedia.org
<mailto:abaso@wikimedia.org>
> <mailto:abaso@wikimedia.org
<mailto:abaso@wikimedia.org>>>
wrote:
>
>> Ulf,
>>
>> Great meeting you!
>>
>> Hi there - I was wondering if there was perhaps a way to
make
use
>> of MKTileOverlay for
achieving these ends? We're going to
be
>> deprecating iOS 6 in the
relatively near future, and this
is an
>> iOS 7+ thing.
>>
>>
http://nshipster.com/mktileoverlay-mkmapsnapshotter-mkdirections/
>>
>> I've CC'd Max Semenik, who may have some insight into
tiling
>> server options at
Wikimedia.
>>
>> -Adam
>>
>> On Fri, Mar 13, 2015 at 3:13 PM, Monte Hurd <
mhurd(a)wikimedia.org <mailto:mhurd@wikimedia.org>
>>
<mailto:mhurd@wikimedia.org <mailto:mhurd@wikimedia.org>>>
wrote:
>>
>> Good seeing you again as well Ulf!
>>
>> I'll check out the OpenRadar ticket and experiment
some more
>
with your maps patch.
>
> Exciting stuff!!!
>
> On Wed, Mar 11, 2015 at 10:19 PM, Ulf Buermeyer
> <ub2125(a)columbia.edu <mailto:ub2125@columbia.edu>
<mailto:ub2125@columbia.edu <mailto:ub2125@columbia.edu>>>
wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> good to see you guys today! I just wanted to keep
you
>
posted about that
> maps issue. In fact I re-filed a rdar with Apple
in order
> to have them
> add an "overlay only" mode to MKMapView today
(the other
> one had been
> closed w/o any feedback). See my OpenRadar for
this
issue:
>
>
http://www.openradar.me/20132462
>
>
> For your reference here is the pull request I
issued last
> year (that's
> effectively the code for what I showed to Moiz
today):
>
>
https://github.com/wikimedia/apps-ios-wikipedia/pull/3
>
> I'd be happy to work with you on a solution that
complies with
> Wikimedia's policies as I
think that maps for
articles or
> even an
> initial "places around you" feature with pins on
a map
> would be very
> useful additions to the Wikipedia app.
>
> All the best, Ulf
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