Cross posting to discovery
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Tomasz Finc <tfinc(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Thu, Sep 17, 2015 at 12:26 PM
Subject: Announcing the launch of Maps
To: Wikimedia developers <wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Cc: Yuri Astrakhan <yastrakhan(a)wikimedia.org>rg>, Max Semenik <
msemenik(a)wikimedia.org>
The Discovery Department has launched an experimental tile and static maps
service available at
https://maps.wikimedia.org.
Using this service you can browse and embed map tiles into your own tools
using OpenStreetMap data. Currently, we handle traffic from *.wmflabs .org
and *.wikivoyage .org (referrer header must be either missing or set to
these values) but we would like to open it up to Wikipedia traffic if we
see enough use. Our hope is that this service fits the needs of the
numerous maps developers and tool authors who have asked for a WMF hosted
tile service with an initial focus on WikiVoyage.
We'd love for you to try our new service, experiment writing tools using
our tiles, and giving us feedback <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Maps> .
If you've built a tool using OpenStreetMap-based imagery then using our
service is a simple drop-in replacement.
Getting started is as easy as
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Maps#Getting_Started
How can you help?
* Adapt your labs tool to use this service - for example, use Leaflet js
library and point it to
https://maps.wikimedia.org
* File bugs in Phabricator
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/discovery-maps-sprint/>
* Provide us feedback to help guide future features
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Maps>
* Improve our map style <https://github.com/kartotherian/osm-bright.tm2>
* Improve our data extraction
<https://github.com/kartotherian/osm-bright.tm2source>
Based on usage and your feedback, the Discovery team
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Discovery> will decide how to proceed.
We could add more data sources (both vector and raster), work on additional
services such as static maps or geosearch, work on supporting all
languages, switch to client-side WebGL rendering, etc. Please help us
decide what is most important.
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Maps has more about the project and related
Maps work.
== In Depth ==
Tiles are served from
https://maps.wikimedia.org, but can only be accessed
from any subdomains of *.wmflabs .org and *.wikivoyage.org. Kartotherian
can produce tiles as images (png), and as raw vector data (PBF Mapbox
format or json):
.../{source}/{zoom}/{x}/{y}[(a){scale}x].{format}
Additionally, Kartotherian can produce snapshot (static) images of any
location, scaling, and zoom level with
.../{source},{zoom},{lat},{lon},{width}x{height}[(a){scale}x].{format}.
For example, to get an image centered at 42,-3.14, at zoom level 4, size
800x600, use
https://maps.wikimedia.org/img/osm-intl,4,42,-3.14,800x600.png
(copy/paste the link, or else it might not work due to referrer
restriction).
Do note that the static feature is highly experimental right now.
We would like to thank WMF Ops (especially Alex Kosiaris, Brandon Black,
and Jaime Crespo), services team, OSM community and engineers, and the
Mapnik and Mapbox teams. The project would not have completed so fast
without you.
Thank You
--tomasz
