New Mapview on tmtest

[Jim]

The tmtest version has a few improvements since I put this on the main site:

- toggle legend on/off
- enough colors for current max number of concurrencies
- a gradient scale in the legend for number of travelers (when there are at least two segments with different numbers of travelers > 2)

[kjslaughter]

Wow!  I love all the new colors on the tables, the scroll-able maps and then today seeing all the counts by user and the ability to hover to see the users is just amazing. I can see how I'm the TM pioneer on a LOT of Georgia state highways as I've explored courthouses.

Great job!!

[michih]

Does "visible routes: plain" make sense? The black/grey style looks odd (maybe it would make sense if we count change the colors).

Do you mean in the legend, or at all?

At all. I mean, the colors look like this: https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/13720877/84198040-f31c5200-aa70-11ea-80bf-15ef2f45be20.png which is..... a little bit ugly.

But it's fine if anyone needs it....

[michih]

Color by travel count: None, 1, 2, 7, 12, 18 is fine but a segment with 17 travels has the color indicated for 18. Maybe None, 1, 2, 3..7, 8..12, 13..18 etc?

Every value has a different color (up to 240 max travelers).  I need to look into a gradient scale instead of the fixed boxes.

I just talked about the legend. I'd like to see the actual range, e.g. 3..7 instead of the upper limit only because it could be the upper or lower limit.

If the actual limits are
None, 1, 2, 3..7, 8..12, 13..18 you could indicate
None, 1, 2, 3..7, 8..12, 13..18 in the legend or
None, 1, 2, <= 7,  <= 12,  <= 18 or
None, 1, 2, < 8 , < 13, < 19

OTOH, you use a gradient scale now..... but still, I need to figure out that it is the upper limit. I think it is not intuitive

[Jim]

If the actual limits are
None, 1, 2, 3..7, 8..12, 13..18 you could indicate
None, 1, 2, 3..7, 8..12, 13..18 in the legend or
None, 1, 2, <= 7,  <= 12,  <= 18 or
None, 1, 2, < 8 , < 13, < 19

OTOH, you use a gradient scale now..... but still, I need to figure out that it is the upper limit. I think it is not intuitive

There are no actual limits, since it's a somewhat continuous gradient.  I'm open to ideas how better to indicate that the two numbers displayed are the exact bounds, or if some kind of intermediate numbers make sense.

[michih]

There are no actual limits, since it's a somewhat continuous gradient.  I'm open to ideas how better to indicate that the two numbers displayed are the exact bounds, or if some kind of intermediate numbers make sense.

Maybe "Limit" is the wrong word but you indicate colors and specify a number to it. To exactly this color.

Maybe it's not relevant though..... if the legend is intuitive to everyone but me.

[Jim]

Right, "limits" are not the correct word, I think "bounds" would be.

Let's say the range is 5 to 76 travelers.  The current implementation chooses a color for each segment based on its number of travelers, using one of the 77 colors along the way around the color wheel from red (which would be 0, though that is a special case to draw in gray) to blue for 76.  The only ones I think it makes sense to label are the smallest in use (among those >= 2) and largest, so they're positioned to be lined up with the top and bottom.

I suppose a way to incorporate more information would be to have 4 labels next to the 4 squares that together make up the gradient, each with something like 5-22, 23-40, 41-58, and 59-76.  It seems that would be more confusing, though.

[michih]

I like the current legend implementation very much! Quite perfect!

[Jim]

Another wish list item of mine is coming along, enabled by the https conversion.  I've added a button to the tmtest Mapview version (be sure to specify https://, as I didn't bother with redirection on the test site) where you can query the current location and use it to set your Mapview location.  It's of course dependent on your using a device that knows where it is, and you having given permission to TM to query it.

[Jim]

My next step is to get a "you are here" kind of marker onto maps when that info is available.  So don't be surprised if I'm breaking tmtest's version on and off as I work on that.

[Jim]

My next step is to get a "you are here" kind of marker onto maps when that info is available.  So don't be surprised if I'm breaking tmtest's version on and off as I work on that.

That was an easy addition, and it also now on tmtest.  For now, if the information is available from the browser, a blue marker is displayed at your current location.  A short walk around the block with my iPad verified that the marker's location follows.  Looking forward to try it out on the car or better yet on an actual road trip.

[michih]

I open https://tmtest.teresco.org/user/mapview.php?u=michih&v and get a browser (FF) message that tmtest.teresco.org tries to get my location. I press "allow" but nothing happens. When I press the "Press to query Current Location and Set Coords" button* again, the browser message appears again. When I open the FF settings - location permission settings - there is a list of websites which have tried to get the location. The list is empty. I use FF private mode. Does anyone else have this problem?


*I think that a short "Get Current Location" would be enough. Same with "Press to Search and Set Coords", this could be "Search Location" or whatever. btw: When I type in something stupid, e.g. "ewfssr4r" there could be a message "invalid location" or "location not found" or whatever message.

[Jim]

I open https://tmtest.teresco.org/user/mapview.php?u=michih&v and get a browser (FF) message that tmtest.teresco.org tries to get my location. I press "allow" but nothing happens. When I press the "Press to query Current Location and Set Coords" button* again, the browser message appears again. When I open the FF settings - location permission settings - there is a list of websites which have tried to get the location. The list is empty. I use FF private mode. Does anyone else have this problem?

I had a similar problem initially in Chrome on my Mac, and for whatever reason, a force reload wasn't enough.  I had to clear out some browser info (I picked a few options, don't remember which, and don't know which helped) before I could get it to start receiving the location events properly.  On Firefox, it worked first try, as it did in Chrome on my iPad.

The Leaflet interface for getting the location information is very simple, so I think most problems will be with browser permissions.  It's possible I can do something to help on the coding side, but there's not much to change.

[vdeane]

I've been having issues on that front too - it throws an unknown error acquiring geolocation.  That said, it's not just a TMtest problem, nor is it even just a Chrome problem (Firefox does it too), so I'm guessing it's an ISP problem (I've been having these issues ever since the pandemic increased internet demand).  Interestingly, Chrome will report current location as somewhere in Kansas - sometimes - (I'm guessing the geographic center of the lower 48; this happens for the display marker, but not for setting coordinates, which just fails and uses the default) when it can't get it, but Firefox just leaves the map location blank.

Also, I have to manually type the https for tmtest - otherwise, I get a "not found" or "not secure" error.

[Jim]

I was actually pretty surprised that my home network through Spectrum pinpoints my location down to the marker being over my house.  To me, this is more of a mobile device feature anyway.

Related question.  What's more obtrusive: the marker being on every map to show your current location if it's detected, even when you don't really care about it, or a checkbox on each page that has maps to enable/disable the feature?