Map Plugin

The Onto Wiki Map Plugin was developed during the software engeneering practical training at the university of Leipzig by a group of nine students. Our intention was to produce a plugin which makes instances from ontologies viewable. We are proud to present you the result:

...the Onto Wiki Map Plugin!

Project Homepage
Download the Plugin

Installing the Map Plugin

Requirements

A running Onto Wiki installation and an internet connection is all you need to install and use the Map Plugin.

Four easy steps to your working Map Plugin

• download the Map Plugin.zip from LINK
• unzip the Map Plugin.zip to «...YOUR_ONTOWIKI_DIRECTORY/Plugins/»
  
• rename the config.ini-dist into config.ini in the «...YOUR_ONTOWIKI_DIRECTORY/Plugins/MapPlugin» folder.
  
• login as admin and click on any knowledge base in your Onto Wiki and then click on the map tabulator to auto-import the Map Plugin ontology (default settings) and activate the Map Plugin. Maybe you need to refresh your browser to see the Map Plugin ontology.

Validate the installation

You can test the installation by choosing the Map Plugin knowledge base and clicking on the “Check-Install” class. When you click the map tabulator you see a marker with a checkmark-icon labeled “installation succesful!”. This test could be helpful if your existing ontologies do not have geo coordinates (and no attributes which could be used for geocoding), and you will check the Map Plugins functionality for future uses.

Using the Map View

What is shown?

Everytime you click on the map tabulator the current selection will be represented in the mapview.
Instances which possesses latitude and longitude values will be represented directly by these attributes. For instances without geo coordinates the Map Plugin tries to ascertain longitude and latitude by geocoding. There are three different marker types per default. One for a single instance, one for clustered instances (for more informations about clustering, look at «Customize your Map Plugin") and in another way representation of the instance by an existing depiction icon.

What ever you want to locate on the map, if it is educible the Map Plugin makes it visible.

How to navigate?

The mapview-layout is adopted from Open Layers. To navigate through the map you can easily use the control buttons given by Open Layers (at the left side in the mapwindow) or alternatively you can drag the map with the mouse and zoom in and out with your mousewheel.

Extending the windowsize vertical is possible by using the arrowbuttons at the right bottom. Horizontal you can adjust the frame by using your mouse.

Save a mapview

To save or share the current mapview, click on “Permalink” at the right bottom of the map. The URI will be extended by latitude, longitude, zoomlevel and the used layer. Now you can save the link in your bookmarks or share it with someone.

Customize your Map Plugin

Different map provider

Changing the map provider is offered by the "+" symbol at the right border (in the mapwindow), if you click it a menu will appear, where you can choose another map provider.

Customize your icons

You can customize the icons used to represent a class.
To set an icon follow these few steps:

• make sure you are logged in as admin
• choose the Map Plugin knowledge base
• choose “Create Instance” from the drop down menu at the “default” class
• enter the name of the class which should be customized as label
• type the URI of the class into the «Identifier (URI)" field (you can get the URI from the class by checking the edit options at the specific class, if the URI is unknown to you)
• add a new property named logo and select ressource
• specify the logo by the URL to the icon of your choice
• finish your customization by clicking “Submit Values”
• enjoy the new icon

Check out our screencast.

Define the clustering

After clicking on the “more options” button on the right bottom of the mapwindow, the cluster settings appear below the mapwindow. Here you can enable or disable the clustering with the checkbox. For a finer control you can assign the grid count and the maximum amount of allowed markers per grid element. The grid count devides the map into serveral pieces (for example: grid count = 3 means 3 * 3 = 9 pieces). If there are more markers within one grid piece than the maximum markers, clustering will coalesce the markers for a clearly arrangement.

Team

Natanael Arndt
Naranbaatar Avir
Robert Frohl
Claudius Henrichs
Edgar Lensing
Sebastian Kiunke
Markus Nentwig
Norman Radtke
Matthias Schreiter