What’s in a name?

An exploration of the Ordnance Survey’s OS Names API using Leaflet.

The OS has made a number of APIs available via its DataHub. Individuals can sign up for the DataHub and use the APIs for no charge as long as usage is kept within reasonable limits. This is a great invitation to experiment. This particular exercise was based on the OS’s Find a name example using the JavaScript mapping library Leaflet.

Continue reading “What’s in a name?”

The Macclesfield Canal

To Marple by train for the start/end of the Macclesfield canal.

The canal is notable for its lack of locks. Apart from a cluster of twelve between Congleton and Macclesfield, there is a single lock on the canal (lock 13); a stop lock at the junction between the Macclesfield canal and what was then the Hall Green Branch of the Trent and Mersey. The canal was built relatively late (1830) and by then the practice was to cluster locks, which was thought more efficient for travel than having to navigate isolated locks. Continue reading “The Macclesfield Canal”

Mapping data drawn from a mySQL database

Previous examples of web maps generated using Leaflet have relied on GeoJSON files for their overlay data. Here data is extracted from a mySQL database containing some UK crime data. The data was downloaded from the Police website as a CSV file and then imported into mySQL using the Table Data Import Wizard in the mySQL Workbench. I would have preferred to use PostgreSQL, it’s more familiar, but my hosted web space only offers mySQL. Continue reading “Mapping data drawn from a mySQL database”

Holiday in Berlin

Berlin tourist map
Berlin tourist map

This post is one of a series on web mapping.

When in Dresden a few years ago I bought an old map of Berlin in a flea market.  Dated 1966, it was produced by Landkartenverlag Berlin, in the former DDR, who specialised in producing tourist maps.  It has a partial view of the city. Partial in both senses, since it omits any detail of West Berlin or “Territories  under US, British and French Occupation“.  The only features mapped in the West are S-Bahn stations (labelled) and major roads (unlabelled). Continue reading “Holiday in Berlin”

Debugging JavaScript with the Atom editor

JavaScript is not easy to debug. This is particularly the case when we try to “hack” some existing code for our own purposes rather than write the code from scratch, carefully checking each bit of code as we add it. We cut and paste and chop and change without fully understanding the intricacies of the code – no shame in that, of course, this technique has fuelled 20+ years of web development. Continue reading “Debugging JavaScript with the Atom editor”