When mapping an item for the first time after adding a Map block to a page, one is given a default Mercator world map and must either zoom and pan into one’s location or click search and land at a selected address from the geocoder.
I would like for my users to land at a particular place first (the city which we are documenting) and then find their location when mapping items, and not always start with the world map, as it is repetitive to always zoom into the same basic location to begin mapping.
I imagine most Omeka S users who are mapping – unless their datasets encompass the entire globe – their items would all have some geographic focus, i.e. ancient India or frontier America and not the whole world.
This global option is configurable in the Omeka Classic Geolocation plugin and would be a great addition to the Omeka S module, which has no configuration options at present. @jimsafley Is there a way to define this in the module code? I don’t mind if it affects all my sites in my Omeka S instance. Thanks!.
It’s a good idea, but rather than a global option, which makes sense for Omeka Classic, I think a better approach for Omeka S would be a user setting where individual users can customize the default geographical bounds of their maps. Our focus on multiple sites/projects using the same item pool does not lend itself well to global settings that are meant for one project. I’ve opened an issue over on GitHub.
Thanks @jimsafley. I think having the item map editor default view configurable on a per-user basis (and on a per-site basis?) would be a great addition to the Mapping module.
In my Omeka S install different sites have different geographic boundaries (city neighbourhoods and wards), but all are within one overall boundary (the city limits). My users have different levels of access to the item pool, some for certain sites (neighbourhoods/wards) and editors and admins for the entire item pool across sites (the entire city).
While defining the centre point or maximum extents for users will be great, is it feasible with the way Omeka S handles the item pool to configure this site-wise? And is there currently a workaround setting I can change in the module to re-centre the current views in the Item map editor for my site admins who are using the mapping module? Thanks!
I may have misunderstood your initial post and followed through with a separate issue. No harm done.
If I understand you correctly, you are asking if the item map editor can automatically set bounds to the items in a particular site. If so, then I suppose it’s possible. The editor would need a site-select that dynamically changes bounds based on the items in the selected site’s pool.
We are currently changing the way items are assigned to sites for an upcoming Omeka S v3.0 so I hesitate to begin development on this feature until that’s released. There’s also the issue of scope: a site-select would be nice, but would an item-set-select also be helpful? or a full item search? We would need to have some internal discussions about balancing need with difficulty here.
@jimsafley I saw the Github issue you opened which refers to the default basemap, not the default bounding box or centre of the default map view when first entering Mapping /admin/item/itemnumber/edit#mapping-section
This wasn’t what I had meant, as you noted, but is another use case which I can anticipate – in the city which my users are mapping, some items no longer exist on present day maps or their location is unmarked except in historical maps.
For this I would need a WMS layer as the default base map (especially for those unfamiliar with how to turn it on themselves) for them to locate the item in the map editor. This is however less needed for me than to define the default location when first mapping (viz. the bounding box).
To stay in the subject of this thread, I would love to be able to define the initial bounding box for mapping items on a per-site basis, per item set basis, or per user basis (below global admin). All of these levels are useful. I understand that S v3.0 is addressing how the item pool is managed and look forward to the new release.