Leo Klein presented on mapping with Drupal at the UIC IT Professionals Forum. He discussed using the Drupal address, geocoder, and geofield modules to geocode addresses and display them on maps using the Leaflet JavaScript library. Klein outlined the workflow of taking an address, geocoding it to get latitude and longitude coordinates, and storing the geographic data in a geofield to display on Leaflet maps. He noted future developments could include more server-side mapping capabilities and making maps more mobile friendly.

1. UIC IT Professionals Forum
Mapping with
Drupal*
Leo Klein - April 3th, 2013
*Turning Dates Into Places with the UIC Admissions Recruitment Calendar

2. Surrounded by Dots - 1

3. Surrounded by Dots - 2

4. Background
- Academic & Enrollment Services
- New Recruitment Calendar
Leo, can you do this?
Sure, no problem!

5. Aiiiieeeeee!

6. Fast Paced & Kinda Tricky
Palazzolo, Alan, and Thomas Turnbull.
Mapping with Drupal. Sebastopol, Calif:
O'Reilly Media, [Jan.] 2012.
"Recently, CloudMade released an open source
JavaScript mapping library called Leaflet. It is
simple and lightweight. There is also a new Leaflet
module for Drupal that provides some basic
integration between Drupal and Leaflet. It is Geospatial Modules Assessment
something to keep an eye on." p 23 http://groups.drupal.org/node/89769

7. What to Do?

8. State of the Data
Google Spreadsheet
Drupal Content Type

9. Drupal : Out of the Box
Your Best Friend:
Views
Organize your data
in sophisticated
interactive ways!

10. Drupal Mapping Options
Noobie: Trial by Error
Thrown one combination against the wall and see what
sticks - over and over and over again...
Smart Set (a.k.a. 'works4me')
Address (kinda, sorta, maybe not)
Geocoder
Geofield
Leaflet

11. Workflow
Address (string)
Geocoder
Geofield

12. What's an Address/Location?
You tell me:
1. Pittsburgh
2. 10009
3. Office of Academic & Enrollment Services
1200 West Harrison Street
Chicago, Illinois 60607-7161
Addressfield Module ( http://drupal.org/project/addressfield )
Geocoder autocomplete ( http://drupal.org/project/geocoder_autocomplete )

13. Geocoder & Geofield
Geocoder (lookup)*
"Takes any bit of text from an address field or even a simple text-field, and runs
it by a 'geocoding handler' (eg. Google, MapQuest) and returns map
coordinates (e.g. LatLon, WKT)" ( Geolocation in Drupal )
Geo Data - Geofield
● Latitude-Longitude (lat/long) 41.866743 / 87.646458
● Well Known Text (WKT)
● KML
● GeoJSON

14. Workflow - Repeat After Me...
Address (string)
Geocoder
Geofield

15. Leaflet - Javascript Mapping Library
It works! There's documentation!
- "Lightweight"
- "HTML5"
- "Mobile friendly"

16. Finished
Product

17. Future Developments
Server-side! Server-side! Server-side!
Server-side! Server-side! Server-side!
More Mobile Friendly (smaller size)
HTML5 Geolocation (i.e. user location)
Next Mapping Library on the Horizon ...

18. Links
Drupal Group: Location and Mapping
http://groups.drupal.org/location-and-mapping
Comparison of mapping modules
http://drupal.org/node/1704948
Leaflet Site
http://leafletjs.com/
Geographical data and maps (documentation)
http://drupal.org/node/241563
DrupalCon Sydney: State of the nation in mapping (helpful video)
http://sydney2013.drupal.org/state-nation-mapping
Checking in with Mapping in Drupal 7 (helpful video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imOJV49bbLM
Quick and easy D7 distro to evaluate Leaflet (Helpful post)
http://groups.drupal.org/node/251923

19. Thank You
Leo Robert Klein
Web Coordinator
Academic & Enrollment Services
lrk@uic.edu
UIC IT Professionals
Forum