Places: Improve details of the default world map

[lastzero]

As a user of the free Community Edition, I would like to have more detail included in the basic world map so that I can better browse my pictures by location.

• Since more than 95% of users opt for our completely free version without signing up as a sponsor, we unfortunately can no longer offer the high-quality commercial maps to everyone. Kindly note that they were also not listed as a free feature in our overview in the past, but were still available for evaluation purposes.
• To improve the situation, it would be possible to add more details like cities and lakes to the basic maps. The only problem is that we don't have the resources to do that due to our large backlog of feature requests. So this would be a perfect task for contributors! ❤️
• You can find the existing maps as JSON file in this directory: https://github.com/photoprism/photoprism/tree/develop/assets/static/geo

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We are aware that advanced users could register "non-commercial test accounts" instead, but we think that would not be completely fair and MapTiler could then no longer offer them to those in need. Keep in mind that we have many more users than other open source projects that might encourage their users to do this. Likewise, using the OpenSteetMap development API is discouraged for consumer applications like ours, although some projects do it anyway. See our FAQ: https://docs.photoprism.app/getting-started/faq/#are-the-keys-for-using-interactive-world-maps-provided-free-of-charge

[filipnyquist]

I know that Naturalearth provide some public domain maps , might be worth look into https://github.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector

[lastzero]

We also created the existing GeoJSON file from public data. I can't remember the exact steps, but maybe there are hints in the Git commit messages or old GitHub comments. Probably downloaded individual files specifying the land, borders, and sea, and then merged them using a command line tool.

There are many websites and repos to choose from (but always check the license before downloading):

• http://geojson.xyz/
• https://geojson-maps.ash.ms/
• https://github.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector
• https://github.com/simonepri/geo-maps

👉 it might be worth automating this with a script so that it can be easily updated/improved later without having to start from scratch (again)

[lastzero]

For more clarity, we have renamed the included offline maps to "Low Resolution" in the "Settings" drop-down menu (previously "Basic").

[maciejla]

Hi, I think it would be nice to add a "Custom tileserver URL" option :) that way everyone can host their own tileserver e.g. only for their country
Also, I have some experience with OpenStreetMap, I'll try to generate a geojson that's feasible for this kind of use, but it may be hard to fit a map of the whole world into a few MB :)

[lastzero]

Hi, I think it would be nice to add a "Custom tileserver URL" option :) that way everyone can host their own tileserver e.g. only for their country

Generally yes, although hosting custom maps is a bit advanced. Considering all the other feature requests, we can't make this our highest priority. Feel free to remind us later next year! 😉

Also, I have some experience with OpenStreetMap, I'll try to generate a geojson that's feasible for this kind of use, but it may be hard to fit a map of the whole world into a few MB :)

Thanks, that's awesome! The JSON is not so big anymore when it is gzip compressed. Maybe there is also a way to use multiple files for lazy loading? This is the UI library we use: https://maplibre.org/

[maciejla]

Good news 1 - I was able to add some city names (place=city in OSM) without drastically changing the file size (1.6MB, 380KB gzipped)

Bad news 1 - I don't think it's possible to go much further with one single geojson file

Bad news 2 - I don't know how to do it better

Good news 2 - I'm willing to learn how to do it :)

So, I'm publishing the resulting geojson here - feel free to use it if you want :)
I'll try to figure out some kind of lazy loading now :)

(sorry for sending it in a zip, github doesn't accept json in issues for some reason)
world2.zip

[maciejla]

My workflow in short:

osmium tags-filter planet-latest.o5m  n/place=city -o test4.osm
osmfilter test4.osm --keep-tags="all name=" --drop-version --drop-author -o=test5.osm
osmtogeojson -m test5.osm > a.geojson

then delete osm id's, as they aren't needed in this case:

import json

with open('a.geojson') as f:
    data = json.load(f)

for feature in data['features']:
    del feature['id']
    del feature['properties']['id']

with open('b.geojson', 'w') as f:
    json.dump(data, f)

then merge with the existing file:

import json

with open('b.geojson') as f:
    data = json.load(f)

with open('world.json') as f:
    data2 = json.load(f)

data['features'].extend(data2['features'])

with open('c.geojson', 'w') as f:
    json.dump(data, f)

then minify:

jq -c . < c.geojson > d.geojson

[lastzero]

Thanks! I'll replace the file and add a script with the commands when I have a bit of time 💐

[lastzero]

I replaced the file and tested it but could not see any cities. So I assume that either the code must be changed or the layer is not visible for some reason?

[maciejla]

Whoops, my fault. I'll try to fix that now :)

[maciejla]

Honestly, I don't know how to make the geojson working with photoprism :(
However, I'm currently experimenting with vector tiles, and here's what I found out so far:

• It's quite easy to generate a vector map based on OSM: https://openmaptiles.org/docs/generate/generate-openmaptiles/
• It's quite easy to serve this map on demand: https://github.com/maptiler/tileserver-gl
• mbtiles file for Poland with MAX_ZOOM=7 takes 13.8MB, can be overzoomed quite reasonably
• If I'm estimating correctly, mbtiles file for the whole planet would take about 650MB. It seams reasonable to ship with photoprism / as a additional download
• Unfortunately, in order to generate a mbtiles file it's required to import OSM files into a postgresql database
• The import process takes quite some time (haven't measured it unfortunately)
• After the import, tiles can be quickly regenerated (270s for Poland on i7-3770 w/ 16G of RAM)

I'll try to create tiles for a bigger area (Europe probably), if that works out reasonably I'll try to create a whole planet :)