Category: Technology

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Creating a Map using GPS device, OS Maps, GPS Visualizer, Google Maps Engine

I’ve had a couple of comments from family members that reading my blog posts, where I’ve been using  Ordnance Survey maps to display the track of the walk, has not been very friendly when read on a phone. The post doesn’t scroll very well when the map takes up the whole screen width.

So from my last post – the Rhossili to Port-Eynon walk on the Wales Coast Path – and on into the foreseeable future, I’ve decided to revert to using embedded Google Maps on these Posts. [NB I’ve also edited all the posts from the last one I used Everytrail to produce maps in June 2014 so that the Map now appears at the bottom of the text – which should make it easier to read when scrolling on a mobile device.] For my own benefit, but maybe for anyone else interested in doing the same sort of thing, I’m recording the Workflow that I’m now using to produce the maps and to then incorporate them in a self-hosted WordPress blog. [Some of the links to the actual maps and Google Drive might not work for anyone other than me, however.]

Here goes …

1. Connect the Garmin (I have a Garmin 450T GPS device) to a computer
2. Download the Current Track, having first noted the walk statistics from the Trip Computer
3. I’m going to save on my Google Drive in a folder – Walks & GPS Tracks > GPX
4. Upload the GPX file to the WordPress blog (in my case “Just thoughts …”) into the Media folder so that the OSMAP plugin can be used to create a Page for the OSMap , if needed/wanted, or to embed into a Post [As mentioned above, I’ve now decided not to embed into a blog post.]
5. Start the really excellent GPS Visualizer in your browser (I’m using Chrome)
6. Select the Google Earth input form page
7. Complete form parameters, eg output format (must be .kml, not .kmz), metric or US (miles), I’ve decided to choose magenta for track colour
8. Start Google Maps Engine Lite (or https://www.google.com/maps/d/?hl=en&authuser=0&action=open) in  a different browser tab
9. Set Base Map to Satellite, Import the kml file (created in GPSVisualizer) as a Layer and select colours of track (f not previously set in GPS Visualizer), then Save adding a name to the track and (optionally) a description
10. Finally,  change the access rights to Public from the Share Button, and select Embed this map (from pull-down Menu). The embedded map should look something like this …

… and the code, after you’ve pasted it into your blog post, should look something like this …

<iframe src=”https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=zkpaIhkzLG5s.klzwzxxHfEsM” width=”640″ height=”480″></iframe>

… or, if using the OSMAP plugin …

NB REMEMBER TO PUT THE MAP AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST.

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Google Photos – some observations

I’m following up my previous post with some notes based on using Google Photos for a couple of days of testing and observation. This will lead into some thoughts on how I will use it, and what I need to do to make sure the Workflow is “right” for me. This might also be relevant to others, especially those using both DSLR and Smartphones, so I’d welcome comments.

The first thing to mention is that My Drive > Google Photos and the separate Google Photos menu item on your Google Drive are not the same! This is reflected in this note which advises you not to use Google Photos Backup (from your Desktop) and the sychronised My Drive > Google Photos  local folder at the same time.

What this means in practice is that if you have a Workflow that involves placing an image in your local Google Photos folder to sync to your My Drive folder on Google Drive for sharing, or for embedding in a blogpost (like the tasteful one above taken during the testing 😆 ), then you probably shouldn’t use the Google Photos Backup application.

What does this mean then? Well a couple of observations.

  1. Google Photos is a good repository for images taken with Smartphones; it’s painless, quick and ensures that if you have auto-sync switched on in either your Google Photos app, or in the Google+ app (for iOS 7, or earlier) that you have a safe and secure home for your images which will have lots of other advantages. read this excellent review by Mike Elgan for further information.
  2. If you’re a DSLR camera user then you have to think carefully whether you want to use the Google Photos Backup application on your desktop.
    1. If you don’t use any other Image Editing software then it might well be a good idea – setting the Image Quality probably to High (so that you don’t use any of your 15Mb of Free Storage) and following the guidance in the note referenced above about excluding your My Drive > Google Photos from your Google Drive synchronisation, if relevant.
    2. If you’re using something like Lightroom to post-process your images then it might be better to use the export options in the software to copy an image (or collection of images) from the software to your My Drive > Google Photos folder to sync up to Google Photos  and then on for sharing from either your desktop, or your mobile device a little later, and not using the Google Photos Backup application.
  3. Luckily none of the decisions you make now are irreversible, but a bit of careful consideration now may mean that you have the “right” workflow for your needs. For me as an iPhoneographer and DSLR camera user I’m happy to let Google Photos now be my Backup and Storage Solution of choice for the iPhone (see 1 above), but because I’m also a Lightroom user I’ll not use the Google Photos Backup application. Moreover, having made this decision it means that I can, if I chose, Import any images taken on the iPhone into Lightroom for post-processing, meaning I don’t clutter Lightroom up with images I don’t really want to keep.

Any thoughts?