Mapping with Drupal: Navigating Complexities to Create Beautiful and Engaging Maps

by Alan Palazzolo, Thomas Turnbull

Overview

Build beautiful interactive maps on your Drupal website, and tell engaging visual stories with your data. This concise guide shows you how to create custom geographical maps from top to bottom, using Drupal 7 tools and out-of-the-box modules. You’ll learn how mapping works in Drupal, with examples on how to use intuitive interfaces to map local events, businesses, groups, and other custom data.

Although building maps with Drupal can be tricky, this book helps you navigate the system’s complexities for creating sophisticated maps that match your site design. Get the knowledge and tools you need to build useful maps with Drupal today.

• Get up to speed on map projections, the ethics of making maps, and the challenges of building them online
• Learn how spatial data is stored, input by users, manipulated, and queried
• Use the OpenLayers or GMap modules to display maps with lists, tables, and data feeds
• Create rich, custom interactions by applying geolocation
• Customize your map’s look and feel with personalized markers, map tiles, and map popups
• Build modules that add imaginative and engaging interactions

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781449308940
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	12/29/2011
Pages:	146
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Alan Palazzolo is a Code for America fellow, and has been a big contributor to mapping modules, most notably OpenLayers. He maintains several Drupal modules and has been a featured speaker at Drupal events around the world. Alan led the first ever Code Review Sprint to review project applications at DrupalCon Chicago 2011.

Thomas Turnbull has been building websites in PHP since 2002, and working with Drupal since 2006. He has been an organizer for Drupal Camp New York, and has been contributor and maintainer for several Drupal modules. He has done Drupal development for Sony Music in New York, where he built sites for artists on their record labels using Drupal, and is currently working for Zagat, helping to migrate their website over to Drupal.

Table of Contents

Preface; Audience; Drupal and Mapping Glossary; Drupal 7 Modules; Conventions Used in This Book; Using Code Examples; Safari® Books Online; How to Contact Us; Acknowledgments; Chapter 1: Why Map with Drupal; 1.1 The Power of Maps; 1.2 The Power of Drupal; Chapter 2: Web Mapping Basics; 2.1 Projections and Coordinate Systems; 2.2 Data Storage; 2.3 Challenges of Web-Based Mapping; Chapter 3: Spatial Data; 3.1 Data Storage; 3.2 Data Input; 3.3 Geocoding; Chapter 4: Displaying Maps; 4.1 Mapping with the OpenLayers Module; 4.2 Mapping with the GMap Module; 4.3 Other Ways of Displaying Spatial Data; Chapter 5: Extending Map Interactions; 5.1 GMap; 5.2 OpenLayers; 5.3 Conclusion; Chapter 6: Making Beautiful Maps; 6.1 Markers; 6.2 Data-Driven Styling; 6.3 The Map Interface; 6.4 Theming Pop Ups; 6.5 Map Tiles; Chapter 7: Managing Maps as Features; 7.1 Exporting OpenLayers and Geofield with Features; 7.2 Exporting GMap and Location with Features; Chapter 8: Conclusion; 8.1 Next Steps in Mapmaking; 8.2 The Future of Mapping with Drupal; Further Reading; Drupal Books; Mapping Theory Books; Technical Mapping-Related Books; Map Projections; WGS 84 (Latitude and Longitude); Gall-Peters Projection; South-Oriented Maps; Glossary; Mapping Terms; Drupal Terms;