GeoTV

Adds several geographic template variable types to MODX Revolution. They allow multiple geographic points and/or areas to be associated with a resource and can render the location data as a series of GPS co-ordinates.

Mapping data is provided by the Google Maps Javascript API.

Installation

Install via the MODX package manager.

Use

GeoTV provides two new TV types, Geographic Area and Geographic Point.

First, configure your Google Maps API key in System Settings.

Once a TV has been created, add it to a template. The template variables tab of a resource using the template will contain a map centered at the location specified in the TV input options. New locations can be created with the draw tool icon on the top of the map. It can be panned using the "hand" icon. You can clear the geo data by clicking the "Clear all locations" link.

Geographic Area

TV data is stored as a number of "areas" representing a fenced geographic region.

When creating a new template variable, select 'Geographic Area' as the input type. You can specify the default map center and zoom level. This is only used when editing resources in the manager. Latitude and longitude co-ordinates should be specified in decimal degrees format. Zoom level can be any number from 1 to 30. Many areas of the world do not have map data above zoom level 20.

Next, select 'Geographic Area' as the output type. There are several fields that allow you to customize the output.

• Wrapper template: the name of a chunk used to render the entire set of geographic data. The [[+areas]] placeholder will contain all of the rendered areas.
• Area template: the name of a chunk used to render each individual fenced area. The [[+points]] placeholder contains the rendered points for the polygon.
• Area separator: A string used to separate each area. The text will be inserted between each area in the rendered output.
• Point template: the name of a chunk used to render each set of geographic co-ordinates. The [[+latitude]] and [[+longitude]] placeholders contain the latitude and longitude co-ordinates respectively.
• Point separator: A string used to separate each point. The text will be inserted between each set of co-ordinates in the rendered output.
• Decimal separator: The character used as a decimal point in latitudes and longitudes. Defaults to the string defined by the system locale.

Geographic Point

TV data is stored as a number of latitude/longitude co-ordinate pairs.

When creating a new template variable, select 'Geographic Point' as the input type. You can specify the default map center and zoom level. This is only used when editing resources in the manager. Latitude and longitude co-ordinates should be specified in decimal degrees format. Zoom level can be any number from 1 to 30.

Next, select 'Geographic Point' as the output type. There are several fields that allow you to customize the output.

• Wrapper template: the name of a chunk used to render the entire set of geographic data. The [[+points]] placeholder will contain all of the rendered areas.
• Point template: the name of a chunk used to render each set of geographic co-ordinates. The [[+latitude]] and [[+longitude]] placeholders contain the latitude and longitude co-ordinates respectively.
• Point separator: A string used to separate each point. The text will be inserted between each set of co-ordinates in the rendered output.
• Decimal separator: The character used as a decimal point in latitudes and longitudes. Defaults to the string defined by the system locale.

Example

Suppose you wanted a resource to display an XML reprsentation of a series of latitude and longitude co-ordinates. You might create the following elements:

Template Variable: geopoints

• Name: geopoints
• Input options
  • Input Type: Geographic Point
  • Multiple Values: Yes
• Ouput options
  • Output type: Geographic Point
  • Wrapper template: geopoints_wrapper_tpl
  • Point template: geopoints_point_tpl

Chunk: geopoints_wrapper_tpl

<points>
  [[+points]]
</points>

Chunk: geopoints_point_tpl

<point>
  <latitude>[[+latitude]]</latitude>
  <longitude>[[+longitude]]</longitude>
</point>

After adding points using the map on the Template Variables tab, using the [[*geopoints]] tag in the document content area will produce output similar to this:

<points>
  <point>
    <latitude>45.0040</latitude>
    <longitude>26.0027</longitude>
  </point>
  <point>
    <latitude>76.3465</latitude>
    <longitude>78.23546</longitude>
  </point>
  <point>
    <latitude>23.6574</latitude>
    <longitude>67.2984</longitude>
  </point>
</points>

Contributing

GeoTV is hosted on GitHub. Ideas for improvements? Bug reports? Please open an issue in the project's issue queue.