Map tools open sourced

We are pleased to announce that the code for the two mapping tools used in data.gov.uk has now been released as open source. The map tools were developed by Ordnance Survey as part of a collaborative effort between the UK Location Programme, Ordnance Survey and Cabinet Office. This work enables the publication of location datasets in support of the UK Location Strategy, and as part of the UK contribution to the European INSPIRE project.

The Map Based Search allows the user to draw a box on a background map that leads to a search for datasets which are wholly or partially contained in that area. It also features a gazetteer so the user can locate by place name where on the map they want to draw their search box.

The Map Preview allows the user to display geospatial data as a previewed sample on a map. The data must be published using a Web Map Service (WMS), a widely used protocol for serving geo-referenced map images from distributed databases.

The code is mostly written in Javascript, and uses OpenLayers. It is integrated into the CKAN extension 'ckanext-os', available here: https://github.com/datagovuk/ckanext-os and offered for reuse under the new BSD license.