[moved] Draw polygons on a map from a notebook

[alvinwan]

Prof. DeNero

I think we want something like https://github.com/pbugnion/gmaps to draw a Google map with polygons & dots on it using the Google Maps Javascript API. It's unclear whether this library has been ported to Python 3. They have a directory that gives me hope: https://github.com/pbugnion/gmaps/tree/master/examples/ipy3

[SamLau95]

The gmaps package was written in Python 2 so imports were broken all over the place when installing using Python 3. I made a fork that seems like it works okay at https://github.com/SamLau95/gmaps

(As an aside, I put it on my personal GH since I don't have the ability to create repos on this org. @papajohn was that intentional?)

[SamLau95]

From what I can tell, the gmaps package doesn't have too much power. In fact, it can only make heatmaps, for the most part. But maybe these are good enough for what we're looking to do.

[alvinwan]

Judging by project 1's title, it seems like we need the polygon to wrap around an area.

gmaps is pretty simple, but it seems like a good guide so far.

[alvinwan]

Didn't know about the 2to3 tool either. That's pretty neat, what you did there.

[papajohn]

We might have to write our own Python wrapper for the Google Maps
Javascript API that works in the IPython environment. I think we need
points and polygons more than heat maps. Hopefully gmaps can get us started
quickly.

On Fri, Jul 17, 2015 at 8:06 PM, Alvin Wan notifications@github.com wrote:

Didn't know about the 2to3 tool either. That's pretty neat, what you did
there.

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[deculler]

That's pretty much where I came to as well. Ought to be able to use google
maps as a background image for basemap in matplotlib.

David E. Culler
Friesen Professor of Computer Science
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
University of California, Berkeley

On Fri, Jul 17, 2015 at 10:36 PM, John DeNero notifications@github.com
wrote:

We might have to write our own Python wrapper for the Google Maps
Javascript API that works in the IPython environment. I think we need
points and polygons more than heat maps. Hopefully gmaps can get us started
quickly.

On Fri, Jul 17, 2015 at 8:06 PM, Alvin Wan notifications@github.com
wrote:

Didn't know about the 2to3 tool either. That's pretty neat, what you did
there.

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#5 (comment).

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[papajohn]

I have an hour to kill. Any suggestions about how I can make progress on this issue? I'll start by reading the Google Maps Javascript API.

[SamLau95]

I'm going to be working on this later tonight. I think that's a good place to start; any documentation / recommendations on that would save us time searching.

[papajohn]

I'm sending everyone an API key over email, since this repo is public. Feel
free to use it as much as you need.

The Maps Embed API is not sufficient for our needs. We have to use the
Javascript API.

On Mon, Jul 20, 2015 at 5:15 PM, Sam Lau notifications@github.com wrote:

I'm going to be working on this later tonight. I think that's a good place
to start; any documentation / recommendations on that would save us time
searching.

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[alvinwan]

@papajohn @SamLau95

Here's how I broke down the application.

IPython integration:

• I found IPython line-and-cell magics helpful. I was originally thinking that all commands would go into this magic.

Generating a map, using Javascript:

• magic injects a separate script
• The JS API is limited to points, I believe. We could settle with dotted lines?

Generating a map, using Python:

• magic is directly invokes a python method
• matplotlib was interesting, although I didn't dig deep enough to see if those are helpful http://matplotlib.org/basemap/. Again, only points.

I'll check back soon, to see if you guys need another hand... once I'm done with ok-IPython integration.

[alvinwan]

@papajohn Sounds good.

[papajohn]

It looks like we can add arbitrary shapes to the map using the JS API:
https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/shapes

On Mon, Jul 20, 2015 at 5:27 PM, Alvin Wan notifications@github.com wrote:

@papajohn https://github.com/papajohn @SamLau95
https://github.com/SamLau95

Here's how I broke down the application.

IPython integration:

• I found IPython line-and-cell magics helpful. I was originally
  thinking that all commands would go into this magic.

Generating a map, using Javascript:

• magic injects a separate script
• The JS API is limited to points, I believe. We could settle with
  dotted lines?

Generating a map, using Python:

• magic is directly invokes a python method
• matplotlib was interesting, although I didn't dig deep enough to see
  if those are helpful http://matplotlib.org/basemap/. Again, only
  points.

I'll check back soon, to see if you guys need another hand... once I'm
done with ok-IPython integration.

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[papajohn]

@alvinwan if you could get us started on this IPython magics business, that would be helpful. I think you have a PR, but there's no javascript checked in. Did you write some already, perhaps? If not, do you know how the interface to IPython works? Thanks!