[Mesh] Fwd: [LibreMap] LibreMap news

[Jenny Ryan]

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- -------- Original Message --------
Subject: [LibreMap] LibreMap news
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2013 03:58:42 -0800
From: André Gaul <gaul at web-yard.de>
Reply-To: LibreMap Discussion <discussion at lists.libremap.net>
To: LibreMap Discussion <discussion at lists.libremap.net>

Hej!

I just returned from the 30c3 in Hamburg -- it was very exhausting yet
overwhelmingly productive for community networks in general and LibreMap
in particular.

So what's going on in the LibreMap universe? The most important messages
are all good news:
 * the API is usable. \o/
  --> an instance runs on http://libremap.net/api
 * the webui is usable. \o/
  --> an instance runs on http://libremap.net
 * both the API and webui are now based on npm+bower+gruntjs which
   takes away the pain from managing dependencies and deploying
   (no more couchdb tools like 'erica' are needed)
 * a submit agent for openwrt was just added. [2]
 * conversion scripts from openwifimap and altermap are available. [3,4]
 * the number of users starts to grow, but we need to continue to
   spread the word about the benefits of a global router database.
 * I also want to thank all contributors and early adopters who helped
   a lot with their feedback!

Notes and future work for the API:
 * the basic JSON schema is mature but we should go further and
   provide a standardized way of providing additional information
   like contact, place, software, network/wifi interfaces, antennas, ...
   We don't have to reinvent the wheel here for most data. :)
 * the usage of JSON-LD was proposed in [5].
 * endpoint names should be pluralized, see [6].
 * the installation of couchdb+geocouch still is the main obstacle when
   setting up LibreMap and we should provide a clear documentation for
   this. An even better approach would be to provide up-to-date
   debian/ubuntu couchdb+geocouch packages in a ppa or in the
   official debian repo.

- --> the API/schema changes should be discussed now such that we can
freeze the API in the next weeks. Nothing hurts more than an unstable
API... ;)

Notes and future work for the webui:
 * models+views are based on backbonejs+leafletjs
 * the map view switches between two modes automatically based on the
   number of routers in the current viewport:
    - coarse mode: only clusters of all available routers are shown
                   (aggregated in the couchdb via map/reduce view)
    - fine mode: all routers are downloaded from the couchdb and the
                 user can choose between several filters to control
                 which routers+links are actually displayed.
   The two modes are necessary in order to scale to a global level.
   There's a demo of the technique with 50000 nodes [1].
 * the webui is very modular and easy to extend.
 * especially the filters are easy to write and everybody is invited
   to contribute!
 * configuration (base layers, filters, ...) can be adapted for each
   installation by modifying the config.json file.

Notes on the openwrt submit agent [2]:
 * extensible via small and configurable lua plugins
   (/etc/config/libremap). Available plugins:
    - contact information
    - location
    - system information
    - wireless links (physical links)
 * I will contribute an olsr plugin in the next days.
 * Nico is about to write a batman-adv plugin.
 * ideas for more plugins:
    - automatic determination of location via wifi networks that
      can be received
    - links for more routing protocols: babel, bmx6, bgp, ...
    - network interfaces
 * plugin contributions are very welcome! Please file a pull request
   for new plugins.

As you can see, we're on a good way and you're all invited to:
 * check out the current version
 * set up replication between your and other couchdb instances
   (coordination should happen through this mailing list)
 * file bug reports, feature requests or proposals for improvements
 * contribute code, especially for the webui and submit agent.

Cheers from the LibreMap maintainers,
   André and Nico

[1] http://couchmap.d00d3.net/
[2] https://github.com/libremap/libremap-agent-openwrt
[3] https://github.com/libremap/libremap-adapter-openwifimap
[4] https://github.com/nicoechaniz/libremap-adapter-altermap
[5] https://github.com/libremap/libremap-api/issues/6
[6] https://github.com/libremap/libremap-api/issues/3

- -- 
Homepage   http://page.math.tu-berlin.de/~gaul
github     https://github.com/andrenarchy
Twitter    https://twitter.com/#!/andrenarchy
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           (you won't find me on facebook!)
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