dutchflight/nlmaps

NL Maps

Automatically configure BRT-Achtergrond map layers in Leaflet, Google Maps, Mapbox, or OpenLayers.

Table of Contents

• What it's for
• Usage example
• Getting set up
• API documentation
• Advanced usage
• Raw tile URLs
• Developing

What it's for

The nlmaps JavaScript library allows you to create layers for Leaflet, Google Maps, Mapbox, or OpenLayers pre-configured to use the BRT Achtergrondkaart layers. You don't need to figure out the tile URLs yourself. To make it even easier, it automatically detect which map library you're using and creates a map pre-loaded with one of the BRT Achtergrondkaart layers.

Usage example

let map = nlmaps.createMap({style: 'grijs', target: 'nlmaps-holder'});

Available map styles:

• standaard: the default BRT-Achtergrondkaart in color
• pastel: in pastel tints
• grijs: in very low saturation
• luchtfoto: aerial imagery

Getting set up

Wizard

The NL Maps wizard makes it super easy to get started with your choice of map library and map style. It gives you a code example that shows you how to include the HTML and JavaScript code to get a working map. It is recommended that you refer to the wizard output even if you are doing things manually.

Manual browser configuration

You need one of Leaflet, Google Maps, Mapbox, or OpenLayers available in your web page. nlmaps autodetects which one is present (and currently considers it an error if more than one is present). For further information on using the respective libraries, refer to their documentation:

• Leaflet
• Google Maps
• Mapbox
• OpenLayers

Finally, you will need the nlmaps library itself, which you can download from the latest release on Github. Download and extract the source code and select the file dist/nlmaps.iife.js Include it on your web page like this:

<script src="url_of_nlmaps.iife.js"></script>

NodeJS

nlmaps has been developed against NodeJS version 6.x.

npm install -S nlmaps

//CommonJS
let nlmaps = require('nlmaps');

//ES2015 Modules
import nlmaps from 'nlmaps';

Leaflet, Google Maps, Mapbox, or OpenLayers will also need to be available in your final web browser scope. One way you can do this is to install a package that wraps your map library for Node; in that case npm install -S it (for example, leaflet-headless, google-maps or openlayers). You can also include it as a script in the html file that loads your final app output.

Note on using Mapbox: if you are using the Mapbox library, follow the instructions for Leaflet. Since Mapbox includes the Leaflet library it will work the same.

API documentation

nlmaps.createMap(options<object>)

Creates a map using Leaflet, Google Maps, Mapbox, or OpenLayers with a given BRT-Achtergrondkaart layer already added as a background layer. Configured with an options object with the following properties:

• style: string (optional). one of 'standaard', 'pastel', 'grijs' or 'luchtfoto', default 'standaard'.
• target: string (required). id of the div in which to create the map.
• center: object (optional). object with latitude and longitude properties for setting the initial viewpoint. Defaults to a position near the centre of the Netherlands.
• zoom: number (optional). Zoom level at which to initialize the viewpoint. Defaults to 8.

returns a map object.

Example

const opts = {
  style: 'grijs',
  target: 'nlmaps-holder',
  center: {
    longitude: 5.4534,
    latitude: 52.3112
  },
  zoom: 15
};
let map = nlmaps.createMap(opts);

nlmaps.geolocate(map, options)

Creates a geolocator control and adds it to the map. Clicking on the control will initiate a browser geolocation API request and center the map on the result. The geolocator can also be initialized to perform a geolocation request immediately, without waiting for the user to click on the control.

• map: object map (required). the map that the geolocator control should be added to.
• options object (optional). An object with one allowed property, start: true|false. If set to true, the geolocator is initialized on page load.

Returns geolocator object. See the nlmaps-geolocator package for more information.

Example

const map = nlmaps.createMap();
const geolocator = nlmaps.geoLocate(map, {start: true})

nlmaps.<leaflet|openlayers>.bgLayer([style<string>]) | nlmaps.googlemaps.bgLayer(map, [style])

Ccreate a layer for the given library configured to fetch tiles for style tile source, or if style is omitted, for the 'standaard' tilesource. In order to use the nlmaps library in conjunction with Mapbox, select leaflet.

NOTE: for Google Maps, you also need to pass the map object as the first argument (so if you pass a style, also pass map first.) This is needed for the creation of the Attribution control since Google Maps doesn't configure this automatically.

Arguments:

• map: map.object (only for Google Maps). The map to which the layer will be added.
• style: string (optional). Name of tilesource to load. One of 'standaard', 'pastel','grijs' or 'luchtfoto'; default 'standaard'.

Returns a layer object.

Example

const layer = nlmaps.openlayers.bgLayer();
layer.addTo(map);

nlmaps.<leaflet|openlayers>.geoLocatorControl(geolocator) | nlmaps.googlemaps.geoLocatorControl(geolocator, map)

Creates a control for the given library which talks to the given geolocator. The control has a very simple interface: click to initiate a geolocation request and have the map be centered on the resulting location. You need to add the control to the map yourself. Arguments:

• geolocator object geolocator (required): the geolocator to which the control should be connected. If you are using this method, you will probably be creating the geolocator yourself with the nlmaps-geolocator package.
• map object map (only for Google Maps): the map with which the control should be associated.

Returns a geolocator control.

Example

import geoLocator from 'nlmaps-geolocator';
import geoLocatorControl from 'nlmaps-leaflet';
const geolocator = geoLocator();
const control = geoLocatorControl(geolocator);
control.addTo(map);

Advanced usage

If you're already using a mapping library in your project, you can use the library-specific bgLayer() function to create a layer object which you can add to your existing map. All you'll need to do first is create a map and set the view. This is what the createMap() function does under the hood, with some default values.

Leaflet

let map = L.map('map').setView([52.20936, 5.970745], 10);
let mylayer = nlmaps.leaflet.bgLayer('grijs').addTo(map);

OpenLayers

let map = new ol.Map({
  view: new ol.View({
    center: ol.proj.fromLonLat([5.97075, 52.20936]),
    zoom: 10
  }),
  target: 'map'
});
let layer = nlmaps.openlayers.bgLayer(); //calling bgLayer with no argument defaults to the 'standaard' style
map.addLayer(layer);

Google Maps

Google Maps requires a bit more code, since we have to add our layer to the mapTypes list manually.

let map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById('map'), {
  center: {lat: 52.20936, lng: 5.970745},
  zoom: 8
});

let mylayer = nlmaps.openlayers.bgLayer(map, 'pastel'); //don't forget to pass map as first argument

//add your map to the available layers
map.mapTypes.set(mylayer.name, mylayer);
//set it as active layer
map.setMapTypeId(mylayer.name);

To comply with Google Maps JavaScript API Terms of Service we will also add a layer switcher control so the standard map is available.

//add control for switching between layers
let mapTypeIds = [mylayer.name, 'roadmap']
map.setOptions({
  mapTypeControl: true,
  mapTypeControlOptions: {
    mapTypeIds: mapTypeIds
  }
});

Include only your library-specific bgLayer function

If you want to save as many bytes as possible, simply include the sub-module for your map library instead of the whole nlmaps package. Each of these modules provides a bgLayer() function which will return a layer for the corresponding map library, and a geoLocatorControl() function which returns a control for the geolocator.

Web browser:

Download the appropriate nlmaps-<maplib>.min.js release Download and extract the source code and select the appropriate file from the dist directory. Upon including the script in your web page, you will have a bgLayer() function available which works with the respective map library. In order to use the nlmaps library in conjunction with Mapbox, select leaflet.

NodeJS:

npm install --save nlmaps-leaflet

//CommonJS
let bgLayer = require('nlmaps-leaflet').bgLayer; //note the use of property off of require

//ES2015
import { bgLayer } from 'nlmaps-leaflet';

this bgLayer() function can subsequently be used in the same way as nlmaps.maplib.bgLayer() from the parent package.

Removing or further manipulating the map or layer

If you want to remove your map object or layer, you can just use the standard method provided by your library. The objects returned from createMap() and bgLayer() are just standard map and layer objects for the appropriate libraries. For example, Leaflet has a map.remove() function which destroys the map and clears all event listeners.

The geolocator and the geoLocatorControls

You can also use the nlmaps-geolocator package directly instead of calling it with nlmaps.geoLocate. This gives you flexibility to implement your own control. Each of the library-specific sub-packages provides a control which interfaces with the nlmaps-geolocator API, but these are quite simple controls with, at the moment, hard-coded css styling. In the future nlmaps may provide a css file but for now, if you want to modify the placement, you should provide your own css and/or create your own control.

Raw tile URLs

The tile URLs which nlmaps configures for you follow these templates:

For BRT-Achtergrondkaart series:

https://geodata.nationaalgeoregister.nl/tiles/service/wmts/{stylename}/EPSG:3857/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

For aerial imagery:

https://geodata.nationaalgeoregister.nl/luchtfoto/rgb/wmts/1.0.0/2016_ortho25/EPSG:3857/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

Developing

Lerna is used for optimising the workflow around managing multi-package JavaScript projects with git and npm. Because of some seeming subtleties of Rollup's interaction with Lerna or NPM, there is a different build script. Use the following procedure to publish the packages:

1. node build-all.js can't use npm run or lerna run because rollup can't handle non-externalized dependencies when lerna is symlinking them.
2. lerna exec npm -- install If you need to update dependencies
3. git add and commit
4. lerna publish choose version numbers for each changed package

Then go to the release page and annotate the latest release for the 'nlmaps' package.