Skip to main content

Real-time tracking with SPOT and Leaflet

I've created a new plugin, Leaflet.SpotTracker, that makes is super easy to add real-time tracking to your maps. The plugin displays tracking data directly from a SPOT Satellite Messenger, or from CartoDB.

One line is enough if you're using the SPOT API:

L.spotTracker('your_feed_id').addTo(map);

This API has a request limit (500 requests within 15 minutes) and it will only fetch the last 50 messages from the last 7 days. I therefore recommend to sync your messages to CartoDB, or similar storage options. You can also load tracking data from CartoDB with the plugin:

L.spotTracker('your_feed_id', {
    api: 'http://turban.cartodb.com/api/v2/sql',
    url: "{api}?q=SELECT * FROM spot WHERE feed_id='{feed}' ORDER BY timestamp"
}).addTo(map);

A few examples from my kayak trip around Foldøy island (it will work better for longer expeditions):

The plugin will draw a line between all locations recorded, and you can style the line as you like.

You can add clickable dots or markers for each location.

Different message types can be styled differently. 

A pulsing marker will show where you currently are:


[ Fullscreen map | Code ]

This is the first version of the Leaflet.SpotTracker plugin. Please report any issues you might have on GitHub.

Comments

Unknown said…
Hi! I have some promblem with import spot data to cartodb..

You can send a sample file config.php?
6 August 2014 at 12:54
Unknown said…
Hi! I have some promblem with import spot data to cartodb..

You can send a sample file config.php?
6 August 2014 at 12:55
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Creating a WebGL Earth with three.js

This blog post will show you how to create a WebGL Earth with three.js , a great JavaScript library which helps you to go 3D in the browser. I was surprised how easy it seemed when reading a blog post  by Jerome Etienne . So I decided to give it a try using earth textures  from one of my favourite cartographers, Tom Patterson . WebGL is a JavaScript API for rendering interactive 3D graphics in modern web browsers without the use of plug-ins. Three.js is built on top of WebGL, and allows you to create complex 3D scenes with a few lines of JavaScript. If your browser supports WebGL you should see a rotating Earth below: [ Fullscreen ] To be able to display something with three.js, you need three things: a scene, a camera and a renderer. var width  = window.innerWidth,     height = window.innerHeight; var scene = new THREE.Scene(); var camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera(45, width / height, 0.01, 1000); camera.position.z = 1.5; var rende...
11 comments
Read more

Creating 3D terrains with Cesium

Previously, I’ve used three.js to create 3D terrain maps in the browser ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ). It worked great for smaller areas, but three.js doesn’t have built-in support for tiling and advanced LOD algorithms needed to render large terrains. So I decided to take Cesium for a spin. Cesium is a JavaScript library for creating 3D globes and 2D maps in the browser without a plugin. Like three.js, it uses WebGL for hardware-accelerated graphics. Cesium allows you to add your own terrain data, and this blog post will show you how. Impressed by the terrain rendering in @CesiumJS - with a 10m elevation model for Norway! Farewell Google Earth. pic.twitter.com/RQKvfu2hBb — Bjørn Sandvik (@thematicmapping) October 4, 2014 Compared to  the dying Google Earth plugin , it's quite complicated to get started with Cesium. The source code is well documented and the live coding Sandcastle is great, but there is a lack of tutorials  and my development slows down when ...
12 comments
Read more

Terrain building with three.js

In my last blog post , we converted a digital elevation model (DEM) to a WebGL-friendly format ( i.e. easy to transfer and parse by JavaScript in the browser). In this blog post, we'll use the elevation data to build a terrain mesh with three.js .  First we need to transfer the terrain data to the browser. The elevation values are stored in a binary file as 16-bit unsigned integers. This page explains how you can send and receive binary data using JavaScript typed arrays. I've created a TerrainLoader by adapting the  XHRLoader . You can also use this function: function loadTerrain(file, callback) {   var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();   xhr.responseType = 'arraybuffer';   xhr.open('GET', file, true);   xhr.onload = function(evt) {         if (xhr.response) {       callback(new Uint16Array(xhr.response));     }   };     xhr.send(null); } Loading elevation data with the Terrai...
16 comments
Read more