使用Drupal构建地图式网站实战

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"Mapping with Drupal - 由Alan Palazzolo和Thomas Turnbull编著，这本教程详细介绍了如何使用Drupal开发地图式网站功能。" 在 Drupal 平台上构建地图功能，可以帮助用户以直观、交互的方式呈现地理位置数据，这对于旅游、房地产、活动策划等领域的网站尤其有用。"Mapping with Drupal" 一书提供了深入的指导，教你如何充分利用 Drupal 的强大功能来创建这样的应用。首先，书中的内容可能涵盖了 Drupal 中与地图集成的基础模块，如 Geofield 和 Geolocation，这些模块允许你添加和管理地理坐标数据。Geofield 允许用户输入经纬度或选择地图上的位置，而 Geolocation 可以自动检测用户的位置，为用户提供更个性化的体验。其次，书中可能会详细介绍如何配置和自定义 OpenLayers 模块，这是一个用于在 Drupal 网站上展示地图的强大工具。OpenLayers 允许你使用多种地图服务，如 Google Maps、Bing Maps 或 OpenStreetMap，创建交互式地图，并添加图层、标记、信息窗口等元素。此外，书中可能会涵盖地理围栏（geofencing）和基于位置的服务，这些功能可以依据用户的位置触发特定的行为，比如显示附近的兴趣点或发送定制的消息。对于需要跟踪移动设备位置的应用，这部分内容尤为重要。数据的导入和导出也是关键部分，书中可能解释了如何处理 CSV 或 GPX 文件中的地理数据，以及如何将这些数据与 Drupal 内容类型关联，以便在地图上显示。除此之外，你可能会学到如何利用 Views 模块来创建地图视图，这允许你根据特定的条件和过滤器动态显示地图内容。同时，书里可能还会讨论如何利用 Drupal 的钩子和API扩展地图功能，以及如何通过主题化控制地图的外观和感觉。最后，安全性、性能优化和用户体验设计也是“Mapping with Drupal”中不可或缺的部分，书中的作者可能会提供最佳实践和技巧，确保你的地图功能既实用又安全。 “Mapping with Drupal”是一本面向 Drupal 开发者的实用指南，它将帮助你构建功能丰富的地图应用程序，提升网站的互动性和实用性。无论你是 Drupal 新手还是经验丰富的开发者，这本书都将是你探索地理信息在 Drupal 中应用的宝贵资源。

The Power of Maps

Maps, generally defined, probably first appeared over 18,000 years ago (see Wikipe-

dia), but it wasn’t really until the 1500s that maps (as we think of them today) were

produced in large numbers (Woods, Rethinking the Power of Maps, page 27). Around

that time, maps became significant navigational and military aids and powerful tools

for cities, states, and nations to help organize boundaries and administrative activities.

These maps started to outline and actually define states and other political boundaries.

Woods writes, “the map possessed an all but unique power to give the elusive idea of

the state concrete form, to those outside looking in, certainly, but also to those living

within.” This idea that maps have the power to literally define the world around us,

and not just represent it, still holds true today and is in your hands as a map maker.

It is important to keep in mind that while maps are driven by data that has been col-

lected, often from observed data, maps are not inherently objective artifacts. A common

perception of a map is that it is a neutral display of collected data, similar to a spread-

sheet. But there are many questions when looking at a spreadsheet or a map: How

accurate is the data? How was the data collected? What data is not presented? These

issues show the subjectivity of maps.

Maps are akin to statistics. This definition of statistics from Wikipedia could apply to

mapmaking: “Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and inter-

pretation of data.” In statistics, data gets collected, aggregated, and then put through

various mathematical algorithms to either prove or disprove a hypothesis, usually

around some preexisting idea about the world. Statistics can easily be misused by ap-

plying specific methodologies to ensure a certain analytical outcome. In the same way,

a mapmaker collects and combines a huge amount of data, simplifies and codifies it,

and then presents it on paper or a computer screen so as to assert some specific idea.

Depending on the decisions made throughout the process, that idea can be conveyed

in many ways.

Maps are art. “Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items (often with

symbolic significance) in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses,

emotions, and intellect” (Wikipedia). Once data has been collected for a map, there

are still many decisions to be made on how to visually communicate that data on a

map, such as symbols, colors, interactions, or annotations. How does one symbolize a

church? What color is a county road? Where will the legend be? With maps, as with

art, every decision, no matter how small, is often intentional, so to convey a very specific

vision to the viewer. In these decisions is the power to communicate with maps.

Story Telling

Maps tell a story. Users expect a map to communicate an idea to them. This could be

a story about how there are over a billion people that live on less than a dollar a day

(see Figure 1-1). Or the story could be more complex, describing the rise, climax, and

2 | Chapter 1: Why Map with Drupal

when no deceit is intended, the best mapping can, and often does, mislead for specific

purposes. And even if what your map asserts may be trivial, by using map APIs such

as Google or Bing map tiles, you are asserting all of the ideas and ideologies of that

service as well as your own.

All this is to say that mapmakers are not cognitive agents parachuted into a pre-given

world with a chain and a theodolite, to measure and record what they find there. Rather,

they’re extraordinarily selective creators of a world—not the world, but a world—whose

features they bring into being with a map. Mapmakers propose this, not that, observe

these things, not those...

—Denis Woods, Rethinking the Power of Maps, page 51

As a quick example, take a look at this map of California from 1940, which focuses on

trying to convince the user that California an amazing place with lots of fun opportu-

nities (Figure 1-2). This is in stark contrast to what a modern Google Maps Road Map

of California does, focusing on providing road data and specific relevant features

(Figure 1-3).

Conversations in Maps

In modern life, maps have become an almost instinctive way of seeing our world. In

fact, they are our strongest, practically our only, way to perceive the world around us

as a whole (given that most of us don’t get to go on a space walk). Maps are in the glove

compartments of our cars, on our phones, in the newspaper, on hospital walls, and on

the streets. It is hard to imagine a world without maps: indeed, without maps, it is hard

to imagine a world.

What did we do before maps? Well, we had many other mechanisms to describe place

and boundaries. The most important was language; people described where things were

by referencing common ideas and objects. This conversation involved both telling and

asking about place and detail. Your maps are in conversation with your users. With

computer-based mapping, especially web mapping, interactivity allows the map to talk

back to the user, whether it be a pop up with more detailed information, by being able

to zoom out to see more of the world, or a hint on what is nearby. Your map should

be a lucid, truthful, and friendly conversationalist.

Why Use Maps

So why map at all, and why make maps on your website? As described in the previous

sections, mapping is not an inherently objective way to display data: maps are a mech-

anism for having a conversation, telling a story, or persuading; a map is a communi-

cation tool and an art. Still, it is important to decide if this will enhance your web

application, and ultimately give your users a better experience, whatever that may be.

Maps can be a bad idea.

4 | Chapter 1: Why Map with Drupal

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使用Drupal构建地图式网站实战

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