
Show HN: MapHub – A Google My Maps Alternative, Based on OpenStreetMap Data - hyperknot
https://maphub.net/
======
JorgeGT
Very interesting and good looking! Only a small comment: using images under
Creative Commons licensing is not as simple as grabbing the image and using it
as you please. Both your top [1] and bottom [2] images are licensed with the
BY clause, meaning you must give appropriate credit.

[1] [https://www.planet.com/gallery/orange-
river/](https://www.planet.com/gallery/orange-river/)

[2]
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/21604970430](https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/21604970430)

~~~
pcl
This is a bit off-topic, but I'm surprised that the NASA image is listed as
CC-BY. I was under the impression that NASA imagery was public domain by
default.

Their website [1] says "NASA content [...] generally are not copyrighted." It
then goes on to say that "NASA should be acknowledged as the source of the
material." IANAL, but I would assume that if the data is not copyrighted, then
there's no need to attribute the source, making that "should" pretty
toothless.

[1]
[http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html](http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html)

~~~
JorgeGT
Note the "generally" there. Further down it says explicitly "NASA material is
not protected by copyright unless noted". In their Flickr page they have
selected the CC BY-NC 2.0 license so this works, I think, as a notice of
copyright that at the same time grants you a license to use the image
(provided you follow the terms of said license).

~~~
maxerickson
If it is a work of NASA itself, it shouldn't be subject to copyright.
Wikimedia has noticed their assertions:

[https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikilegal/NASA_images](https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikilegal/NASA_images)

It's easy to imagine that NASA has more limited rights to reproduce and
redistribute images produced by their partners though, and they have lots of
partners.

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benjlang
Good job! Check out what I'm working on:

[http://mapme.com/](http://mapme.com/)

[http://mapme.com/stories](http://mapme.com/stories)

If you ever want to chat maps, ben@mapme.com :)

~~~
hangonhn
I just gave this a twirl and already dislike it. I can't even use it unless I
sign up. So now I have to give you something before you've demonstrated any
value to me.

Also, why is "category" required? Is a global namespace of map names the
smartest thing to do? How often do you think people will create a map called
"SF" or "Golden Gate Park"? There will be name collision all the time.

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testrecord
Hey this looks cool. I see it's a beta, but some ideas that would be really
useful to me and maybe others. MapBox (particularly the desktop version) can
create custom stylesheets and do high quality image exports. I like those
features if I don't plan to leave the map on the web (e.g. print, email). It
would be good also to view the square area covered inside a polygon and be
able to edit one once it's placed.

~~~
hyperknot
Hi! Would a PDF export be good for your print / email case? About square area,
do you mean to calculate the area in square kilometres and display it for
polygons? You should be able to edit a polygon once it's placed, just click
the "move" icon in the top right corner of the sidebar.

~~~
testrecord
1) Yeah, definitely. I suppose one could screenshot, but having a little more
fine-tuning as far as dimensions, image size, etc is far more useful. 2) For
sure, much like the border distance. 3) Ah, I didn't see the edit icon. Very
cool.

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dublinben
I love this. Anything that makes it easier for people to create custom maps
using their data and OSM is fantastic in my book.

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paulrouget
The demo is great! Looks very promising. Question: would it be possible to add
metro lines (not just the stations)?

~~~
hyperknot
Hi! Yes, definitely possible! Actually, if you go to the basemaps tab in the
right side, you can find some specialised basemaps, for example Thunderforest
/ Transport has a great visual style for train and metro lines.

Now, talking about integrating it into MapHub rendered maps, it's definitely
possible. I am using the open source osm2vectortiles [1] project, and the
older, open source MapBox tm2 styles [2] to render the tiles, so changes can
even be contributed by the community!

[1]
[https://github.com/osm2vectortiles/osm2vectortiles](https://github.com/osm2vectortiles/osm2vectortiles)
[2] [https://github.com/mapbox/mapbox-studio-osm-
bright.tm2](https://github.com/mapbox/mapbox-studio-osm-bright.tm2)

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krat0sprakhar
I've long left Google maps and moved onto Mapbox for all my mapping needs in
side-projects. Can someone please point out how MapHub is better / different
from Mapbox?

~~~
hyperknot
Hi, I made MapHub. So MapBox I believe is targeting developers to create
custom map solutions, not simple users who would like to share a list of
favourite hiking trails, make a guide for their neighbourhood or just insert
an embed on a website. The point of using MapBox I think is more if you have
loads of data, or if you are looking for a custom map solution, like Strava or
Foursquare uses them in their mobile app.

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hangonhn
More than anything else, can you please add a distance calculator for the
track tool? They had this in Google Maps classic but the new one removed it. I
used Google Maps to plan the runs for my running team and the inability to
estimate the distance is a huge problem. Google Maps has it as two separate
tools now. So now I have to draw each leg of a running route twice: once to
estimate where the mile is and another to actually save the route.

~~~
hyperknot
What kind of distance tool would you use for your running team? We have one
built in, where once finishing a track you can save it's length on the right
side. It's only in metric units at the moment.

Would you like to have points on each kilometer / mile along the route?

~~~
hangonhn
It would be great if it would keep updating the distance as I drag the track
along. Basically my use case is like this: I need to plan a route from
starting point and it has to go for X number of miles. To satisfy that
requirement I have to figure out which way to turn or which streets to take
and how much farther I have to draw the route.

Here's an example of such a map:

[https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zyGHTR9wg3w8.ki2OYJV5...](https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zyGHTR9wg3w8.ki2OYJV5zJkQ&usp=sharing)

It would be great if there is a number under the cursor that tells me how long
my current track is as I move the cursor and add waypoints and maybe another
number to tell me the distance between the last way point and the cursor. Does
that make sense?

~~~
hyperknot
Thanks, totally makes sense! I'll try to implement it like this!

~~~
hangonhn
If you implement it, you will have one paying customer right here. I would be
happy to pay $50/yr to use a service like that.

~~~
hyperknot
Thanks, we will definitely implement it! If you would like, send me an email
so I can tell you once it's ready.

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twphonebillsoon
Neat project. I haven't signed up and tried it out yet, but I see that this
allows you to upload map data on top of OpenStreetMap stuff and share it.
Depending on how the data is mixed in, the OpenStreetMap ODBL might require
users to share their data back with the OSM project. Are you aware of this? Do
you notify your users of this as well?

The ODBL is kind of like copyleft license for databases (gross
oversimplification)

~~~
hyperknot
Hi. When someone uploads a GPX or KML file, we have no knowledge about where
is that data coming from, so we cannot display a notice either. Same as if
someone would upload a GeoJSON to GitHub, GitHub would have no idea about
where was that GeoJSON sourced from. I believe users should take care about
giving proper credits in the map descriptions, and if not the author should be
notified about it (which we'll be addressing with an issues like feature in
the future).

~~~
twphonebillsoon
I'm not a lawyer so don't take any of this as fact.

Its not an attribution issue. Its more that if the data is mixed into the
database in a certain way, that data must also be made available under terms
similar to the ODBl. So if I have the locations of the best Thai restaurants
in a city, and I add this data to OpenStreetMap data, refine it _based_ on the
existing OSM data and present it, I must make my restaurant data available
under the terms of the ODBl.

If you are just overlaying data on top of image tiles generated from OSM data
I think you are okay, but once you mix the data it becomes weird. For example
if the OSM data has a few of those restaurants in it, and you modify your data
set to remove them so there's no duplicates, I think thats a case where you
must share your data back with the OSM project. You can check out the OSM
(non-dev) mailing lists for more discussion on this.

~~~
hyperknot
Hi. I think I understand your issue now. So, most importantly, any data what a
user creates / uploads to MapHub is totally independent from the "big" OSM
database. Think about it as two totally separate datasets, we will never mix
them!

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dagurp
This is brilliant. Easy to use and the tutorial is actually helpful.

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chippy
Nice. I love the choice of basemaps, including the lovely Thunderforest ones
which you don't see many places!

I liked the download as KML - it loaded up okay in Google Earth. Would be good
to have map state in the URL bar, e.g. map position and probably basemap
selected for sharing which I would imagine is in your list.

~~~
hyperknot
Thanks! Yes, position is definitely on our list, as well as to linking to
individual points. Can you explain how would you use the basemap in the URL
bar? If you select a basemap on your own map, it'd be saved so there is no
need to overwrite it in the URL.

~~~
chippy
Ahh yes it is saved, but since it's possible for any user to change the
basemap of any map in their own session (but not save it) they may want to
have that choice persist if they then share it further. It's a possibility I
guess. You could use a short code to show base=T1 for example

~~~
hyperknot
I see, so you would like to have the option to override the basemap by an URL
parameter before sharing! Noted.

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c0nsumer
Is there a way to query OSM tags directly to build maps? For example, I do a
bunch of mountain bike trail mapping, and due to judicious tagging I can
pretty easily select all the assets I'd like in a map with a series of
queries.

Can I select ways using a query and have them become something I wish to call
out?

~~~
hyperknot
Do you know overpass turbo [1]? You can use it to make a query over an area
and export it to a GeoJSON file, which you can directly import to MapHub.

[1] [https://overpass-turbo.eu/](https://overpass-turbo.eu/)

~~~
c0nsumer
I didn't until a few minutes ago... Sounds like this'll do what's needed. One
thing I'm not clear on is if it updates as the OSM data changes?

~~~
hyperknot
No, it won't, unless you manually update it. I am working on making an API for
developers, where you can create/update map data programmatically, so you will
be able to do it in a cron job for example.

~~~
c0nsumer
Thank you; that'd be cool if it would, but it'd definitely need to be
optional... Don't want some rogue edits making your map suddenly look like
crap.

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maxxxxx
This is really nice! Is there a chance to get elevation profiles for GPX
tracks? Or an elevation profile for a manually drawn track? this would be
super helpful for hiking planning.

~~~
hyperknot
Hi, yes, I totally agree, calculating elevation profiles for imported and
drawn tracks is a very important feature which we are working on.

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photon_off
It would great if I could use this site without first having to make an
account. Jsbin and jsfiddle support anonymous usage quite well, and because of
that are incredibly useful.

~~~
hyperknot
Hi, jsbin/jsfiddle/gist like sharing is one feature we are discussing, but it
is quite a delicate issue and not without risks, so we still haven't decided
about it yet.

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Bedon292
Very cool. Love the ability to create a simple map, and have so many different
basemaps it works with. Will definitely be keeping an eye on it.

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zimpenfish
Dunno if it's the site or Iron or what but I get dodgy UTF8 output and a lack
of UK postcodes from the search.

e.g. searching for E14 9TP, I get this -
[https://rjp.is/tmp/badsearchwonkyutf8.png](https://rjp.is/tmp/badsearchwonkyutf8.png)

~~~
hyperknot
Hi, sorry to hear that. At the moment, we are using Mapzen Search [1] for
geocoding, and unfortunately it has issues like this. They are working
actively on fixing it, and we are also looking into implementing our own
hybrid approach which would combine multiple search providers.

[1] [https://mapzen.com/projects/search](https://mapzen.com/projects/search)

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glaberficken
Very nice to use, the tutorial is simple and well done. One major road block
for me was the signup to save page

kept giving me a "Try again" error Tried different emails and passwords but it
kept giving the same non descriptive "Try again" error.

~~~
hyperknot
I'm sorry to hear that this bug is still present. I've tried to diagnose it so
many times, but it only happens randomly and only when running through
CloudFlare. I believe that at the core of the issues is that some requests
arrive twice, thus the system is trying to register the same user twice.

~~~
glaberficken
I don't think that's the reason, otherwise I would be able to login with the
users I tried to register. And I can´t

I get "No account matches..."

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hyperknot
Sorry, it's a different error, I've just found out, your password should be at
least 8 characters in length, is it possible that you are trying a shorter
one?

~~~
glaberficken
Ok that works, you really need to provide meaningful hints for that, otherwise
i'm afraid your signup numbers will be really low.

~~~
hyperknot
I fixed it now. Thanks for your comment showing it!

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nicoboo
It's working greatly. I stress-tested it with a few of my custom geo reference
data for administrative or socio-demographic statistics. Feel free to reach me
by mail if you want to test it further (FR-IRIS)

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aembleton
Awesome, I can import a GPX file. Going to have a good play with this tonight.

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0XAFFE
Creating a track from a route (Graphhopper/Mapzen) would be very cool.

~~~
hyperknot
Do you mean calculating driving / walking / cycling directions from A to B? If
so, it's definitely on out roadmap!

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benmathes
Would love to upload/import KML, as I have a bunch of detailed climbing/hiking
maps in google that I don't have time to recreate.

~~~
hyperknot
Hi. KML import is fully supported, we especially tested KML exported from
Google Earth and Google My Maps. Just click the Import button in the sidebar
and select your file.

~~~
benmathes
huh, couldn't see it. sorry.

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chris-at
just some feedback: I got stuck in the tutorial at "Give a title to your map."
\- it just sits there and won't go away (no next button). yes, I gave it a
title.

~~~
hyperknot
I'm sorry that you are experiencing this bug. There should be a done button
appearing once you enter any character. What browser / device are you using?
Are you in the tutorial?

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Mizza
It's nice that this isn't Google, and it's a good product, but it's still a
non-Free product.

I'm still looking for a FaiF version of something like this - does anybody
know of one? Seems like a slap in the face to all of the OSM developers to use
an entirely Free stack with a proprietary veneer on it.

~~~
hyperknot
Hi, I made MapHub. There is nothing I have against open sourcing parts or the
full MapHub product, but it's a very delicate decision, so I'd like to wait
and think more about it. Would a GitLab like business model make it more
attractive for you?

~~~
a3_nm
Contrary to what the parent comment suggested, there's no problem with using
OSM data for a proprietary service, but the home page says "An open platform",
which I think is very misleading. Your platform is built on open data, but
apparently it is not at all "open" itself.

