Explore is an interactive map application built by Trafford Data Lab to visualise spatial datasets relating to Trafford. It uses the following technologies:
- Leaflet JS JavaScript mapping library
- Lab_leaflet our Leaflet JS wrapper library
- Leaflet.reachability our reachability Leaflet plugin which uses the isochrones API from OpenRouteService
- Leaflet.Locate Leaflet plugin
- Leaflet.markercluster Leaflet plugin
- Mapbox GL JS JavaScript library
- Mapbox-gl-leaflet (our customised fork) JavaScript binding from Mapbox GL JS to the Leaflet API
- OS Zoomstack Ordnance Survey vector tiles
- OpenStreetMap raster tiles
- CartoDB raster tiles
The datasets available to the application are described within the JSON meta file datasets.json and stored within our open_data repository.
Explore uses 4 URL hash parameters to allow sharing of the map state:
- cluster
- dataset
- latlng
- zoom
To display a particular dataset when the application loads, add #dataset= followed by the dataset key from the meta file to the URL. For example, https://www.trafforddatalab.io/explore/#dataset=green_spaces will display the green spaces dataset from Ordnance Survey. For point datasets, you can control whether the data should be clustered or not using by adding &cluster=true|false e.g. https://www.trafforddatalab.io/explore/#dataset=cctv&cluster=false.
You can also go to a particular position and zoom level on a map by using the latlng and zoom parameters as demonstrated by the following link: https://www.trafforddatalab.io/explore/#zoom=18&latlng=53.42181530009491%20-2.3303031000000156.
These parameters are automatically updated as you interact with the map, so you can simply copy the URL to share and/or bookmark the map state.