Deprecating Mapbox GL Style Sheet Support

For an update on the situation go read the latest.  Short version:  We're putting it all back.

If you follow the open source mapping world (and why would you?), there's been some interesting rumblings about Mapbox Intellectual Property of late.

I don't totally understand this, but Mapbox is unhappy with the stated goal of copying Mapbox Streets.

Is Mapbox Wrong?

Legally, I haven't a clue.  Ethically, they're probably quite right.  Their participation in the community earns them the benefit of the doubt.

So then, if we take them at their word, the word is "Thou shalt not copy Mapbox Streets".

It's an interesting word and it kicked off a bit of examination of my project.  Am I using any Mapbox IP and what are the consequences?

Mapbox Now and Mapbox Future

Is this really a big deal?  Mapbox is a good open source citizen and they're clearly trying to be very gentle.

But here's the thing, Mapbox took venture capital.  A sale is a likely outcome and those people aren't going to be as nice.  Think Oracle and Java.

So, what Mapbox IP do we use and what should I do about it?

Mapbox Vector Tiles

My users do use vector tiles.  Some Mapbox hosted, but always their own custom data.  Some users even have their own services.  Both cases are fine.

Vector tiles are undeniably open.  They've stated so any number of times and data formats are well understood in IP law.  I think we're good there.

Mapbox GL Style Sheets

This one's dodgier.  Though the format itself is open, there are restrictions on the style sheets we can use.  I can follow those restrictions, but will my users?  Ha!

Most open source users consider anything publicly available to be fair game.  The Mapbox Streets styles are the best out there.  There's no way they won't borrow from them.

So now we've got a style format that's tempting you to cheat.  That's strike one.

Data formats encode technical thinking.  If I implement OpenGL ES shaders to support Mapbox GL Styles then how different are those from Mapbox's own shaders?  It's a question that gives me pause.  That's strike two.

Goodbye to Mapbox GL Style Sheets

The style sheet format is cool, but it's too dangerous.  I'm ripping it out of the toolkit for version 2.5.  If you're using it, grab the code and make your own copy.

We do have Styled Layer Descriptor format support coming out soon.  Not as cool, but a nice safe OGC standard.

Digital Globe Tutorial

We put together a tutorial for Digital Globe layers.

Alaska is pretty

Digital Globe has a pretty nice API based off of Mapbox technology.  Or administered by Mapbox?  Not totally clear on that.  Anyway, it's good.

The Tutorial

All the good stuff is in the tutorial.  I suggest you go check that out.  Here's another picture.

Trippy.  Or elevation.  One of those

Anyway, Digital Globe is a great source of high resolution timely satellite imagery.  Because of course it is.  That's what they do.

Swift Support

It's new, it's trendy, it's the latest thing: Swift support in WhirlyGlobe-Maply!

Swift has been in there since 2.4.1 (soon 2.5), but we haven't really pointed it out.

Why Swift?

I'm not the audience for Swift.  My favorite language is a mixture of C++ and Objective-C.  You get STL containers, blocks, and ARC.  It's awesome.  Why are you backing away?  Let me tell you more!

This is why I work with other humans.  José was quite interested in Swift and did the bulk of the work.

Swift Interfaces & Documentation

The main issue was Swift bindings for all the various methods.  Swift can interface to Objective-C just fine, but if you want to make it pleasant, it should look like this.

He did that everywhere and tested it out.  The result is a nice, pleasant Swift interface to the main library.  But we didn't stop there.

Feel the learning!

The tutorials have tabs for Objective-C and Swift!

Swift Tests

In the new AutoTester app (post forthcoming) José wrote a bunch of Swift test cases.  These have a pleasing rhythm to them.

Swift-ly into the Future

We're getting user submitted github Issues in Swift now.  Not about Swift mind you, just in Swift.  So that seems to be working.

As Apple changes the language we'll keep up and I think a few new WhirlyGlobe-Maply apps may be written in Swift.

Dark Sky for Android

They launched a few weeks ago, but we haven't talked about it yet (here).  Dark Sky for Android!

That's some weather.

Man, that was a lot of work.

Weather Apps Are Popular Apps

The service, the UI, the data, notifications, and the globe are the big pieces of Dark Sky.  We make the globe.

Dark Sky is really popular and has a particularly loyal following.  In just about any group I meet, there's a good percentage who use it regularly.  I'm not reticent about using that fact.

So Much Android So Little Time

The Android port took a while on my end.  I could have done a hacky version, but that wouldn't work for everyone else.  No, we had to port the toolkit in a way Android developers would find friendly.

Totally not a screenshot from Keynote.

The C++ core, which does the rendering and manages the low level objects is (will be) the same on iOS and Android.  But everything above that level had to be new.

Developers expect their toolkits to be familiar on the local platforms.  That means Swift interfaces and dispatch queues for iOS, Runnables and integer colors for Android.  And lots and lots of other things.  This takes time.

Back To Dark Sky

For Dark Sky Android we ported the parts they needed and filled out the underpinnings.  This was by far the biggest app yet released with WhirlyGlobe-Maply on Android.

That's some more weather.

Dark Sky launched on Android with a subscription model.  Apple totally thought of that first and recently announced a similar one.  I'd love to see that take off on both platforms.

In the mean time, go buy it!

Welcome to wetter.com!

I'm proud to welcome the German wetter.com iOS app to the WhirlyGlobe-Maply family.

The wetter.com app presents regional weather, including predictions, on a map.

Details, details, details

It's funny to celebrate a flat map when the toolkit does a globe.  But for a regional app, the globe doesn't make sense.  The flat map simplifies things for the user and lets us optimize the data transport.  All the good stuff we do on the globe works on the map.

The app itself shows current predictions, recent radar, and cloud cover.  As well as some other cool non-map related stuff like weather cams.

Are those labels on top of the weather?  Oh my!

Mobile hardware is really good these days.  Since we're no longer planning for the iPad2 we can do some really great OpenGL ES shader work.  If you zoom in close, you'll see some great spatial and temporal interpolation.

The Inevitable Marketing Push

There are a lot of regional weather apps for iOS and Android.  Not so much in the United States where almost all the data comes from NOAA.

In the rest of the world weather data tends to be less free and more complicated.  Add to that language and local preference and you get a lot of interesting, distinct regional weather apps.  If you make one of those and want to upgrade your graphics, let's talk!

Android Support Contract

The Android version of WhirlyGlobe-Maply is coming along really well.  So well that we're ready to introduce a support contract.

Support is a tricky proposition.  Like any product, we're betting we'll bring in more than it costs to make.  In this case, that means the cost of fixing bugs.

How Does Support Work?

It's pretty basic.  You ask questions and we answer them.  You find bugs and we fix them.  Oh and you pay money.  That's important.

We've had the iOS support program going for more than a year now and I like it!  It's helped move a number of projects forward.  Users feel free to ask deep questions, get stuck less, and we get a sense of what's hard and what's not.  Oh, and we spend some of that money on boring features.

You can communicate with us via Slack or Github Issues or just email directly if you're being all stealthy.

Shut Up and Take My Money

Android support for WhirlyGlobe-Maply is $1200 (USD) per year.  For comparison, iOS support is $850.  Yeah, Android is more money.  We're totally 100% behind the Android version, but it is just more work.

I've been secretly selling the Android Support Contract for months now and it's going well.  Get yours while the offer lasts!  [It'll last a long time.]

Integration with Micello Indoor Maps

A few months ago we were approached by Micello about displaying their indoor maps in WhirlyGlobe-Maply.  They provide indoor maps to a ton of interesting companies.

Taste the Capitalism!

Seemed like an excellent idea so we went ahead and whipped up a tutorial and demo.

Micello Tutorial

Micello was kind enough to provide a few examples.  We chose the Westfield Valley Fair mall near Cupertino.  I used to live there and have a certain fondness for it.  There was also a recent story about the minimum wage change that cut right through the mall which we incorporated into the display.

If you've got a Micello account feel free to work through the tutorial and let us know if you have nay questions.

On To the Future!

Ranen put together a rather nice example app, which is what you build in the tutorial.  It shows off some fairly clever display with styles, selection and a few other things.  But we could do more for optimization, label layout, and general display flexibility.

Our example was built on the globe, but you could as easily put it on a regular map.  Doing something special for pure indoor map display is also an interesting idea, though this seems to work well enough.

WhirlyGlobe-Maply is an open source toolkit, so you can take the code and run with it.  Feel free!  But we do consulting if you've got a budget and some requirements.