Vector Tiles - 2017 NC GIS Conference Talk
Fun with HTTPS/H2 Part 2
Maximum warp engage! Let’s put H2 through a simple performance test.
Fun with HTTPS/H2 Part 1
Spooling out a new HTTPS/HTTP2 app with tools like nginx and Let’s Encrypt is pretty easy these days. Converting current HTTP apps to HTTPS is where all the fun happens. And by fun I mean swearing.
Parent and Iframe Communication
Making your own vector tiles with Tippecanoe
Want to build your own vector tiles? tippecanoe is the droid you’re looking for. There are two steps to this process:
- Get your layers in GeoJSON.
- Run tippecanoe.
Optional steps include proclaiming bullshit loudly at the idea it really did what it said it did that quickly, and setting your other tile making tools on fire.
Pitch toggle control for Mapbox GL JS
Government types tend to want a button for everything, and I try to dissuade them from that as much as possible. However, getting a Mapbox GL JS map to do the tilter-whirl thing requires a complex UI interaction. A little help is in order.
Grabbing and Chopping Vector Tiles
This morning I noticed a tweet indicating OSM2VectorTiles is no longer maintained and that users should switch to OpenMapTiles.
I’ve been looking forward to this ever since the world’s most polite saber rattling from Mapbox over the data schema used by OSM2VectorTiles. I had some design work I wanted to do, but I was holding out for this and Maputnik, the styling tool from Lukas Martinelli I contributed an embarrassingly small amount to on Kickstarter. They are both here now, and if you haven’t tried it, Maputnik is really good.
This also makes for a good opportunity for a couple of blog posts on dealing with vector tiles. In this one we’ll look at how I grab and chop up vector tiles for Mecklenburg’s use.
Extruding polygons in Mapbox GL JS 0.26
From Gulp to NPM Scripts
The modern web developer has to automate lots of little tasks, and there are lots of tools to help. Grunt? Gulp? Webpack? I’ve tried them all, and there are good things to be said about all of them. My favorite is Gulp, as it feels like writing real Javascript. The others feel like monkeying around the engine of somebody else’s car.
For a recent project refactor, I decided to give NPM scripts a go. It went really well.
Quality of Life Dashboard v3 Performance
This is the 3rd time I’ve refactored of the Quality of Life Dashboard. I find web stuff is good for about 18-24 months, after which a peculiar and unpleasant odor emerges. It smells like Do you really want me to tell people you made me?, and the answer is always no.