Commons talk:Locator-tool

Great tool!

This is a great tool! Thank you! I wish i could use it directly from the file page. Maybe a new gadget Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets at "Geocoding tools"? Would love to have it at MediaWiki talk:Gadget-Geotoolbox.js!

Some links for background info:

Special:Tags "locator-tool [2.1]": 808 edits so far!
https://github.com/simon04/locator-tool
https://github.com/smeijer/L.GeoSearch The control comes with a default set of three providers:
- L.GeoSearch.Provider.Esri
- L.GeoSearch.Provider.Google
- L.GeoSearch.Provider.OpenStreetMap
http://smeijer.github.io/L.GeoSearch/

Using the https://tools.wmflabs.org/locator-tool/index.html#/ my browser is connected to http://smeijer.github.io, which is using googleapis.com (see http://datenblumen.wired.de/). Is this sharing any Private Information (like the users IP) outside of your Labs Project [1][2] ? --Atlasowa (talk) 21:39, 31 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Atlasowa: Thank you! The L.GeoSearch library is now included as a git submodule and is no longer fetched from smeijer.github.io – https://github.com/simon04/locator-tool/commit/f31a7075ad5e6eb0ced7c1bb8dd45c44a54614a2 – Simon04 (talk) 19:42, 6 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Difference Location / Object Location

Hi Simon, great tool. Can you please try to allow to differ between location / object location clearly? I for my part mainly use GIS services to locate the object, not the camera position. The camera position is easy to catch with a Geo-Tagger, so the problem is the object location. All the time you can run over some users that do not know the difference and use (camera) location / object location the wrong way. E.g. the feature to allow to copy the same location to a lot of images of an objects shows the profound misunderstanding of location vs. object location. Camera location on the other hand does support heading information, would be nice if you could add this. --Herzi Pinki (talk) 22:59, 6 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Herzi Pinki, Hubertl, Braveheart, and Kolossos: Support for adding/editing {{Object location}} has been added to the locator-tool today. You may also want to install the locator-tool gadget. Happy geocoding! – Simon04 (talk) 22:11, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Simon04: , thanks for doing the work you did last weekend. Still your tool is a bit more on the location than on the object location side.

It is not possible (?) to just select all the images missing object location. The selection is done by camera location independent whether there is object location or not. For my part, I'm usually ok with any of the two variants, so interesting for your tool are the images missing both coordinates.
Can you change the description of location to camera location to make it clear also to inexperienced users?
allow to save both coordinates with a single version
maybe you agree that it makes sense to round coordinates to a meaningful exactness (e.g. 6 digits after the comma)?
Sometimes images miss coordinates but there also is not much sense having them. Would be fine if your tool allows to skip such images (I think by putting them to Category:Location not applicable?). e.g. coat of arms, locator maps (old style) by user decision. And remove such images from the list.
Your tool does not allow to adjust the object location, while the camera location pin can be tracked around.

lg --Herzi Pinki (talk) 23:45, 22 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Herzi Pinki: The label "camera location" is shown now. Unfortunately, Object_location isn't treated nearly similar to Location w.r.t. storing/querying the coordinates, see https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T135686 and https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Commons_talk%3ALocator-tool&type=revision&diff=245102775&oldid=229223792 for technical details. For your other points/suggestions, I created issues on the project page on GitHub: https://github.com/simon04/locator-tool/issues – Simon04 (talk) 21:20, 23 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Feedback

Hi, noch mal vielen Dank für das super Tool! Ich habe vorgestern bereits über 100 damit Bilder aus meiner Nachbarschaft referenziert. Ein paar kleinere Verbesserungswünsche hätte ich noch:

Am Anfang war ich noch nicht angemeldet und hab nur die Meldung "konnte Location nicht speichern" bekommen. Bin da länger auf dem Schlauch gestanden. Eine bessere Meldung könnte da helfen. Super wäre, wenn man nach dem Anmeleden wieder zurück auf die letzte Seite käme.
Der Fortschrittsbalken zeigt nur an wie viele Bilder beide Koordinaten haben? Schön wäre es, wenn in eine dritten Farbe gezeigt wird, wie viele Bilder zumindest schon mal eine Koordinate haben.
Bei langsamen Internet dauert es manchmal ein bisschen, bis das neue Bild angezeigt wird. Manchmal dachte ich das wäre schon das neue und würde nur sehr ähnlich zum letzten aussehen. Ein Lade-Spinner über dem Bild in der Zwischenzeit würde das verhindern.

Ansonsten ein Tool mit großem Suchtpotential! :) Werde ich auf jedem Fall in München weiterempfehlen. -- Michael F. Schönitzer 20:27, 24 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Locating by User

Great tool indeed! I'm locating all pictures in several categories, corresponding to Wikimedia activities. It works nicely! And the resulting maps are a great incentive to participants who see their efforts represented. But I'm also trying to geolocate by user and then lists seem to be limited to blocks of 500 files. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks for this tool! B25es (talk) 08:31, 11 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@B25es: Thanks for your feedback. The enhancement to increase the 500 limit is tracked here: https://github.com/simon04/locator-tool/issues/21. For now you can select and copy your older images on Special:ListFiles and paste them into the "file list" on https://tools.wmflabs.org/locator-tool/#/ -- Simon04 (talk) 09:45, 29 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

No blue pointer

Hallo Simon04, thanks for this great tool. After the last update I don't see the blue Pointer for the Camera location (Firefox and Chromium under Ubuntu 16.04 LTE). Also I miss the search field for streetnames in the map. This was very usefull. I work at the moment at a Project to georeference all images from Dresden. Until 22. of December your tool works great. Today I cant use it, because no blue pointer. -- sk (talk) 21:39, 26 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Simon04: I forgot the ping. -- 12:21, 27 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, for repairing. Today it works. -- sk (talk) 09:41, 30 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Stefan Kühn: Thanks for reporting. Due to Freizeitstess, I did not manage to fix the issue immediately. That's why I published the previous, known-to-be-working version quickly after your report. Today, I managed to fix the issue. A new version is published. –Simon04 (talk) 16:11, 1 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

File not removed from list when Object location

Hello Simon04,

First a big congratulation for this tool. Here at Wikimedia Canada, since few years, we upload tons of archives from Commons:BAnQ projects, and every first Wednesday of a month, we hold a cartography workshops at the Great Library in Montreal, where we encourage participants to use your tool to localize archives.

Last week, I found out that files are not removed from the list when we use Object location... but they are removed if we use Camera location. I tried to find infos and or open tickets about this, but I didn't. Can you point out where I can flag this? Phabricator, or here is enough?

Thank you again for this marvelous tool, we all really love it here! Best regards, Benoit Rochon (talk) 18:26, 27 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Benoit Rochon: Hi! Thanks for the encouraging feedback. You can find the relevant ticket here: https://github.com/simon04/locator-tool/issues/19. I'm trying to resolve the source of the problem, see Commons talk:Geocoding#Pass object location to Extension:GeoData –Simon04 (talk) 21:25, 26 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

zh-tw

I translated the zh-tw version of the tool, how to make it enabled?--S099001 (talk) 15:03, 10 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Done in 2018 via [3]. Simon04 (talk) 08:49, 16 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Accuracy

I'm sure it's more a problem on the Commons side, but I notice that the conversion between decimal degrees and degrees, minutes and seconds introduces an exaggerated pseudo-accuracy. Considering that one then-thousandth of a degree corresponds to an accuracy of about 11 metres in latitude (it varies with longitude, of course), there is no need to convert this level of accuracy in decimal degrees down to hundredths of seconds on the Commons file pages. Example: If I locate a position at 53.7913 -1.5334, it need not be converted to 53° 47′ 28.68″ N, 1° 32′ 00.24″ W - tenths of seconds would be more than enough. It's even sillier if it is done for large objects (lakes, whole villages ...) where 100 m accuracy might be sufficient. --Schlosser67 (talk)

That's a good point. I generally avoid placing more than 4 or 5 digits in decimal coordinates, but such care is lost if conversion introduces unwarranted significant digits. Nemo 19:27, 23 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Duplicate camera locations ?

I have used this tool many times now and found it very useful. A problem I've recently encountered is the {{Camera location}} template, which the tool doesn't appear to take into account (resulting in duplicate camera locations ex: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Oresund_bridge_(Unsplash).jpg&type=revision&diff=373919349&oldid=334462694&diffmode=source ). Maybe the tool should remove this template when adding a {{Location}} template ? --Hjart (talk) 16:15, 9 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Reported on GitHub. —Tacsipacsi (talk) 19:41, 9 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Unable to work in Locator-Tool

I am unable to login to Locator-Tool, as it is showing the error "Internal Server Error" for the last few days. I have also tried with different browser like Safari, Chrome etc but same error happening all the time. Please help. - IndrajitDas 10:10, 18 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

This has happened to me several times in the past week. However, if I keep trying, closing and reopening the same browser to try again, usually it works after two to five times. When it doesn't, I try a few hours later. I do hope it is repaired. Jim.henderson (talk) 21:35, 20 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Translation

I suggest splitting the last translation unit, changelog section, into several smaller translation units. The current one is way too long. --Minorax^talk 12:08, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

mapy.cz-Layer not available?

It seems that the mapy.cz sat image layer doesn't work any more. Not sure hot to debug this - can i help in any way to get it working again? I'm using locator-tool almost daily, and a sat image layer is a great help especially in areas where openstreetmap doesn't have sufficient information. --Fl.schmitt (talk) 09:59, 8 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Idea for enhancement: heading parameter to location?

Just an idea for enhancement: if camera position (location) and object location are known, theoretically it should be possible to determine the heading automatically (and add it as parameter to location?). Sadly, my programming skills aren't sufficient to propose a patch to implement this myself... --Fl.schmitt (talk) 10:02, 8 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Many photos are by camera phone with magnetic direction, usually with large error. I fix them in source code. As ih happens, I usually know which way I'm looking. Sitting here at the computer, SSW, 195 degrees. It would be pleasant to enter the direction for a picture, even manually with Locator-tool. Jim.henderson (talk) 17:48, 9 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

selecting multiple files

I guess I'm doing something wrong, but at the moment I can't select multiple files (or even better automatically change ALL files in the category entered) at once on my mobile phone (Android, Firefox Beta). But that would be necessary as I encountered wrong GPS coordinates (no clue why) e.g. at this category. Or should I use a other helper prog.? Thanks for any help --Subbass1 (talk) 08:26, 30 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Subbass1 Coords are normally best corrected individually. I have taken a few minutes to correctly place the camera locations around the church Category:St. Paulus (Bobengrün). It's a bit cumbersome, but absolutely doable. You just need to search for the name of the object "Bobengrün, St. Paulus" for every file. Hjart (talk) 09:48, 30 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Hjart Tak! --Subbass1 (talk)`

@Subbass1 The VisualFileChange gadget could be used to make a bunch of coords point to a specific place. Succesfully using this tool requires some technical insight though.--Hjart (talk) 10:38, 30 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! Unfortunately the problem remains also with new photos, see this category. No clue what's going on here (I recently updated the phone's firmware, never had that happen before - also there *was* mobile network at all those places...).

And after your correction there are nasty discrepance warning messages, unfortunately I don't have time to investigate further. Deactivating the GPS completely would lead to problems finding my photos later on. Would be glad if someone could solve this.. --Subbass1 (talk) 18:31, 1 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I experienced the same problem with my previous phone. I think I may have dropped it and somehow broken the internal GPS antenna. Whatever happened to it in any case made it practically useless for navigation and geocoding etc. Hjart (talk) 19:55, 1 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

It indeed looks like the mobile network location only is used (difference of 1-3 km). But GPS does work fine, I have plenty of satellites in view (and lock!), see

//photos.app.goo.gl/GVaHmZGYhhj5kPGi9 here] (insert https before (blocked as spam))

Strange... --Subbass1 (talk) 20:04, 1 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Remove source parameter?

Hi, another request for enhancement for use cases when correting wrong position data imported from panoramio or flickr: If Camera or Object positions are adjusted, the source parameter should be removed, since it doesn't correspond any more to the (now correct) position. Fl.schmitt (talk) 12:01, 4 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I usually make another edit, in wikitext, replacing the source with a heading arrow for the camera location template. For the object I seldom use the template, as there is often an incorrect or imprecise Wikidata item, and that's where I make the correction/adjustment. Jim.henderson (talk) 14:50, 5 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Mouseover for green box

The X has a mouseover. The green box next to it needs one too. Jidanni (talk) 06:21, 27 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Print message upon saving

9. The location of camera or object will be saved. To convince yourself view the history of the file description page.

OK, but how about also showing a success message. Jidanni (talk) 06:24, 27 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Fix SDC problem created

Nowadays chaning a location might create this warning on the page, easy to overlook if one isn't looking at the page:

There is a discrepancy of 224 meters between the above coordinates and the ones stored at SDC (24°9′25″N 120°51′40″E, precision: 5 m). Please reconcile them.

Therefore the tool perhaps should help us fix that (SDC) problem too. Jidanni (talk) 06:27, 27 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It is a nuisance. Incorrect SDC coordinates can be deleted and some day a bot will recreate them from the template. It is also possible to correct the SDC coords manually. Jim.henderson (talk) 16:26, 28 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

From 2023-07-02 on, the locator-tool writes SDC, specifically P1259 and P9149. [4]. Simon04 (talk) 08:48, 16 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Gone

After resetting preferences, the "Locator-tool: A tool which helps geocoding existing images, ... information to images on Wikimedia Commons. " is still checked. But all one sees in the right sidebar when browsing a File:... is

Tools move to sidebar
Actions
Move
General
What links here
Related changes
Special pages
Short link
Page information
Concept URI
Get shortened URL
Nominate for deletion

Jidanni (talk) 05:08, 11 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, I see. In order to get the tool link I need to edit

OK. Fine. Jidanni (talk) 05:14, 11 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Last update broke functionality

Since last update entering locations by entering/pasting in input fields no longer enables the green boxes. Locators are also no longer visibly shown on the map, sometimes changing focus between input fields triggers the locators to be shown on the map, but green box remains disabled. Tool is broken! --ErickAgain 09:16, 6 February 2024 (UTC) ErickAgain 09:16, 6 February 2024 (UTC)

Still not fixed. Will this be tackled? The only way of setting/updating location is by using the map, this is cumbersome when you already know the exact coordinates, the easiest way is to use the input boxes directly for known coordinates and this functionality is broken. --ErickAgain 08:25, 16 February 2024 (UTC).

@AgainErick: For me, tabbing away from the coordinate input field to one of the buttons enables the green button, thus allowing to save the coordinate value. Maybe this workaround works for you, too?--Fl.schmitt (talk) 11:54, 16 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Fl.schmitt: Thanks for your suggestion but unfortunately it doesn't. Sometimes the button indeed gets enabled, but the save operation that should follow doesn't fire, so nothing gets stored. --ErickAgain 19:36, 16 February 2024 (UTC).[reply]

@AgainErick: Hmm, strange - just yesterday, i've used the LocatorTool successfully as described - see, for example, the history of that pic: Pasajul_Berceni_-_DNCB.png. Maybe it's a browser issue? I'm using Firefox. Fl.schmitt (talk) 20:10, 16 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Nope. Tried various other browsers without success. All this occurred after upgrading the locator tool to a new vuejs version so locator tool should be checked, there is simply no way to force a commit if the state of the values is not correct. GUI may seem to be OK with enabled save button, but as soon as you tab out again the state is changed directly and the button becomes disabled again--ErickAgain 11:41, 19 February 2024 (UTC).

Is the tool not functioning properly?

Hello,

I'm experiencing an issue where clicking the green button to link the location with the file doesn't seem to have any effect. I've attempted this numerous times in both the 2010 and 2022 vector.

Best regards, Riad Salih (talk) 21:21, 6 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Same here. — Draceane ^talk_contrib. 13:31, 6 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Me too. Malcolmxl5 (talk) 13:03, 9 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Working well for me, every time I used it this month. Jim.henderson (talk) 11:34, 12 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Same here - works fine for me. The green button should change from light green to a darker green colour after pasting a geoadress and tabbing out ouf the input box (as well as setting the position on the map using the mouse). Take care to login before, because there's no error message if you try to set a location while logged out (happens to me quite often, would be nice to have a warning if entering a postion fails because of lacking credentials). Fl.schmitt (talk) 11:50, 12 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Same here for months, doesn't work anymore, very sad. --Joschi71 (talk) 12:51, 16 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Might be a good idea to add a warning when the button doesn't work because we aren't logged into the Locator Tool. I'm accustomed to this failure, and when the setting doesn't happen, I simply log in without taking much notice, but newbie might not think of that. Jim.henderson (talk) 15:45, 19 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

+1 - warning about missing authentication IMHO is a must. For those who have problems using the tool: Could you provide screenshots (entire screen) or even a screencast? I'm using the tool with different browers on different OS's every day without any problems. Fl.schmitt (talk) 16:48, 19 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Your tool docs are featured as an example in the new Tool Docs Guide!

Hello Locator tool maintainers, contributors, and fans! I wanted to let you know that I highlighted the Locator tool documentation as a shining example in the new Tool Docs guide that I just published. Thank you for creating lovely tool documentation that can serve as an example to help others create and improve tool docs :-) This guide was created as part of the Doc Your Tool project for the upcoming 2024 Hackathon. If you're interested, please join that project to work on or talk about tool documentation during the hackathon! TBurmeister (WMF) (talk) 16:53, 16 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hide files with Location not applicable

Hello,

is it possible to hide files with Location not applicable or {{Location withheld}} from the locator tool? It would help a lot, to improve the user experience.

Thanks MB-one (talk) 14:32, 13 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Categories won't load anymore

Since some time, i'm not able to load categories in locator - he's always showing me 0 files. Is there any fix for this in the near future planed? Grunpfnul (talk) 09:32, 8 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

PetScan moved to a new domain. Fixed via [5]. Simon04 (talk) 08:44, 16 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks :) Grunpfnul (talk) 18:20, 16 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not saving

I manage to login, select coordinates, click save, see the change saved in the tool, but no edit happens at Commons. Enhancing999 (talk) 15:33, 18 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Updated the above. Enhancing999 (talk) 08:25, 19 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Some of my edits didn't saved as well ([6]). Furthermore, LocatorTool displays the coordinates, which cannot be resaved, but there are no coordinates in the Commons. Some DB problem? — Draceane ^talk_contrib. 14:37, 30 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
- @Simon04: I cannot make any changes e.g. to File:Colca, Uyo-Uyo, 2023 (04).jpg. — Draceane ^talk_contrib. 14:43, 30 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  @Draceane: Strange thing - setting coords worked for me (please double-check!) Maybe saving needs some time, since the tools issues two modifications (1st: SDC, 2nd: Template). Fl.schmitt (talk) 14:58, 30 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  - I tried to re-save all places again, but without any contributions made. I clicked on the map, clicked to save, it appeared to save it, but no contributions were made and L-T doesn't show these coordinates after refreshing. — Draceane ^talk_contrib. 18:46, 18 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    - I'm unable to change / delete coordinates as well. — Draceane ^talk_contrib. 18:47, 18 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
      Could you provide more details? Which file did you try to edit, which browser/OS? Would it be possible to create a screencast? Fl.schmitt (talk) 19:02, 18 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
      Win10 + GChrome 128.0. I tried remaining files from Uyo-Uyo/Colca Valley ([7], e.g. File:Colca, Uyo-Uyo, 2023 (06).jpg) — Draceane ^talk_contrib. 20:25, 18 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
      @Draceane: Thank you, i'll try to reproduce the issue... Fl.schmitt (talk) 08:01, 19 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
      @Draceane: See Screencast_Location-tool.webm - worked for me with current Chrome 128.0.6613.138 on Win 10 for one of those files (please check location - may be not precise...). So it isn't a matter of those file, the browser or the OS. Having the server logs available would be very useful... Fl.schmitt (talk) 17:11, 19 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It seems to work for other users. Maybe there are some browser settings/slow connection issue involved.

Already in the past, I couldn't never get the tool to work, so I thought it was broken.
∞∞ Enhancing999 (talk) 14:51, 30 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Maybe this helps: File:Temp locator bug 2024083.png (will be deleted soon). I added the coordinates manually afterwards. BTW it would be sufficient if the tool made available the formatted wikitext.
∞∞ Enhancing999 (talk) 15:26, 30 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Same thing is happening for me. Steps to reproduce:

Open https://locator-tool.toolforge.org/#/geolocate?files=File%3AABANDONED_BUGGY_(IS_THERE_A_STORY)-111780.jpg.
Paste 53.35953711628835, -6.278973289619099 in the Camera Location field.
Click Save. Nothing is saved.

Cryptic-waveform (talk) 16:48, 12 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Cryptic-waveform and @Enhancing999: I've observed that saving success seems to depend on the Coordinate's precision. Precision of 14 or more decimals fails almost reliably, while coords with less precision (five or six decimals) are saved without problems. Could you please try adding coordinates with different precision? Maybe there's a connection between the issue and the creation of SDC claims. Location tool seems to add SDC first and the appropriate template afterwards. Maybe setting SDC with "extreme" precision fails silently, causing to fail the template edit, too. But that's just a conjecture... Fl.schmitt (talk) 17:19, 12 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Saving with the coordinate string 53.3595371162883, -6.27897328961909 (1 less decimal) worked. Cryptic-waveform (talk) 17:25, 12 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I also ran into this issue. My assumption is that you cannot save the exact same coordinates for two photos. If one photo has already these coordinates, another photo cannot have the same. This is a pity, because when i take several pictures from the exact same camera location, i cannot add them via this tool. --23:34, 12 September 2024 (UTC) Strubbl (talk) 23:34, 12 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Changing the number of decimals didn't work for me. (It only had 5 to start with). I guess we would have more clarity if the tool processed some kind of response from the Commons api and displayed any errors from there.

BTW, when loading a category that has coordinates in the infobox, it would help if the map loaded already centered on that.
∞∞ Enhancing999 (talk) 07:46, 19 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]