Nextcloud Maps on /e/

[Gregoire]

Hello everybody !

A couple of days ago, Nextcloud announced the Maps application on their cloud.
Here is the github link to it.

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To quote them:

• Beautiful map: Using OpenStreetMap and Leaflet, you can choose between standard map, satellite, topographical, dark mode or even watercolor!
• Favorites: Save your favorite places, privately! Sync with GNOME Maps and mobile apps is planned.
• Routing: Possible using either OSRM, GraphHopper or Mapbox.
• Photos on the map: No more boring slideshows, just show directly where you were!
• 🙋 Contacts on the map: See where your friends live and plan your next visit.
• Devices: Lost your phone? Check the map!
• Tracks: Load GPS tracks or past trips. Recording with PhoneTrack or OwnTracks is planned.

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Since /e/ cloud is basically based on Nextcloud, we could see a fantastic opportunity here to use this tool to get an /e/maps “module”.

Could it be possible to pin it on /e/'s roadmap?
It could be a good option to have it as a PWA on the phone for instance.

[harvey186]

I have just downloaded and activated in my personal NC. Very nice and fast. Good find

[Manoj]

Looks interesting. @harvey186 can you share the details of how the features work on your NextCloud instance. It should be an interesting addition to e.cloud

[Felix]

I just installed it on a test server. Some observations:

• tiles are loading pretty slowly, no comparison to google maps
• tiles are actually loaded directly from www.openstreetmap.org, they might not be very happy to provide bandwidth for all our users
• some errors shown after opening maps: Media scan was not done yet. Wait a few minutes/hours and reload this page to see your photos/tracks. Failed to load contacts

Here is an issue for storing map tiles in Nextcloud: https://github.com/nextcloud/maps/issues/12

So I dont think this is quite ready for production yet.

[harvey186]

On my nc the maps load is fast. No error . Routing i haven’t tried jet, because a server backup is running.

Open street map is fine for all googlefree users.

[Phie]

I haven’t tried nextcloud maps so far, but talking about maps, what would you think of qwant maps ? the server part seems opensource

[Gregoire]

So far it’s in beta version.
And Qwant is well known to be a company that loves to postpone its projects… Sometimes for years.
They don’t seem to be as serious as Nextcloud is. So, and only for these reasons, I won’t bet on them.

[harvey186]

I stuck with routing. I can’t find a way to activate routing and OSM as routing provider The documentation is very

[Gregoire]

Let’s hope it will improve with time.

[Rik]

is it possible to alphatest this on an Android phone, eg by downloading as an apk>?

[harvey186]

I’m on the way to test it. But still have trouble with routing setup

[Gregoire]

Any chance you’d be able to document the process?

[harvey186]

I will do my very best

[Rik]

is it possible for me to test this on an Android phone, eg by downloading as an apk>? (that’s about as far as my technical skills go…)

[Gregoire]

I don’t think so.
You need to install it on an already running Nextcloud server.

So I guess, if you don’t have a nextcloud, like me, just wait for the documentation to be released

[harvey186]

OK, I have tried everything, but I don’t get the routing working. I have asked in nextcloud community, but no answer.

So my result is: Having OSM on my server and access via phone web browser works fine and is a nice feature. But without routing it makes no sense.

Hope sometimes there will be a better documentation how to setup the routing. Than I will try it again.

[Gregoire]

Thank you for the test.

I think a good map app is one of the top 5 thing to have in an OS.
So I look forward to any kind of possibilities for /e/…

[Rik]

Is anyone familiar with a way in which I could test/pilot nextcloud maps? I’m quite interested to try it out