Add MoEML Locations to the Agas Map Martin Holmes Author Martin Holmes Conceptor Martin Holmes Encoder Joey Takeda Copy Editor Data Manager Tye Landels Junior Programmer Joey Takeda Programmer Martin Holmes Associate Project Director Kim McLean-Fiander Project Director Janelle Jenstad The Map of Early Modern Londonhttp://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/includes.xmlVictoria, BC, Canada
Department of English P.O.Box 3070 STNC CSC University of Victoria Victoria, BC Canada V8W 3W1
2016University of Victoria978-1-55058-519-3 Janelle Jenstad london@uvic.ca

Copyright held by The Map of Early Modern London on behalf of the contributors.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Further details of licences are available from our Licences page. For more information, contact the project director, Janelle Jenstad, for specific information on the availability and licensing of content found in files on this site.

Born digital.

Most MoEML documents, or significant fragments with xml:id attributes, can be addressed using the mol: prefix and accessed through the web application with their id + .xml.

The molagas prefix points to the shape representation of a location on MoEML’s OpenLayers3-based rendering of the Agas Map.

Links to page-images in the Chadwyck-Healey Early English Books Online (EEBO) repository. Note that this is a subscription service, and may not be accessible to those accessing it from locations outside member institutions.

Links to page-images in the English Broadside Ballad Archive (EBBA).

The mdt (MoEML Document Type) prefix used on catRef/target points to a central taxonomy in the includes file.

The mdtlist (MoEML Document Type listing) prefix used in linking attributes points to a listings page constructed from a category in the central MDT taxonomy in the includes file. There are two variants, one with the plain xml:id of the category, meaning all documents in the specified category, and one with the suffix _subcategories, meaning all subcategories of the category.

The molgls (MoEML gloss) prefix used on term/corresp points to a a glossary entry in the GLOSS1.xml file.

This molvariant prefix is used on ref/target attributes during automated generation of gazetteer index files. It points to an element in the generated variant spellings listing file which lists all documents which contain a particular spelling variant for a location.

This molajax prefix is used on ref/target attributes during the static build process, to specify links which point to MoEML resources which should not be loaded into the source page during standalone processing; instead, these should be turned into links to the XML source documents, and at HTML page load time, these should be turned into AJAX calls. This is to handle the scenario in which a page such as an A-Z index of the whole site would end up containing virtually the whole site inside itself.

The molstow prefix is used on facs attributes to link to the HCMC verison of the Stow facsimiles. Usually the first group is the year (1633) and then last is the image number (0001).

The molshows prefix is used on facs attributes to link to the copies of page-images from mayoral shows stored in the london account on the HCMC server. The first group is the year (1633), the second is the source repository, and then last is the image file name.

The sb prefix is used on ref/target attributes to link to Stow’s Books URLs at UToronto.

Our editorial and encoding practices are documented in detail in the Praxis section of our website.

 Revised wording and adding a few more examples. Standardized respStmts for JENS1, MCFI1, and HOLM3 and added TAKE1 as Junior Programmer. Added section on location diagnostics. Created this document. Add MoEML Locations to the Agas Map
Introduction to the Agas Map encoding instructions born-digital documents agas map map locations basics

Our implementation of the Agas Map is based on the OpenLayers 4.6 library and presents the map as a tiled image at a range of different resolutions.The OpenLayers implementation of the Agas map was first created in 2014, replacing the old star map. Locations are plotted on the map in three forms: Polygons: closed shapes MultiLineStrings: lines with multiple points Points: single points Each of these forms serve a different purpose, depending on the type of location you are encoding; each of these shapes and their purposes are discussed in more detail below.

The information used to display locations is provided to the map through two JSON files: categories.json: provides information about all the location categories in our document type taxonomy agasLocations.json: provides information about the locations, including each location’s document type(s) and the list of referring documents These files are created during the static build process and are generated from the metadata contained within the TEI location files.

The Agas Map interface can also be used to create new shapes, lines, and points for locations, which can be either associated with a location file or can be used more generally to interact and draw on the map. This document will explain how to do both.

Creating a Polygon encoding instructions born-digital documents agas map locations draw shapes on the map polygons on the agas map shapes on the agas map buildings on the agas map wards on the agas map geo-coordinates

To create a polygon shape, first zoom right into the map so that the shape you want to outline is taking up most of the window. In this example, we’re going to outline St. Mary Woolchurch:

Then choose Polygon from the Draw a shape drop-down list:

A red box appears at the bottom of the screen. We’ll see the purpose of this later. You’ll notice that the cursor turns to a blue point. Now you can click on one of the corners of the object to add a point. Move your mouse to the next corner, and click there to add the next point:

Keep adding points until you have outlined the whole object:

Click back on the original starting point to complete the shape.

Two things will happen: the shape will change colour to show that is is complete, and in the red box, a block of XML code will appear. This is the TEI surface element that you need to add into the location file for the place. In Oxygen, open up the appropriate location file (in this case, STMA37.xml), and locate the facsimile element. Note that if you are creating a new document or adding a location to an existing document that is not already on the Agas map, it may not contain a facsimile element. In this case, simply add a facsimile element between the teiHeader element and the text element. However, you may find that there is already a surface element from the old Agas map images. Leave this alone, but add the new element immediately after it:

You’ll notice that this is invalid when we first paste it in, because the location id is wrong. Change the first part of the xml:id attribute on the zone element to match the location’s xml:id:

What if your shape is not perfect first time around? You can easily edit it after it’s completed. Put your mouse over one of the existing points to click and move it; put your mouse over one of the lines to add a new point. Every time you make a change to the shape, the XML in the red box will update itself automatically.

If you need to delete one of the nodes in your shape, press the Shift key and click on it.

It is best to have the map zoomed to its maximum size when you create the shape, because you’ll be more accurate. If you’re outlining a large area, this may mean that the shape does not completely fit on the screen. Don’t worry about this; even while you’re in the middle of drawing the shape, you can still click and hold (hold down the mouse button), drag the map around, and release without adding a new point in your shape. It’s only when you click and release immediately that a new point is added.

Creating MultiLineStrings encoding instructions born-digital documents agas map locations draw shapes on the map strings on the agas map multiline strings on the agas map points on the agas map streets on the agas map geo-coordinates

While we usually draw buildings as shapes, streets are drawn as MultiLineStrings (in other words, a series of connected lines). The process is exactly the same as for Polygons, except that to finish the shape, you just double-click on the last point. When tracing a street, start the line in the middle of the junction where the street starts, and end in the middle of the junction where it ends. Keep the line in the middle of the street.

Creating Points

Some locations cannot be precisely outlined, perhaps because although we know approximately where they were, they do not actually appear on the map. You can use a Point for this.

Creating a Point is the simplest process of all: select Point from the drop-down list, then click on the location.

Creating a MultiPolygon encoding instructions born-digital documents agas map locations draw shapes on the map multiple polygons on the agas map geo-coordinates

There will be some circumstances in which you need to associate multiple polygons with a single location. For example, imagine that a guild owns two buildings which are not contiguous; in one sense, they are the same location, but they are clearly two separate shapes on the map.

This can be done by creating multiple zone elements inside the surface element for the map. Here is an example: Each zone has a different xml:id, created by adding an underscore followed by a digit after the main location xml:id. You will have to draw each of these shapes separately on the map, selecting Polygon from the drop-down list; create the first one in the normal way, copying the whole surface element into the location file, and then for each subsequent polygon, copy only the zone element from the code box into the appropriate place as a sibling of the first one.

Note that you can only combine polygons in this way; you cannot create sets of MultiLineStrings or Points.

Editing an Existing Location encoding instructions born-digital documents agas map locations edit locations geo-coordinates

Sometimes you will have to make changes to a location which has been entered by someone else, and is already showing on the map. To do this, first zoom into the location and select it:

Then choose Clone selected feature from the drop-down list. The shape will turn into a red outline which you can edit as explained above. As you edit, the XML in the red box will change, and when you’re happy with the result, you can copy/paste the XML into the location file, replacing the original surface element. Ensure that you update the respStmt in the teiHeader, giving yourself credit as the Geographic Information Specialist. See Create a MoEML <gi>teiHeader</gi> for details on how to encode a respStmt.

Bookmarking Shapes encoding instructions born-digital documents agas map locations bookmarks on the agas map geo-coordinates

Just as you can bookmark locations or sets of locations, you can also bookmark a shape you have created. This can be handy if you’re emailing someone and would like to refer to a specific location on the map, if you would like to suggest a particular location for inclusion, or if you would like to share a custom shape that does not belong in the database.See, for instance, the footnote in Silver Street, which shows the house that Shakespeare may have lived in during his stay on Silver Street. To do this, simply create the shape as you normally would, and then when you’ve finished, press the Bookmark button. A long, inscrutable URL will be created and a popup alert will tell you that it is about to redirect you to the bookmarked URL.

Press OK and the page will redirect you to the bookmark URL. Once the page has reloaded, you can copy and paste the entire URL in the address bar. If you plug this URL into a browser, the map will recreate the shape and zoom to it, also showing the TEI surface element at the bottom of the screen.

Uncertainty and Imprecision encoding instructions born-digital documents agas map locations uncertainty imprecision geo-coordinates

It is often the case that a feature may not appear on the Agas Map, although we know more or less where it should be if it did appear; or that we know more or less, but not exactly, where a feature is. In order to be truthful, we need to record the level of certainty and precision associated with a location. The certainty and precision elements enable us to do that. We use certainty to quantify our confidence that the location assigned is the correct location; and we use precision to quantify how accurate our point or outline is assumed to be. This is perhaps best explained through examples.

The precision and certainty elements appear as children of the zone element to which they refer. In the absence of these elements, certainty and precision are assumed to be high. The precision and cert attributes record the level of certainty or precision in each case; allowed values are: high: default value medium low unknownNote that you will almost always encode certainty and precision using high, medium, or low; there are few instances where unknown is useful. It is always good practice to provide resp (using the standard mol prefix and your xml:id) to identify someone (usually yourself) as the person responsible for introducing or encoding this expression of doubt. Where appropriate, you might also provide source to point to one or more sources of evidence; the source can either be an internal bibliographic item (and thus pointed to using the standard mol prefix and the xml:id of the bibliographic item) or an external URI.

The method outlined above is relatively crude; it allows us to say that the feature may not in fact be at the location specified (certainty) and/or that the coordinates provided may be somewhat inaccurate (precision). You may wish to add a note inside the zone to clarify the situation for a human reader, and it is also possible to provide much more specificity in the encoding if we determine that this is desirable. If the location consists of more than one zone, add a note inside surface.

Note also that using this method, it is possible to encode multiple possible locations for a single feature, each with its own level of certainty; you might believe that it is most likely in one place (cert=medium) but that it could possibly be somewhere else (cert=low), and each location can have its own zone element containing a certainty element, with source pointing to the evidence available.

The southern half of the alley, if it existed, would have been destroyed for the building of the Royal Exchange. The northern half ran east of St. Christopher le Stocks. Neither half is visible on the 1633 version of the Agas Map.