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Offline Editing Plugin: TN911 Project

rjhale · Jan 15, 2021 ·

One of the weirder problems we had on moving the ESRI setup was editing the data. It wasn’t the normal “hey lets add an address” but it was tackling the idea of “We need to edit the data in the field”.

As it was explained “the way we did things”  was to drag the data out in the field with the editor because they were running a simple Arcmap/FBGDB. Now that we had moved to a Postgresql database I wasn’t keen on people “carrying the data out”. I preferred they connect to the database and edit it like civilized folk.

That is a problem because the county is rural and connections are sketchy and all of that led back to the idea of “Take a copy of the data with you”. We had a mobile solution but nothing making my life easier.

There is a plugin that originally caused much angst and it is called the OfflineEditing Plugin. It’s seriously the most no-thrills thing you will find in QGIS.

At one point in the early stages we had a lot of errors and I couldn’t figure out why. We have an ID attached to each feature that never changes. The client had discovered the plugin and it would let you check data out and edit it and check it back in. Which was what we wanted to happen…..except back when 3.0 was brand new we had a lot of things change unexpectedly. I had a trigger setup that added the primary key to the features ID. So data would come out. Data would go in and between the triggers and functions the ID would change. To the client this looked like a great solution. The intern thought it was awesome. The guy watching things change in the database didn’t have much joy.

I’ve not touched it since 3.2 or 3.4 in QGIS was out.

I’m running a “beta” (3.17) copy of QGIS at the moment. So I built a quick database and decided to play. It checks your data out and you then have a seamless offline dataset stored in a geopackage (the original data is in a postgresql database). I check it out and edit and check it back….and……

It worked. ID’s were respected. Sequences were maintained. I added data and checked data in and Edit Dates and Edit Times were also saved (at the time of check-in). Since I checked the entire database out and checked it in things I didn’t work on received a new edit date. Which – I think there is a way around that but that goes beyond the 1 hour test today. Which – given the 2+ years since I’ve touched it this plugin may have been working fine for a bit.

So what does this mean? Well – you can take your laptop and check your data out and go into the field. AWESOME IT’S VERSIONED….well not in the way ESRI versions anything so you will overwrite some data if you aren’t careful. It does make this setup a little more flexible although I’d rather toss this into a mobile app and only worry about the things we need to worry about – in other words if you’re working on addressing in a neighborhood I only care about that neighborhood. Which means I’d probably split that data out – check it out – edit it – Check it in and then merge it into your original data. More work but safer. I like safe.

Overall – a much better experience with the Offline Editing Plugin this go around.

Fishbones for the TN NG911 Address Server

rjhale · Feb 19, 2020 ·

It’s been a bit since I’ve talked about the TN address server. I’ve been slowly adding more functionality to it and some of that functionality has been more difficult than others.

If you’ve played in the address space any length of time you’ve heard of fishbones – and that is simply drawing a line from the address point to it’s “spot on the street”. Granted if you’ve ever done an addressing project from scratch (I had the joy to do that a few years ago in the Caribbean) it makes a lot of sense. You can quickly see problems where lines cross over other lines or where addresses have no lines at all.  Please read up here if you are so inclined.

There are probably multiple ways to do this  but I’ve gotten fishboning (if that’s a word) running in the TN NG911 Address Server. In PostGIS with less than 25 lines of SQL (and I’m quite proud of myself – 5 years ago I sucked at SQL. I still suck at it – but way less).  While it’s not quite ready for prime time it’s close – I’m just trying to figure out what I can pull out of this that makes the County’s job easier in the addressing realm. I’d love to move it to python at some point – and it’s probably doable (well I know it is – it’s just doing it).

Three things happen:

  1. I join the address point to the closest road using ST_LineLocatePoint
  2. Does the closest point fit the address range on the street (double bonus I also check left and right).
  3. Finish it up with ST_Makeline to join the spot closest to the street to the address point.

Which quickly shows something is wrong here:

Bonus for this one as is it’s not incredibly obvious what the problem is at first glance….UNTIL you see you have an addressing issue where you have 2, 3, and 4 on the same side of the street.

Hurrah for misspelled street names by leaving a W off

Anyway – there will be more announcements coming like this “running in the cloud” and other things. I’d like to get the fishbones running once a night or realistically run the one for the new address. Why not both probably. Anyway – pretty nice for an ArcView/FGDB Replacement.

Where

rjhale · Feb 15, 2015 ·

I had to go into Atlanta Saturday for a meeting at a park. It was a last minute decision first marked by my leaving 15 minutes later than I should have…..It was again reaffirmed that I hadn’t planned well when I was “halfway” there and used my phone to make it the rest of the way. I’m a big believer in getting lost. It’s a lifestyle.

I used waze to locate the Park. I like Waze for the main reason you can crowd source police locations and traffic accidents. I admit it – I don’t want a ticket. Waze put me right at the park. I stopped. Looked. I was technically “in” the park with no administration building in site. I pulled off the road and said “Well – here we go – mapping guy gets lost”. I opened Google. Navigated to the park from “within the park”. It had me turn around and drive 300 feet back to where Waze had placed me. It was then I uttered a stream of cursing that no doubt would have offended the sensibilities of every good church going person within 1000 feet of my car. I rolled my windows up. I hated on the squirrel in front of me, the happy bird dancing on a tree limb, and I wanted to kick a chipmunk.

Instead of using the name of the park I used the address of the Park and that sent me somewhere different. Back to the main road. Turn Left. I looked and there was the Administration Building. I turned into the driveway except it was a dead end. I had driven beyond the entrance because the address is the building – not the driveway. Traffic was horrible. When I stomped up to the door a young lady greeted me with “it happens to everyone..Map is wrong”. I should know better.

When I was in the Caribbean doing addressing the last word as I jumped on the plane was “Don’t be surprised if no one knows their address”. In the three months of working down there it was a 50/50 shot when I asked a resident what their address is…or what they thought their address could be. A teacher I know is working on verifying addresses of students. Same thing. “A lot of kids don’t know their address…..“. In the Caribbean everyone was direction oriented and nice about lost people “Raaandy – you go down to the yellow building, turn right, walk till you get to the tamarind tree……”

I had to learn my address growing up. 3rd grade was where my teacher, Ms Robinson, held her own version of civics for the kids. We had to answer a phone. Meet public leaders. Learn our address. There was a test. I think we even had to talk to police officers but my brain has grown fuzzy on the details from 35+ years ago. We were instructed that if we moved we should learn that new address.

My Credit card was cancelled. I was standing in line and bought a burrito and my card was declined. I went home and called the company. “Well we mailed you a new card.“. I didn’t get it. “We mailed it to your address. For security reasons can you tell me your address?” Yes it’s Blah! No? OK How about BLAH? No? Ehhhhhh OK – My old address from two years ago…and No? WHAT ABOUT THIS? Ohhhhh – I used that when I moved. People were stealing my mail and I switched to paperless statements and purchased a PO Box. You mailed the new card in October of last year? Awesome. Anyone used it? No….OK – here is my new address.

A professional colleague messaged me and wanted me to help tie the US National grid to her fire hydrants. I did it. I spent a terrible amount of time with my brain “seized” up as I tried to understand why it sucked. Yes I finally said it – I don’t think it’s worth the time anymore. It’s outdated. I’ve had more people talk about it. It’s come up time and again in conversation. So I assigned each fire hydrant to the US National Grid. It was easy once I got over the inaccuracy of it. It’s only good to about 30 feet. Once I figured that out I decided the only time it was going to be useful is if you go into an emergency with a 7.5 topographic map and a ruler. My last piece of advice was to give all emergency personnel a GPS and a months worth of batteries. Assign each hydrant a GPS’d ID. At the end of the month if you run out of batteries you have bigger problems than fire hydrants.

Last night I sat in a hospital. I’m not terribly good at it. I fidget. I think way too much. I ended up on an article of something so revolutionary it was going to tear the doors off modern addressing and make a monster truck rally sound like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. What3words. The earth has been divided up into 57 trillion squares. Each one gets three words. My front door is “freedom.caked.stuns”. Damn right it does. ‘MERICA!.

600-1276124580

 

I like the idea of having a three word address. I think ultimately it’s something a bit gimmicky or I guess I should say it might work for some areas…not so great for others. Having a 3 meter square on the ground with a unique identifier is great – except I’ve been places where that’s not enough. I’ve placed addresses every 5.28 feet on a job and at times I was scratching my head trying to make sure I had enough addresses. You can buy a one word address if the three words is too much to handle from What3words. Assuming People can read. If you can’t remember an address you aren’t going to remember three words. I know my parents wouldn’t and they can read. If I supplement freedom.cake.stuns (notice I’ve already mistyped my address – bonus points if you figure out where you end up) with my actual address then OK – you won’t accidentally leave my package next door. Of course, I’m only looking at my perspective. I’m not trying to deliver something to the wilds of Denmark. Who knows how this one plays out.

17+  years ago I was working on a job in North Carolina. I had left home way late. No smart phone just directions printed out from Map Quest. I drove across the state and pulled into town at midnight. I drove to the mapped address and no Holiday Inn. I finally found the Holiday Inn and they said “yeah – maps are wrong….happens to everyone“. Next day I’m in a boat looking at a dead dolphin and the guy working for NC DNR pulls out a GPS. Not just any GPS…..This thing was huge and it had something called “Selective Availability” turned off. I wanted to hold it. “NO – IF YOU AREN’T AUTHORIZED YOU CAN’T HOLD IT“. I wanted to look and he finally showed my location with a terribly long string of numbers. We wrote down the location and off we went. Later we went back and we couldn’t find the dolphin. Someone wrote the location down wrong.

I’m moving. Yesterday had me wondering where exactly. I know the general where. No – it’s not interrupting business for more than a day or two except it’s putting me more centrally located for work and life…and it’s a good thing and a long story. It made me a bit annoyed at the thought of having to haul Miso to a new spot.  Moving is no big deal ultimately. Home will arrange itself into a cohesive thing at some point. Her where has dropped down to a 3 meter square area thanks to no eyesight. Her address is two crates and a towel. High enough to sit in my lap when needed.

IMG_20140302_155428

According to the Internet – Confucious once said “No matter where you go – there you are”. Of course the next link down said that was wrong it was actually someone else – but don’t worry – everyone gets it confused because the internet is wrong.

 

Open Addresses

rjhale · Aug 5, 2014 ·

I’m old. I think today I’ve talked about AMLs, watershed Analysis, digitizing tables, and now I’m going to cap that off with something completely different. I should just say I’m well seasoned instead of old.

I’m getting used to “open data”. You hear it more and more and as I complained in one of my last blog posts open is only great if you can find the data.

I’m never exactly sure what a “open data ecosystem” is or if I would know if I ran into it….BUT – the US Open Data Institute is putting up a bounty for US Addresses. Which makes me chuckle a bit – and not in a bad way. The data gets fed into the OpenAddresses Initiative which, had I been paying more attention, I believe spun out of addressing in OpenStreetMap. The address file is up to 500 something Mb (you can download it). Well this fixes the last problem of finding the data.

I’m not sure of the familiarity of the local government with GitHub. I’m working my way into it. I’m pretty sure if someone from a local Gov’t asked someone at OpenAddresses they would probably help aforementioned local gov’t format the data into an acceptable form. Given the work I did last year with addressing…I can’t imagine a coherent file of address data. BUT….if you look at the map it’s happening. If you notice the SE US is particularly bare. That should be fixed.

So – upload your addresses. Learn some json. Learn a little “Git off my lawn hub”. Contribute.

Foot Washing and an Address

rjhale · Apr 17, 2014 ·

By day four it was a joke between myself and Laurie.

Laurie: “Are you taking pictures of me?”
Me: “Only your shoulder. If you were to pose elegantly I would get one of you”.

2013-03-28_15-11-19

Laurie: “What time will we finish today?”.
Me: “What time do you need us to be finished?”
Laurie: “There is foot washing at church tonight so I must be ready”.

We had almost been in the USVI a month and were just finishing the first study area. It was also the week before Easter. People were getting a bit nervous the closer we got to the Holiday. Holidays in the islands always need a bit of padding on either side – I think this one was turning into the four days of easter. Maybe five. Apparently it is a big deal to go camping also on the beach.

Also the idea of foot washing had me curious. I heard people calling it “Maundy Thursday“. So I asked Laurie what denomination he belonged to and he answered “Church of God.” Being a Chattanooga Native I immediately had to ask “So Have you been to Cleveland TN?”. Cleveland is home of the Church of God headquarters.

Laurie: “No No but I do want to go. We send people to the meeting every year and I haven’t gotten to go…yet”.

Maps are important. Location is everything.

Me: “Laurie do you know where Chattanooga is located? I’m 30 miles from Cleveland”.

He threw down all the bags and hugged me. “God has brought you to the Islands I AM SOOOO HAPPY”.

We finished up that day early and everyone left. We heard the final word of “please don’t work tomorrow”. Except we had one more street to do and that was done quickly and early enough no one noticed as we drove down the street. I think our quickest addressed street was on Good Friday.

It hasn’t quite been a year but I do miss the insanity of the islands.

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