HowTo: User defined map

This HowTo explains the ability to use your preferred local map provider as source for the map tiles of the map. You can edit the settings of the “User Map” in a way the map tiles are usually accessed from map servers. Not all types of map servers are supported, but the majority which use the normal OpenStreetMap coding.

To edit the settings of the “User Map” follow this steps:

1) From the main screen choose Map / Download
usermap1b

2) Choose the last entry of the list of maps, the “User” map.
usermap2

3) Open the menu and tap on “edit map provider”
usermap3

4) This are the default settings for the OpenStreetMap-Mapnik-Server
usermap4

You can see some fields to edit. The main setting is the URL of the map server. The URL contains some placeholders {0}..{3}. The amount of placeholders depends on the amount of sub-servers the map server has (load balanced).

The settings

  1. URL
    • for Server Count > 1: The placeholders are replaced with the server-number = {0}, zoom = {1}, tile-x = {2} and tile-y = {3}
    • for Server Count = 1: The placeholders are replaced with zoom = {0}, tile-x = {1} and tile-y = {2}
  2. Parameter Type
    • You should always choose OSM
  3. Server Count
    • Some map providers use more than one server to balance the traffic and reduce the server-stress
    • If this option should not be used, set it to 1 and replace the placeholder for the servers with nothing or a static value.
  4. Max Zoom
    • Type in the max zoom level the map provider allows. Some map servers provide map tiles until zoom level 16 only, escpecially such with included hill-shading. Usually this value is 18.
  5. File Extension
    • Type in the file-extension (png or jpg) of the format the map tiles are returned from the server.

Examples

Here is an example for the settings of a finnish map server.
screenshot_v193_15

And thus it looks like in the map:
screenshot_v193_21

More examples

User defined map: examples

27 thoughts on “HowTo: User defined map

  1. I would gladly pay 5 times more for the app if I can install my own bsb.kap calibrated nautical charts or if You can add servers for those kind of maps. Fucking windows phone 8 platform does not have a single app for sea navigation unlike android or ios. Best regards!

    • How about openseamap.org? This would be easy to implement with a OSM base layer.
      OpenCPN seems to be the “open”-department for sea maps.
      Do you have or had a favorite app on Android for reference to get some ideas how they did it?

      • For reference you can look in Marine Navigator Lite for Android and see how they do it. On windows phone 8 there is only one program that do sea navigation named Nautical Charts which uses NOAA nautical charts but only for USA and they cannot download the maps, only online use. If you need BSB.KAP nautical charts I have almost all world and can send you by regular mail. So basically you need to let us download our own maps from our skydrive or dropbox accounts and voila…. You can make big money, I repeat there is not single one Marine Navigation app in the store!

      • Thank you very much to implement this map. I would try to enter the parameters for maps.refuges.info without success. I would be grateful if you could help me, this map is quite useful in the alps.

        In any case, thank you for creating this app (Outdoor), I have tried all other similar and at the end I was quite resigned to no more use WP platmorm for outdoor activities. I hope will become even better.

    • This is a really good map with hill shading and hiking signs. The best is, it can be used with maaloo 🙂
      If have a screenshot for the settings: https://maaloo7.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=276
      (You must select the user defined map again from the map to activate the map with the new settings)

      This map has a max zoom level of 17 for bigger cities and 15 otherwise. Perhaps this map provider can increase the server capacity for all regions with zoom level 17. They need some donations for more capacity. Let’s help them…

  2. Can you implement Ordnance Survey map? This is the best and the most detailed UK map on the market.

    • It looks like the Ordnance Survey map uses 200×200 px map images. This is not really compatible to the 256×256 px standard. But I will notice this point for the future.

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