Presentation given at Foss4G 2019 in Bucharest about Geopaparazzi and the new app SMASH (for IOS).

1. GEOPAPARAZZI
STATE OF THE ART OF THE DIGITAL
FIELD MAPPING APPLICATION
Andrea Antonello, Silvia Franceschi
HydroloGIS s.r.l.
Foss4G - Bucharest
August 29th 2019

2. WHO AM I?
cofounder of
Contract professor in Advanced Geomatics at the
Charter Member and GFOSS advocate
develop and coordinate
develop and coordinate the
HydroloGIS
Free
University of Bolzano
Osgeo
Geopaparazzi
HortonMachine project

3. WHAT IS GEOPAPARAZZI?
basically an engineering survey
tool but it can be used also for
emergency management, general
field activities (sport) and tourism
always at hand when needed
can collect georeferenced
pictures, notes and gps logs
easy to use and intuitive

4. BASE FUNCTIONALITIES
 Notes, images and gps logs are saved in the project
file.

5. THE BIG MIGRATION
locked to ancient mapsforge version
looking for funds to migrate to new rendering system
considering
Nasa World Wind Android (no OSM tile system)
latest mapsforge

6. ISSUES
mapsforge map files v5 no longer supported
android stopped permitting http connections
https for tiles → lot of freezing

7. THE MIGRATION TO VTM
Since NWW Android had been shut down, we decided by
exclusion that mapsforge was the perfect tool.
After a initial try with the latest mapsforge and a small test
with VTM, we then decided to go with the Vector Tile Map
project.
Why? Because it was extremely smooth and its 3D
appealing…​ and it has vector tiles.

8. WHERE ARE WE RIGHT NOW?
1. The port is done.
2. We got geopaparazzi back to be Android 5 compatible.
3. The user manual has been almost completely ported to
the new version. Thanks to Brent Fraser for this and for
pushing me on point 2.
4. It has been internally tested for months during its growth

9. GIVE US SOME FEATURES!!!

10. LAYERS
We can finally use layers.

11. And they are drag and drop!

12. They can be overlayed: mbtiles over mapsforge

13. Depending on their source layers have properties.
For example it is possible to set a transparency for MBTiles
layers:

14. EDITABLE LAYERS
If a layer is editable (at the time spatialite layers), then it can
be enabled for editing from the layers view:

15. NEW MAP PROPERTIES
Maps are smooth.
The graphics acceleration that comes with VTM is a joy for
the user.
Maps can be rotated without performance payback.

16. MAP ROTATION
The map view can be rotated, either by the user or
automatically to follow the GPS' heading.
Labels of notes and labels of the mapsforge maps point
information obey to the rotation rules:

17. 3D
It is possible to show a 3D layer of the buildings contained in
Mapsforge maps and vector tile layers.

18. LABELS AND 3D LAYERS
The generates 3D and labels layer are always kept on top of
everything else, to be able to show buildings on top of any
map available.

19. MAPSFORGE MAPS
To avoid a complete caos due to all these additionally
generated layers, mapsforge maps are merged together and
handled as one single map.

20. GPS INFO
Long tapping on the center on GPS button brings up the
navigation options.

21. WHAT DID GET LOST IN THE
PROCESS?

22. Some features got lost during the migration process:
mapurls to load WMS layers
spatialite layer labelling
line caps and joins
Also there are currently some issues with spatialite polygon
layers on wide zoomouts, probably due to missing support
for line cap and joins in VTM (still investigating).

24. IOS SUPPORT
Recently we started working on IOS support for
Geopaparazzi.
During the analysis of the project we noticed a few things:
this was the moment to choose a more professional
name. Geopaparazzi had been criticized a lot over the
years.
the user interface had to be revisited. The feeling was that
the dashboard was useless.

25. THE GENESYS
After long discussions with marketing experts we finally
decided the name for the new application that would attract
any reasonable mapper and surveyor:
Smart Mobile Application for Surveyor’s Happyness

27. SMASH
SMASH is an application written in flutter and released for
both Android and IOS.
It has most of the basic survey capabilities of geopaparazzi.
Today we call out for testing of its first version 0.1.0.

28. SMASH
SMASH opens up directly in the mapview and features a
bottom toolbar and both left and right a slider for less
common operations.

29. WEAKNESSES AGAINST
GEOPAPARAZZI
no support for spatialite
map performance for mapsforge maps is not yet amazing
not all form types are yet supported
distance and log analysis tool are missing
no bookmarks
no background logging

30. COMPATIBILITY
The project database is completely compatible. SMASH just
extends some of the tables with additional information.

31. WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT IT
IT WORKS ON IPHONE AND IPAD
all most important tools are available from the main
view…​ the map.
supports online TMS sources, mbtiles, gpx and mapsforge
icons, icons, icons and a beatiful UI
integrated mapsforge maps download
project sharing (important for IOS users)
map rotation/center on gps
notes clustering

32. THE MAP VIEW

33. NOTES

34. Notes can be tapped on the map, which allows for quick info
and the possibility to delete or edit the note or view the
image, if available.

35. FORMS
Forms work the same way as in geopaparazzi. They support
also icons and have in general a smoother user experience.

36. LOGS
Logging can be toggled from the log icon and supports some
basic styling.

37. GPS INFO/TOOLS
While tapping on the middle button centers the map on the
GPS position, long tapping opens the GPS info panel and the
possibility to center on gps, rotate the map and copy the
coordinates.

38. LAYER VIEW
From the layer view it is possible to load online (TMS) and
offline sources (mapsforge, mbtiles, gpx). On long tap on
sources that support it, the map zooms to the source center.

39. OTHER NIFTY THINGS
You can select (Available Icons) the set of icons you want to
use for the notes from the complete free FontAwesome
icons set.

40. OTHER NIFTY THINGS
You can download mapsforge (Offline Maps) maps from
within the app. Since mapsforge isn’t performant at low
zoomlevels, at the end of the download an mbtiles cache for
the level 4 to 9 is created. In any case for mapsforge an
mbtiles cache is created during navigation.

41. FUTURE STEPS

42. GSS SUPPORT
Synchronization with the Geopaparazzi Survey Server will
be added for centralized surveys.
For info: http://bit.ly/gss-workshop

43. DOCUMENTATION AND MAILINGLIST
SMASH will find its home at the geopaparazzi website.
Documentation will be added there.
SMASH will also share the mailinglist with geopaparazzi.
will still be main entrypoint.http://www.geopaparazzi.eu

44. ADD MISSING FEATURES
Some of the missing features will be added:
bookmarks (it seems somebody is really using them)
distance and log info tool
background logging

45. LAST BUT NOT LEAST
Localization
OSM points support (synchronization)
Mapillary?

46. WAIT, WHERE DO I GET IT?

47. GEOPAPARAZZI 6.0.0 RC1
At the moment we have a Release Candidate ready for
testing here:
Please test and let us know:
http://bit.ly/geopaparazzi-6-RC1
https://github.com/geopaparazzi/geopaparazzi/issues

48. SMASH
IOS users can test SMASH using the testflight app accessing
this URL:
while Android users can get the apk here:
http://bit.ly/smash-testing-ios
http://bit.ly/smash-testing-android

49. THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION!
Homepage:
Testing:
Need help? Join the Mailinglist.
Want to translate it in your language?
News about Geopaparazzi:
http://www.geopaparazzi.eu
http://bit.ly/geopaparazzi-6-RC1
http://bit.ly/smash-testing-ios
http://bit.ly/smash-testing-android
http://groups.google.com/group/geopaparazzi-users
https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/geopaparazzi/
http://jgrasstechtips.blogspot.it/search/label/geopaparazzi