Google Maps and digiKam

Software digiKam
#1

I have been using Google Maps via digiKam and have geolocated thousands of photos.
To speed things up, I have made numerous geolocation “carrier” jpegs from which I can copy the coordinates and paste them to photos that are from the same geographical location.
It has worked out that, for the last few months, for everything I have had need to geolocate, I have already had a “carrier” from which to copy the coordinates.
Today, I read a post in an Adobe Elements forum and they were lamenting the fact that Google Maps no longer worked with Adobe programs; I thought “No problem, I use digiKam” – more fool me…
Out of curiosity, I opened the Google Maps geolocater in digiKam and was greeted first with a big notification that said something to the effect of “this web-page cannot properly access Google Maps”
And, emblazoned across the map, very closely spaced, was the line “For Development Purposes Only”
All of my many hundreds of map bookmarks were still there.
When I tried to zoom in closer, it would zoom in and then immediately return to the zoomed out aspect that I had to start with.

On EDIT: >>> I have just made some practice images and drag-dropped them onto pin-point locations on the map; other that the annoying watermarks all over the place, and moving the map being quite sluggish, I was able to accurately drag/drop each of the images onto the correct location and the resulting metadata displayed the correct coordinates with pinpoint accuracy; so…, all is not completely lost.
Oh yeah, I also managed to get the map to zoom up close and stay there; whereas, at first, it would bounce back to a non-zoomed view.
Is there a fix for this situation ?
Thanks for reading and all help is appreciated.

#2

I guess Google has changed the API again…

#3

Usage of the Google Maps API is no longer free:


One solution for open-source programs which rely on maps, such as digiKam, could be Leaflet:

#4

Another solution is embedding open street maps.

#5

Thanks for the info.

It is my understanding that, rather than pay for Google Maps, newer Adobe programs now use Mapbox.

I never even before heard of Mapbox and those in the Adobe forums are lamenting the fact that Mapbox sort of generalizes locations, using local police departments, of all things, as locating points.
The way I understand it is whatever location you are geotagging, it gets marked with the geolocation of the nearest police station.
That is from the few posts that I have read and not from my own experience with Mapbox (which is none whatsoever)

#6

I was nosing around in my digiKam folder and noticed something new that I had no idea what it was = ShowFoto

I opened ShowFoto to check it out and see if I could figure out what it was; during this investigation, I loaded a few jpegs and checked out the Edit Geolocation feature.

Much to my amazement, when I tried Google Satellite view, I got a clean, very responsive Google map that was not plastered all over with “For Development Purposes Only”

This got me curious, so I investigated the geolocation editor in digiKam and it was clean and responsive as well.

For a while there, I was afraid that the future of my geolocating was doomed forever; or, is this just the calm before the end ?

#7

I hope not. I use the geolocator a lot too. You can also try Reverse Geocodding (google it) which will create location tags based on GPS coordinates.

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#8

I started creating a post with this same topic, but saw that it had already been addressed a couple of years ago. I have used digiKam to geotag my photos since late 2018, and this Google Maps alert is just now showing up today. I was trying to figure out what had changed. It still works, and I can click away the alert, but the “For development purposes only” watermark all over the map is a little annoying.

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#9

I am obsessive about accurate information/metadata embedded into all of my photos.

When the watermarks and other negative problems showed up on the digiKam Google Map, it also really slowed down response of the map — at least that has been my experience.

I installed FREE Google Earth Pro and it is plenty quick on my machine.

For the last several thousand images, my method has been to locate the images with Google Earth Pro and manually write the coordinates for each image on a notepad (real paper, pen, and ink); then, I use the GPS Editor in XnView to embed the coordinates.

For images with unique coordinates, XnView’s GPS Editor is much quicker/easier for me; however, when I have a whole batch of images from the same location, digiKam’s GPS Editor is the quicker/easier alternative.

I have recently acquired a Canon 7DMkII that has GPS capabilities and that has sped things up quite a bit; the 7DMkII location coordinates are pretty much dead on accurate; however, the Altitude stamps can be all over the place; me being such a stickler for accuracy, this causes me to have to manually correct the Altitude information.

#10

If you want to try something more automated, exiftool can write location information. You can log the GPS on your smart phone as well, then write just the altitude data.

#11

Thanks.
Although, thus far, I have managed to exist without owning a smart phone.
The wife has a drawer full of various iPhones; I wonder if I could use the GPS log feature without having a contract ?
The 7DMkII also has GPS logging ability.
I have not yet explored the particulars of the GPS log; I am wondering if maybe the altitude values from the log might be the true values and not the widely inaccurate values recorded by the internal GPS.
My understanding is that there is a feature included in the 7DMkII software discs that knows what and how to do with the GPS log.
I did create a log during one of my road trips and saved it to the card (and then the computer); but, I have not taken time to investigate the possibles.

#12

To be sure, the Google Maps feature in dK works fine, even in its developmental state. All I want to do is drag and drop onto the correct place on the map so that it’s accurately shown in Flickr. It’s just a little annoying, that’s all.

#13

Digikam should switch to open street maps, as many other projects have done.

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#14

Isn’t that implemented for quite some time now?

The Map-settings button opens a small menu which allows you to choose between Google Maps and Marble and depending on that choice to choose the kind of map you want to use. Furthermore you can select the projection for Marble (spherical, Mercator, equirectangular) and you can display a few additional tools like compass and scale on the map.

Source

Marble comes with 11 different views: Atlas, OpenStreetMap, Satellite View, Earth at Night, Historical Map 1689, Moon, Plain Map, Precipitation (December), Precipitation (July), Temperature (December) and Temperature (July).

OpenStreetMap: A global roadmap created by the OpenStreetMap (OSM) project. OSM is an open community which creates free editable maps. The OSM data was rendered using Mapnik.

Source

#15

OpenStreetMap has been available in digiKam for a long time when the Marble map is selected.

To GoogleMaps:
Google provides users of the Google Maps Java Script API with free credit of $ 200 every month. This corresponds to around 28,000 map views. digiKam has now reached this number. In the current code, digiKam always starts with the Marble map in the sidebars in order to reduce the number of unnecessary Google map calls. This means that we have to set a daily limit anyway so as not to exceed the free credit. However, Google requires you to set up a billing account. That’s why it’s failing at the moment. Google also allows PayPal, we have added our donation account, unfortunately the PayPal account is not accepted by the Google system. We are in contact with Google Support…

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#16

Indeed, you can get to Marble/OSM in digiKam pretty simply. The downside to that is you don’t get satellite imagery, which is sometimes helpful in identifying landmarks for accuracy.

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