April 2023 Summaries

Raster data plays a crucial role in various industries by providing essential insights through digital images, maps, and satellite imagery, but traditional software makes sharing and collaborating on such data cumbersome. Felt is revolutionizing this process by introducing a new raster service designed to enhance team collaboration and streamline workflows. The platform allows users to upload large raster files, integrate external imagery, and employ purpose-built layers, facilitating efficient data presentation and interaction. Felt's features, like drag-and-drop functionality and seamless layering, enable easy annotation and sharing, significantly accelerating the review process. The platform's ability to handle large files and integrate vector data lets teams combine different data types to convey compelling narratives. As evidenced by users like hydrologist Angie Rodriguez-Arriaga, Felt has already proven to be a valuable tool, offering unparalleled time-saving benefits and ease of use in professional settings.

Raster data, crucial for industries like environmental science and agriculture, encompasses digital aerial photos, satellite imagery, and thematic data, providing insights into elevation, land use, and more. Traditional software struggles with raster data sharing, but Felt offers a collaborative platform that simplifies this process with features such as uploading raster files as map layers, adding XYZ URLs for external imagery, and utilizing purpose-built OSM layers. Felt facilitates the integration of raster data with vector data and annotations, making it easier to create and share narratives through maps. This platform supports large files up to 5GB and offers seamless sharing options for teams and clients, enhancing the review and feedback process. Hydrologist Angie Rodriguez-Arriaga's experience at Luhdorff & Scalmanini highlights Felt's efficiency in sharing and annotating raster data, eliminating the need for cumbersome exports. Felt continues to expand its capabilities and invites feedback from users to further enhance its services.

Phoenix Channels, a WebSocket-based interface, are central to Felt's collaborative features, offering a different architecture compared to traditional HTTP APIs. While HTTP APIs use routes and controllers for organization and authentication, Phoenix Channels manage events through pattern matching in a single module, which can become unwieldy as features expand. To address this, the text explores methods to improve channel organization, such as using namespaces for events, adopting a router-like pattern, and implementing plug-like functions to handle common tasks like authentication. It introduces the ChannelHandler library, which encapsulates these strategies into a declarative API, allowing for more structured and maintainable channel code by mimicking traditional HTTP routing, offering compile-time validation, and providing a clearer overview of channel capabilities. The text highlights the ongoing challenges in managing live processes and emphasizes the benefits of adopting a structured approach to Phoenix Channel development.

Phoenix Channels offer a powerful WebSocket-based interface for real-time interactions but pose unique architectural challenges compared to traditional HTTP APIs. The text explores the complexities of building large-scale Phoenix Channels and proposes solutions to enhance readability and maintainability. One approach involves organizing event handlers by feature groups using namespaces, similar to HTTP endpoint grouping. This method aids in improving code organization but can still lead to messy private sections. To address this, the text suggests routing events to specific modules, a pattern borrowed from GenServers, allowing for modular and manageable channel design. Furthermore, the text discusses the importance of implementing security checks for each event due to the stateful nature of channels, emphasizing the need for authentication and authorization to prevent unauthorized actions. The introduction of "channel plugs" is proposed as a method to run common functions on each event, thus streamlining security and other repetitive tasks. The ChannelHandler library is introduced as a tool that encapsulates these ideas into a declarative API, simplifying the management of Phoenix Channels by offering a unified interface for routing and plug operations, while maintaining a clear overview of channel capabilities.

Felt, a platform for creating and sharing maps, showcases various projects that utilize its mapping capabilities to visualize important geographic and environmental data. These projects include mapping road widths in London to identify cycling opportunities, documenting development projects that replaced natural forests in Malaysia, and visualizing the destruction from a significant earthquake in Turkey using volunteer-collected data. Additionally, the platform hosts a comprehensive map of the Klang Valley bus system, an analysis of real estate investments in West Oakland, and a visualization of bus stops in Bengaluru scaled by daily trips served. Other notable projects feature the blooming magnolias and cherry blossoms in Korea, known fossil locations in Denmark, and Afrin's infrastructure and historical sites post-2018 military operation. Furthermore, Jacob's map of construction sites in Mumbai highlights their contribution to air pollution. The platform encourages users to share their own maps on its Slack group for potential featuring.

Felt, a mapping platform, has been utilized by various individuals and organizations to visualize diverse datasets, illustrating its versatility and application in different contexts. In London, road width data was styled to identify areas for cycling improvements, while in Malaysia, Felt was used by Macaranga to document development projects replacing natural forests. Following Turkey's devastating earthquake, Mesut uploaded destruction data from Humanitarian OpenStreetMap to Felt, making it accessible for visualization. The Klang Valley bus system and Bengaluru bus stops were mapped to enhance public transportation data accessibility, and a Bay Area investor's real estate holdings in West Oakland were visualized to assess economic impacts. Additional projects include mapping blooming trees in Korea, fossil locations in Denmark, Afrin's historical and infrastructural details post-2018 military operations, and Mumbai's construction sites contributing to air pollution. Felt encourages users to share their maps in its Slack group, promising to feature standout contributions.

Alta Planning + Design, an international consulting firm focused on promoting active communities through safe and enjoyable bicycling and walking, utilizes innovative tools to enhance its project outcomes. Philip Longenecker, a planner based in Portland, employs GIS and R for technical research and spatial analysis, and works on mapping and visualization to support multi-modal transportation solutions. To improve collaboration with clients and stakeholders, particularly during remote engagements, Longenecker has adopted Felt, a platform facilitating virtual design charrettes. This tool enables real-time, synchronous collaboration and has proven effective in projects like those for the City of Tigard, allowing for seamless integration of community feedback into project proposals. Felt's capabilities in hosting workshops and presentations have resulted in productive dialogues and valuable insights, aiding Alta in providing data-driven recommendations and developing comprehensive transportation plans.

Alta Planning + Design is an international consulting firm focused on creating active communities through safe and engaging pedestrian and cycling environments. Philip Longenecker, a Portland-based planner at Alta, employs GIS and R for technical research and spatial analysis, mapping, and policy evaluation in his projects. To overcome challenges in collaborating with multiple stakeholders, Philip adopted Felt, a platform enabling seamless remote collaboration and hosting of virtual design charrettes. This tool proved particularly effective for a transportation project in Tigard, Oregon, where it facilitated real-time stakeholder input and discussions, improving the planning process by allowing community feedback to be integrated into road improvement proposals.