Back in November, Coleman blogged about using Fulcrum’s SpatialVideo as a tool for collecting OpenStreetMap features. Since releasing SpatialVideo functionality, we have captured quite a bit of video coverage, particularly around Spatial Networks headquarters in the Tampa Bay area.
In order to visualize this coverage, I setup a CARTO Synced Table to ingest our track lines, which are available as a GeoJSON Data Share. This is a rather large GeoJSON file so passing it through CARTO gives us a nice tile server to render these tracks in our Fulcrum web map as well as on the mobile device. Below are the steps to reproduce this functionality on your own.
- Grab our OpenStreetVideo app template or create a custom app of your own with at least one SpatialVideo field.
- Enable Data Sharing for that particular app and copy the GeoJSON share link.
- Import your data into CARTO by pasting the GeoJSON data share link into the new table dialog, making sure to select to sync your data Every hour. This will automatically fetch new track lines as they are created in Fulcrum.
- Back in Fulcrum, go in to the layer setup screen and click the New Layer button. Select Tile XYZ for Layer Type, give it a name and description and use the following URL info: https://username.cartodb.com/tiles/tablename/{z}/{x}/{y}.png, replacing username and tablename with your info.
- You can optionally provide dynamic tile styling by appending a ?style= parameter with URI encoded CartoCSS to the URL.
- Be sure to sync your mobile device to pull in these updates so you can view this layer in the field.
You’ve now got an app to record SpatialVideo, a synced CARTO table rendering the map tiles, and a custom layer in Fulcrum to display your track lines. Simply check this new layer from the layer list on the web map or mobile app to view your tracks.
As an added bonus, now that your tracks are in CARTO, you can run arbitrary spatial queries to answer questions such as “How many miles of SpatialVideo have I collected?”. Executing the following SQL query in the CARTO Editor: SELECT SUM(ST_Length(the_geom_webmercator))*0.000621371 FROM tracks gives us a result of about 428 miles as of 2/26/2015. Pretty impressive all around!