Help:Geolocation
From Trail-Finder -- Dedicated to getting you outside
Contents |
What is Geolocation?
Geolocation is the method used on Trail-Finder.com to allow you to attach locations to trails, parks, and groups based on standard latitude and longitude coordinates. By entering a set of coordinates on a page, you enable people to search for your page by physical location on the planet.
How do I find my latitude and longitude?
The easiest way to find your latitude and longitude is by using a GPS. If you don't have a GPS, you can use programs like GoogleEarth, which can be downloaded free, topo maps, or numerous other sources.
Trail-Finder.com uses the GPS84 coordinate system. This is the most commonly used coordinate system for topo maps, and the default coordinate system for all GPSs from all manufacturers.
Why should I use Geolocation?
By inserting coordinates into your articles:
- Other visitors can easily find your trail, club, park, or event by searching by location.
- Anyone viewing your page can click on the coordinates and go to a map page. That map page allows you to plot the location on maps from around twenty different programs, including aerial photography, topo maps, and more.
- Anyone reading your page can click on the coordinates and then choose to see what else is nearby.
- Anyone can find your page if you're near another popular location.
- Because it's fun!
How do I insert coordinates into my article?
You insert GPS coordinates to a page using the<geo>tag. To add the coordinates of Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park, located at 44 degrees, 27 minutes, 38 seconds North Latitude, 110 degrees, 49 minutes, 41 seconds West Longitude, for example, you would enter
<geo>44 27 38 N 110 49 41 W<geo>on your page.
Is it really that simple? YES!
Trails
Trails, on Trail-Finder.com, is a term used very broadly. A trail can be a hiking, mountain biking, or horse trail. It can also be a cave entrance, a boat launch, or a rock climbing location. Enter the coordinates of the trailhead.
Categories
IMPORTANT Be sure to also add to the appropriate categories. The trail around Old Faithful, for example, should be in the following categories: Category:Hiking trails, Category:Yellowstone National Park, Category:Wyoming. This will allow searching by latitude and longitude, or for everything in a specific park, or everything in a specific state, etc.
Hiking trails should be added to the Category:Hiking trails category. Lakeshore water routes should be added to the Category:Sea kayaking routes and Category:Canoeing routes categories. Combination hiking/mountain biking trails should be added to both Category:Hiking trails and Category:Mountain biking trails.
Parks should be added just like trails. Add the location of either the main location in the park, if there is one, or roughly the center of the park. Parks should be added to the Category:Parks Category.
Clubs should be added the same way, with the location being the center of the club's activities. If a club always meets at the same location, for example, use that location. Clubs should also be added to the Category:Groups category, as well as their specific activity, ie: Category:Hiking groups, Category:Mountain Biking Clubs, etc. It's ok for your group to be added to more than one category if you do more than one thing.
Searching by location
The easiest way to search by location is to go to the GeoSearch page. If you'd like to add a search to your own page, just add the following code:
<geofind />
This will insert the form required to enter latitude, longitude, and search radius in your page wherever you place it.
