HyperCities HOW TO's
PhilEthington
All HyperCities Collections are created and controlled by HyperCities
account holders. Opening and maintaining a HyperCities Account is
available to anyone and free of charge. HyperCities collections are
stored in database tables on HyperCities project servers, but they
closely resemble Google “Maps,” which are created and stored in simple
text files called “.KML” files. There are three distinct ways to
create (and edit) a HyperCities collection: 1) By uploading a pre-
existing .KML file; 2) Directly within HyperCities, using online
uploading and editing commands; 3) By establishing a link to an
external .KML file. Once collections are created in HyperCities, they
can be shared as widely as desired. Collections can be included in
other collections within HyperCities, so they can be thought of as
building blocks. All HyperCities collections are situated in parent-
chiled fashion within larger collections, the largest parent groupings
are called “Meta-Collections.” This general User’s Guide is provided
to enable anyone to navigate, create, and edit HyperCities
Collections.
DEFINITIONS:
* A HyperCities: Collection is any combination of text, images, video
or other media that has been geocoded so that those materials can be
accessed interactively with maps that indicate the location or
geographic association of those materials.
* Meta-Collection: Meta-Collections are simply groups of collections.
As of December 2009, there are four major Meta-Collections: “Featured
Collections,” “Partner Collections,” “Classes,” and “Public
Collections.” This set of Meta-Collections may vary, but the number
will be kept small to provide a simple point of entry to HyperCities
Collections.
* KML File: A KML file is a simple text file that contains the mark-
up tags for linking “content” to geospatial and temporal coordinates.
KML files are very similar to HTML and XML files, and share many of
the same mark-up codes.
CREATING HYPERCITIES COLLECTIONS:
A HyperCities Collection can be made in three different ways:
(1) Directly within the HyperCities platform
(2) By creating a “KML” file and then uploading that file to
HyperCities, where it can be further modified using HyperCities
editing tools.
(3) From an link to an external .KML file.
(1) About Making and Uploading KML Files to Make HyperCities
Collections.
Creating and uploading KML files is the most common way of creating
and editing HyperCities Collections. While HyperCities Collections
can be made entirely within the HyperCities platform, allowing anyone
to create a HypeCities Collection from anywhere on the Internet, that
method is slower, especially for large and complex collections. See D.
2 for the direct method.
The easiest way to start a KML file is to use Google Earth or Google
Maps. Google provides easy instructions for making a “map,” which can
then be “shared” or “exported.” Google shares and exports KMLs in a
compressed, or “zipped” format, called “KMZ.” When you receive the
email from Google containing this “KMZ,” you can quickly convert it to
a “KML” by the following steps. Say that the file is called
“mymap.kmz.” Simply change the filename extension (the three letters
after the period, to “zip,” so your file will be called “mymap.zip”
Then, just double-click on that file and it will automatically “unzip”
and a new file will appear in your folder. It will probably have the
name “doc.kml,” (along with a strange file creation date). Simply
rename this however you want, but make sure to keep the “.kml” suffix.
Editing KML Files
You can edit a KML file in any plain text editor, such as Apple’s
“TextEdit,” or Microsoft’s “WordPad,” but be sure NEVER to edit a .KML
in a full-featured wordprocessing program like Microsoft Word. Such
programs will insert unneeded markup tags and codes into your KML,
which will be very hard to clean out. Ideally, you should use an “XML
Editor,” such as “WordWrangler” for Macintosh or “EditiX” for Windows
environments. These editors help you to see the groups of markup tags
by automatically coloring the lines. XML editors also will display
the line numbers, which is essential for de-bugging a KML that has an
error. When you test the KML in Google Earth (GE), GE will either
load the file successfully, or give you an error message with the line
number of the first error encountered.
You can also use any web page editor to edit a .KML, if you are
careful to view and edit the file in the “show code” mode, rather than
the preview mode. In all cases, the goal is to view the .KML without
any formatting and to keep the file in simple text form when saving
it.
FINDING COLLECTIONS IN HYPERCITIES
Collections can be found by simply opening Meta-Collections and the
parent collections below them.
It is crucial to remember that HyperCities lists collections that have
content within the current Map View and Time Slider settings. If you
do not see the collection that you seek (and if it genuinely exists in
HyperCities), it will appear if you navigate the map view (including
zoom level) to a location that is contained in a place mark in that
collection. Also make sure that the Time Slider brackets a time
period that is contained in the collection.
If you are unsure of the spatial or temporal parameters of the
collection that you seek, then simply zoom out to the global level in
Map View, and spread the Time Slider to 10,000 years ago (r to any
date that you think should capture the range of the collection in
question). All collections will be listed if these maximum spatial
scale and time ranges are set.