Board Thread:New Features/@comment-452-20150531160318

Here's a wishlist of Map functions I've compiled through my use of Maps over the past several months. I regard the majority of these things as features which should have been in the original design document, should have been implemented to begin with, and also should have been discovered as missing by the developers during usability testing.

Every time I edit maps, I run into these same issues.


 * Has anyone else encountered these issues and also want these features?
 * Does anyone know of any good reason why any of these features wouldn't make Maps better?
 * Can anyone think of any other missing features?

I'm not looking for excuses for why these things aren't implemented. Some of these things are easy and some of these things are hard but all of these things would improve the Maps feature.

Unfortunately, Wikia appear to have abandoned improvements to the Maps feature. There has not been a single update in 8 months, so I doubt these suggestions will be of any use.

Basic mediawiki functions
These are all features which I expected to be present when I first used Maps, and would expect to be present in any new Wikia feature. A lot of these are missing due to the fact that the Maps feature is tacked on, instead of built around Mediawiki. I think that "tacked on" features feel unprofessional.
 * Restore deleted pins / rollback:This is the biggest flaw. Hours of work can be undone in minutes, without the ability to restore it.  The point of wikis is that it's impossible to lose information.  I have personally accidentally clicked "delete" instead of "close" on a pin, with no way to restore it.
 * Better Map History:The combined log is insufficient, particularly when you want to find a list of contributors to a single Map.
 * WhatLinksHere for embedded maps:I recently replaced some maps, but the only way I can tell where they are embedded is to download the database dump.
 * Protect pins:Not as important as restoring deleted pins.
 * Support wikitext in Pin descriptions, especially links:All text on a wiki should support wikitext, because it's a wiki, and wikis use wikitext.
 * Extra map rights:Some of the items below are advanced, and not for all users, so simply implementing Map rights would allow admins/Map Moderators to be able to, say "move pins", while regular users will continue to see the existing options.
 * The only time "map" appears in Special:Listgrouprights is "canremovemap", which is restricted to Admins and Staff, but does not actually delete the map, it simply removes it from the list on Special:Maps - it's still accessible via the URL, and if it's embedded somewhere.

Pins

 * Independently specify pin image for each pin:Having a new pin category every time you want to have a different pin image means creating excessive pin categories.
 * Independently specify popup image for each pin:Linking the popup image to selected article is very limiting. This is already possible adding a File page as the related article.  Additionally, images are only selected if you click on the name in the drop down, you can't even use arrows+enter.  Additionally, since the "volunteer developers" removed redirects from link suggestions, it's impossible to specify a redirect as the related article if you want to use an image.  Additionally, some validation is already being performed upon saving: Try adding a nonexisting page as the related article, and you get an error such as "Error: either there is no blah article on this wikia, or the URL entered is invalid."
 * This is a feature I expected to be present when I first used Maps. When you create a Pin Category, you click the image to specify the Pin icon, but when you click the image placeholder when creating a Pin, nothing happens.


 * Move pins:Everyone makes mistakes, sometimes a pin is placed in the wrong place and needs to be moved. Re-creating pins is tedious.
 * This is a feature I expected to be present when I first used Maps.


 * Duplicate pins:Sometimes, the information in each pin is going to be identical, and repeating it is tedious.
 * Pin tags:Sometimes, a single "Category" is not enough, and it's useful to highlight a group of pins, such as Tagging pins by region. If I have a map of Starbucks pin and McDonalds pin locations, but I only want to display them in a certain state/city... I can't.  This could be achieved by allowing multiple categories per Pin (and by grouping Pin Categories, see below.)

Pin Categories

 * Re-arrange the Pin Categories:Everyone makes mistakes, sometimes important Pin categories need to be moved higher.
 * This is a feature I expected to be present when I first used Maps.


 * Parent Pin Categories:When there is a long list of categories, it would be useful to have them sorted into collapsible sections.
 * Each Pin Category already has a completely unused "Parent Category" field, so this appears to be a missing feature.


 * Removal of the requirement that pins be at least 60x60:Right now, the 60x60 uploaded pin images are displayed at 30x30. In most cases, the pin images I'm uploading are 36x36 to begin with, so to upload them I need to double their size, and then they're displayed at half that size: the original dimensions.  Can anyone explain how this makes any sense?
 * This, to me, seems like a bug that should be fixed.


 * Resizing pin image on the server:Resizing an image is not hard. If an image is too small, why is there not simply an option to enlarge it?
 * This is a feature that should have been obvious when the size requirement was added.


 * Maintain original aspect ratio of uploaded images:If I upload a 100x60px image, chances are I want it displayed at 100x60, and not stretched. I'm just going to resize the image to 100x100 with blank space on either side of the image, so why not just accept it as-is?
 * This is a feature I expected to be present when I first used Maps.


 * Selecting pin images that are already on the wiki:Every single pin image I have uploaded has been from an image which I had already uploaded to the wiki. Which meant I had to download it, then upload it again.  I should be able to specify the URL instead, or even just the filename, since it's already on the server.
 * This is a feature I expected to be present when I first used Maps.


 * Allow reuse of Pin Categories across different maps:A lot of the time, I find myself creating the same Pin categories over and over. "Add existing Pin Category" could be added below "Add Another Pin Category"
 * This is a feature I expected to be present when I first used Maps, as reuse of resources is a key feature of wikis: you can use the same image on multiple pages, so it follows that you should be able to use the same Pin Category on multiple maps.


 * Default values for each pin category:Sometimes, the information in each pin is going to be identical, and repeating it is tedious.

Whole map

 * Specify background colour:Having a square map surrounded by transparent area looks bad. The edges of every map I have uploaded are solid coloured, and I want that solid colour to extend indefinitely.
 * When I first used Maps, I expected the background colour of the image to be used as the surrounding colour, so this is a feature request to overcome that missing feature.


 * Linking/embedding to a specific point and zoom level:When you place a map in a region-specific article, zooming out to the full map on load is confusing.
 * This is a feature I expected to be present when I first used the "Embed Map" button.


 * Linking/embedding with specific Pin Categories shown by default:When using the same map in different articles, being able to open the map with only the Pins that relate to that article would be useful.
 * This is a feature I expected to be present when I first used the "Embed Map" button.


 * Selecting map images that are already on the wiki:Every single map I have created has been from an image which I had already uploaded to the wiki. Which meant I had to download it, then upload it again.  I should be able to specify the URL instead, or even just the filename, since it's already on the server.
 * This is a feature I expected to be present when I first used Maps.


 * Area outlines:Marking a region with a pin is insufficient. Unlike the majority of the rest of my requests, this is an entirely new feature which isn't "missing" but it would still be nice.

Bugs
I've reported all of these to Wikia Staff already.
 * When a pin category is hidden, and a pin is added to that category, the new pin is not visible until the page is refreshed.
 * Problems with large images
 * Problems with transparent images
 * General lag when adding/editing pins.
 * When editing a pin with a related image, the related image sometimes disappears.
 * Intermittent alignment issues with popup image 