Campus Maps Projects History

By peterm, 14 December, 2023

Here is a short history of my involvement with campus maps. 

From 2001-2012, the online version of the campus map was a clickable web page that dropped the user into various grids or closeups of the map. Associated parking maps were hyperlinked to these detail pages. This was a project managed by my colleague Susan Willats. I had been involved in helping with providing a server, log management, etc. At some point I showed her what we could do with Drupal that would enhance this service used by visitors and the community at large.

Campus maps ran on Drupal from 2011 through 2018 when I retired. At that time, I handed the project off to PP&C who migrated the work to a GIS powered engine. We ran a Drupal version starting in 2011 that was called interactivemap.ucsc.edu as we slowly migrated off the static map. By 2013, we were fully running on Drupal and slowly adding features each year (blue light phones, various after hours parking, all gender restrooms, etc.)

 

 

 

About the Campus Map

This new interactive campus map is a collaboration between Transportation and Parking Services and Information Technology Services. It provides improved navigational capabilities over the previous static online map, and is also easier to update.

We offer basic navigation and location information for the campus facilities and departments. Our approach with this site has been to combine information in the existing map with additional data to provide a better tool. While we've made an effort to provide accurate information you may find inaccuracies in the data. We make use of Google Maps in this application. Errors in Google Maps are beyond our control. Please send requests for fixes to email address below.

Data overlays are provided on some pages. These are created by queries on specific data such as parking, dining or transit facilities and are rendered over the base map.

We will continue to add features and fine-tune performance. Please send corrections or suggestions to maps-feedback@ucsc.edu.

The service window for this system is limited to campus business hours. Our typical maintenance window is 6am - 7am except for critical issues. 

An archive of the old map website can be found at http://maps-archive.ucsc.edu.

The technology used in this application is based on Drupal. Modules used include OpenLayers, OpenLayers+, CCK and Views. Individual records are created within Drupal and assigned latitude and longitude via the Google Maps API. To improve performance, we are using the project Mercury stack which includes PressFlow, Varnish, and APC caching.

Map Features

 



 

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