v2.0.0

Release v2.0.0 demo link

This is a major release.

New Features

• It is now possible to add Index 3D Scene (i3s) and GeoJSON layers, in addition to the existing layer types KML/COLLADA/glTF and Cesium 3D Tiles.

• Existing thematic data embedded within the 3D layers themselves can now also be extracted and displayed, in addition to the already available options to include external thematic data using PostgreSQL/PostgREST and Google Spreadsheets. These layers include Index 3D Scene (i3s), KML, Cesium 3D Tiles, and GeoJSON.

  Note: Due to the inconsistent labelling of object identifiers in Cesium 3D Tiles from various providers, the following approach was used for querying:

  • Different identifier names are considered, such as gml:id, gml_id, gmlid, gml-id, id, etc., regardless of whether the letters are given in uppercase or lowercase.
  • The same also applies to the column name of the identifiers in PostgreSQL/PostgREST and Google Spreadsheets, as long as the column names are valid.

• In addition to embedded data and external PostgreSQL/PostgREST and Google Spreadsheets, OGC Feature API is now also supported as another external thematic data source.

  Note: Due to the different implementation of the API across regions and countries, the current version provides some examples for handling the OGC Feature API implementations provided by the German states of Hamburg and North Rhine-Westphalia.

• Web Map Tile Service (WMTS) can now be used as another imagery or base map layer, in addition to the existing Web Map Service (WMS).

Improvements

• The Graphical User Interface (GUI) for adding and configuring layers in the toolbox have been rearranged to provide more clarity and consistency. The input elements are now grouped into two groups based on their functions for the selected layer type: layer information and thematic data, as shown in the example below:

  

• Mobile support for geolocation has been completely reworked to adhere to modern security rules on personal devices, especially for iOS 13+. The new button icons and their functions are explained as follows:

  

  From left to right: Default button, "snapshot" of location and orientation, live tracking of orientation (with fixed location), live tracking of orientation and location, and button for disabling geolocation.

• The highlighting and hiding functions have been reworked, so that objects from across different layer types can be displayed correctly and consistently together.

• Cesium 3D Tiles can now be navigated together with Google Street View, Dual Map View, etc.

Change Logs

For a complete list of all changes made for this release, please refer to the change logs.

What's Changed

• Adds maximum screenspace error option by @mulfvik in #78
• Merge from master to branch by @Son-HNguyen in #79
• cesium-1.117 by @Son-HNguyen in #80
• Update RELEASES.md by @Son-HNguyen in #81
• Release 2.0 by @Son-HNguyen in #82
• Release 2.0 by @Son-HNguyen in #83
• Update branch by @Son-HNguyen in #84

New Contributors

• @mulfvik made their first contribution in #78

Full Changelog: v1.9.1...v2.0.0

v1.9.1

Release v1.9.1 demo link

This is a minor release that shall be included in the upcoming release of the 3DCityDB.

FIXES

• Fixed outdated scripts for examples, see 867821e.
• Fixed inconsistent documentation of the response of PostgREST regarding the use of attribute and value_name for vertical tables. The name attribute shall be used.

Support for Google Spreadsheets, PostgreSQL and KML as thematic data source; log-in in Google Spreadsheets; usage of ion and Bing access token; KML visualization; and more

Release v1.9.0 demo link

IMPORTANT CHANGES

• Google Fusion Tables will be unavailable after Dec 3, 2019. It is recommended to backup thematic data stored in such tables locally/offline or using alternative cloud services. Please refer to Google announcements for more information.

• In this context, besides Google Fusion Tables, the Web Client is now additionally capable of fetching data using Google Sheets API v4 and a PostgreSQL database with a RESTful API enabled (PostgREST). Like with Google Fusion Tables, data fetched from Google Sheets API and PostgREST can also be displayed on the infobox as thematic data when a city object is clicked. Simply enter the URL to corresponding tables in the thematicDataUrl field as well as the type of thematic data source in > Thematic Data Source field in Show / Hide Toolbox -> Add / Configure Layer. This could be:

  • The spreadsheet URL using Google Sheets API, e.g. with the following structure https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/<spreadsheet_id>
  • The table URL published by the PostgreSQL REST API, e.g. https://example.com:3000/<table_name>

• In addition to the two new supported data sources, it is now also possible to choose their tableType between All object attributes in one row (horizontal) and One row per object attribute (vertical). The selected table type are encoded in URLs generated by Generate Scene Link as well as parsing project URLs, see 05e692d, where:

  • Horizontal: all object attributes are stored in columns of one single row, which means each ID occurs only once in the table.

    Note: The thematic data must be stored in the first sheet of the spreadsheet. The first column of this sheet must be called gmlid or GMLID.

    Example:

    gmlid	attribute1	attribute2	attribute3	attribute4
    gmlid1	value1	value2	value3	value4
    gmlid2	value1	value2	value3	value4

  • Vertical: each object attribute is stored in one row consisting of three columns ID, Attribute and Value, which means an ID may occur in multiple rows in the table.

    Note: A vertical table must contain exactly 3 columns in this exact order: gmlid, attribute and value.

    Example:

    gmlid	attribute	value
    gmlid1	attribute1	value1
    gmlid1	attribute2	value2
    gmlid1	attribute3	value3
    gmlid1	attribute4	value4
    gmlid2	attribute1	value1
    gmlid2	attribute2	value2
    gmlid2	attribute3	value3
    gmlid2	attribute4	value4

  • The response from PostgREST service is encoded in JSON with the following structure:
    Both the horizontal and vertical mode consist of an array of records marked by the [ ... ].
    Each record represents a line in the table, where:

    • Each record in vertical mode only has exactly 3 elements: gmlid, attribute name and attribute value. The gmlids here can be duplicated in other records, but the combination of the first two columns must be unique.

      [
         { "gmlid" : "id1", "attribute" : "value_name", "value" : "value" },
         { "gmlid" : "id2", "attribute" : "value_name", "value" : "value" },
         ...
      ]
      

    • On the other hand, each record in the horizontal mode can have more than 2 elements, but the first one must always be gmlid and this must be unique for each record.

NEW

• Added own parser for thematic SchemaData (see 1e78886) besides simple Data in KML covered in v1.8.3:

  • An example of a KML document with thematic SchemaData:

  ...
  <Placemark>
    ...
    <ExtendedData>
      <SchemaData schemaUrl="#some_schema">
          <SimpleData name="A">Text</SimpleData>
          <SimpleData name="B">Text</SimpleData>
      </SchemaData>
    </ExtendedData>
  </Placemark>  

  • Note that the parser will not check the structural validity of the used SchemaData. This should be ensured by the provider.

  • The thematic data are found using the IDs of the placemarks in the KML file. If the placemarks do not have IDs, their name will be used for lookup instead, see 95b5086.

• URLs in the thematic info table (when an object has been clicked) are now clickable, see dab83ee and 3dc8d33.

• Added support for retrieving and displaying thematic datasource from KML documents themselves (see d0e82ad). Note that:

  • The option > Thematic Data Source in the main toolbox must be set to KML documents;
  • If Cesium is used to retrieve thematic data from KML documents, only Data of ExtendedData is allowed. SchemaData or custom data are simply ignored by Cesium, see here;
  • An example of a KML document with thematic data:

  ...
  <Placemark>
    ...
    <ExtendedData>
       <Data name="dataName">
          <displayName></displayName>
          <value></value>
       </Data>
    </ExtendedData>
  </Placemark>  

  • If the Data elements do not have displayName, the attribute name shall be used as label instead.

• Added support for loading KML/COLLADA/glTF layers via proxy (see c736ba7 and 4894ca4):

  • This can be toggled in the main toolbox while adding new layer;
  • This shall be stored in the shared URLs as parameter layerProxy=<true|false>;
  • For backward compatibility, shared URLs without this parameter shall receive the default value false.
  • It is not recommended to load large datasets via proxy, e.g. Cesium 3D Tiles;
  • Proxy only works for web client hosted in one of the following domains: http(s)://(www.)3dcitydb.[org|net|de];
  • Users have to ensure the resource URL and the web client's URL have the same protocol HTTP/HTTPS.

• Added support for clamping KML models to ground (see c736ba7 and f64372c):

  • This can be toggled in the main toolbox while adding new layer;
  • This shall be stored in the shared URLs as parameter layerClampToGround=<true|false>;
  • For backward compatibility, shared URLs without this parameter shall receive the default value true.

• It is now possible to access own private/non-public Google Spreadsheets using OAuth, see 082145c. The following steps explain how to enable OAuth for your project and use it in the Web Client (this is not the requirement of the web client, but rather a standard procedure when using OAuth):

  1. Make sure you really have read/write access to the table;
  2. Register your project using Google Developer Console;
  3. Search and activate Google Sheets API for your project;
  4. Create and copy your client ID from the credentials page;
  5. Insert the trusted redirect URIs,
     or the URIs in which the web client is running. For example if you are using the latest web client from our 3DCityDB server,
     then you should insert the following URI:
     https://www.3dcitydb.org/3dcitydb-web-map/latest/3dwebclient/index.html
  6. Paste your client ID in the web client's URL using the parameter googleClientId, such as
     https://www.3dcitydb.org/3dcitydb-web-map/latest/3dwebclient/index.html?googleClientId=<YOUR_CLIENT_ID>
     • You can then log into Google by clicking the button marked with a key symbol, which can be found in the top right area of the screen;
     • When logged in, you can click the button again to log out;
     • If the parameter googleClientId does not exist in the client URL, then this button shall not be displayed (backward compatible to earlier versions of the web client).
  7. (Optional) You can share your project as usual by clicking the button Generate Scene Link. You need to stay logged in to attach your client ID in the project share link. If you wish to not include your client ID in the project share link, then simply log out beforehand, see bd99b17.

• The web client now supports both .gltf and binary .glb files. It automatica...

Support for glb, querying Google Spreadsheets using OAuth, loading via proxy and more

Release v1.8.3 demo link

NEW

• Added support for retrieving and displaying thematic datasource from KML documents themselves
  (see d0e82ad).
  Note that:

  • The option > Thematic Data Source in the main toolbox must be set to KML documents;
  • If Cesium is used to retrieve thematic data from KML documents, only Data of ExtendedData is allowed.
    SchemaData or custom data are simply ignored by Cesium, see here;
  • An example of a KML document with thematic data:

  ...
  <Placemark>
    ...
    <ExtendedData>
       <Data name="dataName">
          <displayName></displayName>
          <value></value>
       </Data>
    </ExtendedData>
  </Placemark>  

  • If the Data elements do not have displayName, the attribute name shall be used as label instead.

• Added support for loading KML/COLLADA/glTF layers via proxy (see c736ba7 and 4894ca4):

  • This can be toggled in the main toolbox while adding new layer;
  • This shall be stored in the shared URLs as parameter layerProxy=<true|false>;
  • For backward compatibility, shared URLs without this parameter shall receive the default value false.
  • It is not recommended to load large datasets via proxy, e.g. Cesium 3D Tiles;
  • Proxy only works for web client hosted in one of the following domains: http(s)://(www.)3dcitydb.[org|net|de];
  • Users have to ensure the resource URL and the web client's URL have the same protocol HTTP/HTTPS.

• Added support for clamping KML models to ground (see c736ba7 and f64372c):

  • This can be toggled in the main toolbox while adding new layer;
  • This shall be stored in the shared URLs as parameter layerClampToGround=<true|false>;
  • For backward compatibility, shared URLs without this parameter shall receive the default value true.

• It is now possible to access own private/non-public Google Spreadsheets using OAuth, see 082145c.
  The following steps explain how to enable OAuth for your project and use it in the Web Client
  (this is not the requirement of the web client, but rather a standard procedure when using OAuth):

  1. Make sure you really have read/write access to the table;
  2. Register your project using Google Developer Console;
  3. Search and activate Google Sheets API for your project;
  4. Create and copy your client ID from the credentials page;
  5. Insert the trusted redirect URIs,
     or the URIs in which the web client is running. For example if you are using the latest web client from our 3DCityDB server,
     then you should insert the following URI:
     https://www.3dcitydb.org/3dcitydb-web-map/latest/3dwebclient/index.html
  6. Paste your client ID in the web client's URL using the parameter googleClientId, such as
     https://www.3dcitydb.org/3dcitydb-web-map/latest/3dwebclient/index.html?googleClientId=<YOUR_CLIENT_ID>
     • You can then log into Google by clicking the button marked with a key symbol,
       which can be found in the top right area of the screen;
     • When logged in, you can click the button again to log out;
     • If the parameter googleClientId does not exist in the client URL, then this button shall not be displayed
       (backward compatible to earlier versions of the web client).
  7. (Optional) You can share your project as usual by clicking the button Generate Scene Link.
     You need to stay logged in to attach your client ID in the project share link.
     If you wish to not include your client ID in the project share link, then simply log out beforehand,
     see bd99b17.

• The web client now supports both .gltf and binary .glb files.
  It automatically detects for each individual object whether a .gltf or a .glb is present and visualize accordingly,
  i.e. the web client can visualize a list of files mixed with .gltf and .glb,
  see737b4a0.

v1.8.2

Release v1.8.2 demo link

FIXES

• Fixed querying data sources from multiple layers, see 69fce7b.

• Fixed loading of thematic data sources in Cesium 3D Tiles, see 08bc00d.

Support for data sources Google Spreadsheets and PostgreSQL

Release v1.8.1 demo link

In preparation of Google Fusion Tables being shut down by Google: Extend the 3DCityDB Web Client to support further data sources such as Google Spreadsheets (using Google Sheets API v4) and directly from PostgreSQL (using PostgREST API).

IMPORTANT CHANGES

• The 3DCityDB Web Map Client has been utilizing the Google Fusion Table to store and display thematic attributes of a selected city object. However, Google Fusion Tables will be unavailable after Dec 3, 2019. It is recommended to backup thematic data stored in such tables locally/offline or using alternative cloud services. Please refer to Google announcements for more information.

• In this context, besides Google Fusion Tables, the Web Client is now additionally capable of fetching data using Google Sheets API v4 and a PostgreSQL database with a RESTful API enabled (PostgREST).

  Like with Google Fusion Tables, data fetched from Google Sheets API and PostgREST can also be displayed on the infobox as thematic data when a city object is clicked. Simply enter the URL to corresponding tables in the thematicDataUrl field as well as the type of thematic data source in > Thematic Data Source field in Show / Hide Toolbox -> Add / Configure Layer. This could be:

  • The spreadsheet URL using Google Sheets API, e.g. with the following structure https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/<spreadsheet_id>
  • The table URL published by the PostgreSQL REST API, e.g. https://example.com:3000/<table_name>

• In addition to the two new supported data sources, it is now also possible to choose their tableType between All object attributes in one row (horizontal) and One row per object attribute (vertical). The selected table type is encoded in URLs generated by Generate Scene Link as well as parsing project URLs, see 05e692d, where:

  • Horizontal: all object attributes are stored in columns of one single row, which means each ID occurs only once in the table.

    Note: The thematic data must be stored in the first sheet of the spreadsheet. The first column of this sheet must be called gmlid or GMLID.

    Example:

    gmlid	attribute1	attribute2	attribute3	attribute4
    gmlid1	value1	value2	value3	value4
    gmlid2	value1	value2	value3	value4

  • Vertical: each object attribute is stored in one row consisting of three columns ID,
    Attribute and Value, which means an ID may occur in multiple rows in the table.

    Note: A vertical table must contain exactly 3 columns in this exact order: gmlid, attribute and value.

    Example:

    gmlid	attribute	value
    gmlid1	attribute1	value1
    gmlid1	attribute2	value2
    gmlid1	attribute3	value3
    gmlid1	attribute4	value4
    gmlid2	attribute1	value1
    gmlid2	attribute2	value2
    gmlid2	attribute3	value3
    gmlid2	attribute4	value4

  • The response from PostgREST service is encoded in JSON with the following structure:
    Both the horizontal and vertical mode consist of an array of records marked by the [ ... ].
    Each record represents a line in the table, where:

    • Each record in vertical mode only has exactly 3 elements: gmlid, attribute name and attribute value.
      The gmlids here can be duplicated in other records, but the combination of the first two columns must be unique.

      [
          { gmlid : "id1", value_name : "value_name", value : "value" },
          { gmlid : "id2", value_name : "value_name", value : "value" },
          ...
       ]
      

    • On the other hand, each record in the horizontal mode can have more than 2 elements, but the first one must always be gmlid and this must be unique for each record.

UPDATES

• Added support for thematicDataSource in URLs generated by Generate Scene Link as well as parsing project URLs, see85afb36.

FIXES

• Fixed a bug that prevented Geocoder to function properly on defined active layers, see 0e60059.

v1.8.0

Release v1.8.0 demo link

NEW

• It is now possible to display your own information about your web client in a splash window that is loaded upon start.
  By default:

  • All contents (HTML, CSS, JS) are to be stored in the folder splash.
  • The HTML page is named SplashWindow.html and all belonging CSS and JS files must be declared/imported in the HTML file.
  • On mobile devices, the web client will search for the HTML page named SplashWindow_Mobile.html and display it instead.
    If such file does not exist, the default SplashWindow.html shall be used.
    Thus, if you wish to display your own contents modified for mobile devices,
    make sure to save them in the additional SplashWindow_Mobile.html file.

• If the contents of the splash window are however stored somewhere else,
  the splash window can be declared as a set of string parameters in the web client URL using the following syntax:

  &splashWindow=url=<path_to_your_html_file>&showOnStart=<true|false>

  where:

  Parameter	Description	Allowed values	Default Value
  url	A valid path to the HTML file	An absolute path if the HTML file is located in another domain or a relative path if the HTML file is located in the same project folder as the web client	splash/SplashWindow.html
  showOnStart	A boolean that determines whether the splash window should be shown upon start or not	true or false	true

• The splash window has two buttons: Close and Ignore (or Do not show again). the former closes the splash window but does not prevent it from appearing again if the page is reloaded.
  Therefore, the latter button can be used to suppress the splash window from appearing again.
  Note that a cookie named ignoreSplashWindow will be created locally, which tells the web client whether or not to display the splash window based on the user's choice.

• The configurations of the splash window (url and showOnStart) can be modified using the main toolbox in the web client. There, you can also overwrite or remove the current splash window.

  • Once the flag showOnStart has been modified and saved, it will overwrite the cookie ignoreSplashWindow.
    For example, a checked showOnStart flag in the toolbox will set the cookie ignoreSplashWindow to false again, regardless of the cookie's value.
  • On the other hand, the cookie ignoreSplashWindow will be priortized against the string parameters in the web client URL. For example, a web client with URL ...&showOnStart=true will display the splash window on the first load.
    After the option Ignore (or Do not show again) is selected, the cookie ignoreSplashWindow with value true is created. This cookie will prevent the web client from displaying the splash window again on the next load, as expected, even if the web client URL has the parameter showOnStart=true.
    To reset or remove the cookie, simply go to the main toolbox and set the flag showOnStart accordingly, since the flag has the highest priority and will overwrite the current value of the cookie.

• The splash window as well as other information about the web client are displayed in an additional tab in the Cesium's default navigation help popup triggered by the "question mark" button in the top right corner of the screen.

FIXES

• Fixed rotation/heading of glTF v0.8, see e049ffd.
• Fixed a bug that prevented highlighting of Cesium3DTileFeatures, see 01b0241.
• Fixed a bug that caused selected geometries to stay highlighted even after deselecting, see a161234.
• Fixed a bug that prevented retrieving properties of Cesium3DTileFeatures, see 20e0a8e.
• Fixed a bug that prevents selection of 3D tiles objects, see ce18aab.
• Fixed (un)highlight of 3D tiles objects, see 6be754c.
• Fixed a bug when multiple alert windows appear at the same time, see d5c5f4e.
• Fixed the size of Cesium's error dialog that could not be displayed correctly on mobile devices, see 763df04 and f0705bc.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the web client from reading user's ion token correctly, see 59a62f6.
• Fixed point size of point cloud datasets, see 73c7c84.

UPDATES

• It is now possible to fly the camera directly to a recently highlighted/clicked entity, even if no cityobjectsJsonUrl is present.
  The cityobjectsJsonUrl is a JSON file containing information about location and coordinates linked to object IDs and thus was used prior to v1.7.1 to enable flying to such entities.
  Starting with v1.7.2, the web client shall store recently highlighted/clicked entities in a dictionary with {id, target entity} tuples as its key-value-pairs.
  This way, a direct fly to hightlighted/clicked entites is possible without having to rely on the cityobjectsJsonUrl.
  However, this will not work if the stored entities are not yet loaded or have been unloaded (e.g. typically when the camera has been moved to a different location).
  In this case, the web client will fall back to using the cityobjectsJsonUrl. See 4c7bcfd.
• Selected as well as highlighted objects from different layers can now be listed together in the
  Choose highlighted object as well as Choose hidden object dropdown list (prior to v1.7.1 this was not possible since only objects from the same active layer were allowed). See 4c7bcfd.
• Clicking the home button will fly the camera to the position and orientation defined in the URL.
  If no corresponding parameters exist or are found in the URL, the camera shall fly to the default location and orientation defined in Cesium. See, 4f23407.
• Updated JQuery to v3.3.1, see a60b900.
• Updated Flatpickr v4.5.1 to v4.6.2, see 6d9d570 and a56076e.

v1.7.1: Merge pull request #40 from 3dcitydb/update-cesium-1.53

1.7.1

---

UPDATES

• Cesium version 1.53 is now installed (updated from 1.44).
• Default imagery layer is now changed from Bing Maps to ESRI World Imagery.
• Default geocoder is now changed from Bing Maps Geocoder to OpenStreetMap Nominatim
  (without the autofill function).
• If you wish to use Bing Maps features or Cesium World Terrain,
  add your own token as a string paramter in the client's URL, such as
  &bingToken=<your_bing_token> or &ionToken=<your_ion_token>.
  Note that the given token(s) must be valid.
• If a valid ion token is available,
  you can force the client to use the Cesium World Terrain on loading
  using the string paramater &cesiumWorldTerrain=<true|false>
  in the client's URL.
• Each 3D model layer can now have its own glTF version (0.8, 1.0 or 2.0).
  The glTF version is also included in the shared URL created by the generateLink() function
  (the parameter is gltfVersion).
  Saving the glTF version of the active layer will update the visualization of the affected glTF layer immediately.
• Each 3D model layer must have a type (either COLLADA/KML/glTF, Cesium 3D Tiles or Others).
  This can be specified directly in the GUI in the same way as editing the layer's name, etc.
  The layer type is also included in the shared URL created by the generateLink() function
  (the parameter is layerDataType).
• The URL of input Cesium 3D Tiles can be given with or without the configuration JSON file (e.g. tileset.json).
  If the configuration JSON file is not tileset.json, then its URL (incl. the JSON file name) must be provided.
  For example, all of the following URLs are aquivalent:
  • http://example.com/cesium3DTiles
  • http://example.com/cesium3DTiles/
  • http://example.com/cesium3DTiles/tileset.json

v1.6.2

Fix -1 as value of maxLodPixels

v1.6.1

Update news