Alright, so let me tell you about this little project I messed around with called “potmac shores.” It wasn’t anything crazy, just a fun side thing I did over a weekend.
It all started when I was trying to learn some new Javascript framework. I was tired of the usual todo list apps, so I thought, why not build something a little more visually interesting? I had this idea of displaying some data on a map, kind of like a simple geographic data visualization. So, I started with that in mind.
First things first, I grabbed a map library. I’d used Leaflet before, so I went with that again. It’s pretty easy to get started with, and there’s tons of documentation and examples online. I downloaded the CSS and JS files and linked them in my HTML. Then, I created a basic map container element and initialized the map in my JavaScript file. Boom, map loaded!
Next up, I needed some data to display. I didn’t want to spend ages searching for real-world datasets, so I just made up some dummy data. I created a JSON file with a bunch of objects, each representing a “location” with a latitude, longitude, and some random data like “temperature” and “rainfall.” Nothing fancy, just enough to get the point across.
Okay, now the fun part: plotting the data on the map. I looped through my JSON data and for each location, I created a Leaflet marker. I set the marker’s latitude and longitude based on the data, and then added it to the map. To make it a bit more interesting, I used the “temperature” value to set the marker’s color. Warmer locations got red markers, cooler locations got blue markers. It was a really basic heatmap-ish effect.
I wanted to add some interactivity too. When you clicked on a marker, I wanted it to show a popup with more information about that location. So, I added a click listener to each marker. When clicked, it would create a popup with the “temperature” and “rainfall” values, and then open the popup on the map. Super simple, but it made the map feel a lot more alive.
I also added some basic map controls, like zoom in/out buttons and a scale bar. Leaflet makes this super easy – just a few lines of code and you’re good to go.
To polish things up, I messed around with the map’s base tiles. The default Leaflet tiles are okay, but I wanted something a bit more visually appealing. I found some free tile providers online with different map styles, like satellite imagery or watercolor maps. I tried a few different ones out until I found one that I liked.
And that was pretty much it! “potmac shores” wasn’t anything groundbreaking, but it was a fun little project that helped me practice Javascript and Leaflet. Plus, it looked kinda cool, even with the dummy data.
Here’s a quick rundown of what I did:
- Set up a basic HTML file with a map container.
- Included Leaflet CSS and JS files.
- Created a JavaScript file to initialize the map.
- Made up some dummy JSON data with location info.
- Looped through the data and created Leaflet markers for each location.
- Set marker color based on the “temperature” value.
- Added click listeners to show popups with location info.
- Added basic map controls (zoom, scale).
- Experimented with different map tile providers.
Things I Learned:
Leaflet is still a great library for simple map stuff.
Making up dummy data can be surprisingly fun.
Even a basic data visualization can be pretty satisfying.
I might revisit this project sometime and add some more features, like filtering the data or adding different types of visualizations. But for now, it was a good little learning exercise.
