I am very glad that you are finding good uses of the EditGrid API as well as EditGrid’s capability to mashup spreadsheet data into KML file format (we call that My Data Format), and honoured to have played a bit role here.

The most important thing is to make the important information of city demolition status as widespread and accessible as possible. What you and Matt have done here is very important to the New Orleans citizens. Of course, as you said, technology makes things like this much easier than ever, and we at EditGrid are proud to be able to help in this regard.

And here’s a shameless promotion: if anyone has found the information on the Google Maps transformation or Alan’s EditGrid-empowered database useful, do let us know by submitting your story here!

Yours,

P. K.

If you’re still listening on this channel, I’ve gone and written about EditGrid and the KML generation, as well as few other EditGrid related things things.

• A Map of Every City Demolition for Every Zip Code In Orleans Parish Thanks to EditGrid and P.K. Chan
• A Spreadsheet With Every Permit Issued in Orleans Parish Since January of 2005
• How To Use EditGrid to Create a Database With A Slick User Interface With Zero Lines of Code
• A Programmer’s Notebook on the EditGrid API

Sorry that it took me so long to get around to it. David Lee from EditGrid also asked me to submit a user story, so I’ll be doing that as well. Thank you for your help on this project. I’m very impressed with all that EditGrid can do.

I just tried and got the same error as you did (though it works when I export it into .gnumeric file format). Will follow up and revert to you shortly.

I am glad you find good use of the EditGrid API. Eagerly looking forward to your article.

Yours,

P. K.
The EditGrid Team

I hope you’re still listening on this channel. Working with the EditGrid API, I’ve developed a database of all the building permits issued in the City of New Orleans nice January 2005. I’m going to write a nice article on how to use the EditGrid API to create a quick and easy database.

http://www.editgrid.com/user/alangutierrez/New_Orleans_Permits

The permits exist on a website, velocityhall.com, but you need to punch in a specific address. The EditGrid spreadsheet contains all of the permits. The permits are geocoded and the addresses are normalized. Because they are geocoded, we can place them on maps. Because the addresses are normalized, we can begin to cross-reference them against other data sources.

The problem is that the EditGrid export to Excel is hitting an issue. It says…

Caught exception “Died at /var/srv/editgrid/eweb-prod/bin/../lib/EditGrid/Export/BookRev.pm line 87.”

I’m going to go and report it at the EditGrid.com website, but I figured I’d give you an update on where we’re going with EditGrid here in New Orleans.

Additionally, Stephen Tremaine called and he’s back in two with ArcGIS licenses and media to start a GIS workshop at one of our community centers (Trinity Christian Community Center in Hollygrove).

A lot to report on the grassroots GIS front this week.

Matt, your work is a really amazing. I can’t imagine how long it took to cross reference the houses on the IHT with the city permits database.

This is a quick message to say thank you, very much, for the KML. My next step is to create a Google Map for each of the zip codes, then put a story up on Think New Orleans and out into the Think New Orleans newsletter. I’m sure this is going to make a splash. I’m very impressed with the spreadsheets and very grateful for your taking your time to create this resource for us.

Alan

Here is the KML for all points by type: http://www.editgrid.com/tnc/pkchan/City_Demo_List.type.all.kml (see also my previous comment on why not all points are present).

And here is the KML for points by type of the selected ZIP code: http://www.editgrid.com/tnc/pkchan/City_Demo_List.type.zip.kml?_zip=70119 (you can substitute the ZIP code in the URL with other ZIP codes).

Legend for both:

White square: IHT
Red square: IMA
Star: others

Enjoy.

Yours,

P. K.
The EditGrid Team

One extra note: if you pass on the KML for all points (ie .all.kml) to Google Maps (as in http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=http:%2F%2Fwww.editgrid.com%2Ftnc%2Fpkchan%2FCity_Demo_List.all.kml&ie=UTF8&z=2&om=1 ), you shall note that there are fewer than 1,400 points on the map. I suspect that this is due to error in the coordinates rather than size limit. If you scroll down to the bottom on the “Search Results” tab, you’ll see Google Maps complaining about four instances of syntax errors. These arise from the malformatted data in the source spreadsheet (eg for File/WO# 1234, there’s a space character in the middle of the latitude field). Perhaps you can try to first clean up some data on the source spreadsheet and try again to see if all points are accepted by Google Maps.

@Matt: it is possible to show different types of demolitions in different colours by some programming tweaks in the XSL stylesheet. If you know XSLT, it should be a matter of adding an xsl:if element at the right place. I’ll see if I can come up with something like this tomorrow. Thank you once again for your great work as well as for choosing EditGrid.

Yours,

P. K.
The EditGrid Team

I’ve gone and created a map using the KML files that you created. I’m going follow your recipe so that they can all be generated from the master EditGrid spreadsheet, one for each zip code, so they’ll actually load. 1,400 is a bit much.

I’ve pasted an example of the generated map in an update of the blog post, so you’ll be able to visit it online.

I’ll be able to send these maps out to neighborhood groups so they can inspect the houses for themselves, possibly notify the owners if the owners have not been notified (which is the case often enough that the city is now being sued.)

I have a quick question about EditGrid’s geocoding tool. Is there a limit to the number of addresses on can request?

This is P. K. from the EditGrid Team. I refer to Matt McBride’s post on the Think New Orleans blog at http://thinknola.com/post/the-latest-demolition-list-from-the-city-over-1400-properties/ and your follow-up post at http://thinknola.com/post/city-initiated-demolitions-in-google-maps/ .

First of all, thank you and Matt for using EditGrid to publish the city-initiated demolition list data. This list represents important information that may affect thousands of citizens in New Orleans and ought to be as widely publicised as possible. EditGrid has built-in share-with-public functionality and is, I believe, the right tool for this purpose.

I would like to point your attention to one of EditGrid’s lesser-known feature: My Data Format (or “MDF”), which allows user to export spreadsheet data directly into KML file format, ie the file format accepted by Google Maps and Google Earth. Since the city demolition list is already posted on EditGrid, it will be only one step away for you to produce and publish the results on Google Maps directly. The advantage of of using EditGrid’s MDF is that the exported KML file, and thus the map on Google Maps/Google Earth, is updated immediately upon any update on the spreadsheet.

To demonstrate the feature I have copied Matt’s spreadsheet to my account[1] and created two MDFs based on it[2]. The first one, of extension “.all.kml”, exports all 1,400+ points on the spreadsheet into and KML file[3], which you can then pass on to Google Maps for display. The second one, of extension “.zip.kml”, export only those points of the selected ZIP code as specified in the URL — so [4] would only show those points of the ZIP code “70113″, while [5] would only show those points of the ZIP code “70125″. You may then link to the MDFs directly from your blog.

[1] http://www.editgrid.com/tnc/pkchan/City_Demo_List
[2] http://www.editgrid.com/property/customexport/list/660217
[3] http://www.editgrid.com/tnc/pkchan/City_Demo_List.all.kml
[4] http://www.editgrid.com/tnc/pkchan/City_Demo_List.zip.kml?_zip=70113
[5] http://www.editgrid.com/tnc/pkchan/City_Demo_List.zip.kml?_zip=70125

To copy these MDFs back to your spreadsheet, simply go to your spreadsheet’s My Data Formats tab under its spreadsheet property, click “Create New Data Format”, and copy the XSL style sheet from mine (you can view the source code of my MDFs by clicking the “Edit” buttons on link [2] above). The MDFs can then be accessed under the “Permalink” link.

I hope the above helps. And please relay this message to Matt McBride as I can’t find his email address on the Think New Orleans blog.

Yours,

P. K. CHAN, Esq.
The EditGrid Team