Any views expressed within media held on this service are those of the contributors, should not be taken as approved or endorsed by the University, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University in respect of any particular issue.
Digimap is an online map and data delivery service, available by subscription to UK Higher and Further Education establishments. Operated by EDINA at the University of Edinburgh, Digimap offers a number of data collections, including Ordnance Survey, historical, geological, aerial photography, LiDAR, marine maps, land cover mapping, global mapping and census data. For more information about Digimap go to our website: https://digimap.edina.ac.uk Background image Contains OS data (c) Crown Copyright and database right 2022
For those of you using Internet Explorer (IE) version 10, you may have noticed that the maps in Roam can get muddled up. This browser is standard for Windows 8 and is also available as an upgrade if you are using Windows 7.
The error is caused by the underlying technology EDINA uses to put the maps into your web browser. A patch for the particular piece of software that causes the issue has been released and we are now working to incorporate this into Roam.
Until this fix has been released you can prevent the error from occurring by switching IE 10 to run in IE 9 mode. To do this simply press F12 on your keyboard when you are using IE 10 and change the Browser Mode: to Internet Explorer 9. The image below shows how this is done:
Click the image to enlarge it.
This issue affects all the different Roam mappers, Digimap, Ancient, Geology and Marine, however all will be fixed by making the change to the browser mode.
If you have any questions about this or any other issue with the Digimap services then please get in touch:
In January 2013 the OS MasterMap®, Boundary-Line™ and Code-Point® data products will be available from the Data Download service. We have tried to keep the changes necessary to accommodate these products to a minimum as the current interface has proved so successful (190,000 map tiles and files downloaded Nov 2012).
Here is a list of the changes and additions you will see in the interface; please note that they may still be subject to some change prior to launch.
Both Boundary-Line and MasterMap have layers so we have had to make changes to the basket:
Instead of selecting Version and Format using drop-down menus there is a new pop-up for changing both these and the layers for each of the products in your basket. You can access this pop-up by clicking on the Change link in the Options column:
We have also improved the “My Account” section which is now called “My Previous Downloads”:
Once in the interface you can access any of your past downloads and reopen them at the basket stage:
It is now much easier to update your previous downloads to the latest version, get the same data in a different format or simply reorder data you have previously taken. In addition to these functions we have incorporated the ability to make Change-Only-Updates (COUs) to MasterMap Data:
Both Boundary Download and MasterMap Download will be kept in service for a transition period but as there are so many benefits to using Data Download we hope everyone will make the switch quickly. We expect to have switched off these services by the end of April.
November was a record month for the Digimap Service with over 2 million screen maps made by the four collections. Digimap Roam made over 1 million screen maps alone and also broke its record for the number of print maps generated, over 28,000.
The number of files downloaded was also a record for Digimap with nearly 250,000 map tiles or files taken from the four collections. The Data Download facility for the Ordnance Survey Collection provided the bulk of these, over 190,000. Since the introduction of the new Data Download there has been a great deal more data supplied to staff and students but October and November have seen a huge spike. This has also been achieved from a lower total number of orders showing how the changes made in the upgrade have greatly improved the efficiency of the process. It is now much easier to get all the data you need in a smaller number of orders.
On top of the downloads from the Digimap Collections, ShareGeo Open also had a record month. ShareGeo Open is a repository for open spatial data that promotes the sharing and re-use of spatial data in teaching and learning.
There were over 3400 downloads of datasets from the service, nearly double last November’s total. There are almost 200 different datasets available from the service, with the recent addition of wind farm locations for the UK proving popular. The most downloaded dataset for the past 6 months is the Postcode Areas file, made from the Code-Point Open data.
You may have noticed some changes to the Digimap interface over the past month. Yes, Digimap has a brand new and shiny new home page. The old home page had been around for a number of years and was starting to look it’s age. In this post we will take a look at the new interface to help you find your way around.
New Digimap Homepage
The new design splits the home page into 3 sections:
Maps and Data Collections panel – This panel provides top-level navigation allowing users to switch between different collections and account administration without having to leave the Digimap home page. When you select an option from this list, the information is displayed in the central panel.
Eagle-eyed users may have spotted that the left hand Maps and Data Collection panel has some room for expansion. We hope to add more data in the future and have been pulling together a number of environmental datasets which could form an Environment Collection. Do you have any suggestions for other collections you would like to see in Digimap? If you do, then add them as a comment.
Central Panel – the central panel provides links and information related to the collection selected from the left panel. The information is split into sections which can be expanded or hidden by clicking on the section headings. If you want to make a simple map, click the “view annotate and print” section to see what is available. Services, such as Roam and Data Download are accessed by clicking on the service names. If you want help or further information about a collection, look under the “Help Resources” section.
Digimap Ordnance Survey Panel
News panel – On the right hand side of the home page you will find links to the Digimap blog and twitter account. We intend to post interesting Digimap news here as well so it is well worth having a quick glance at this panel as you pass through the home page.
One really good aspect of the new home page is that it allows users to see collections their institution do not currently subscribe to. Why is this good? Well, if a collection looks interesting and of use in teaching and learning you may be able to show colleagues who may then be able to convince institutions to subscribe. Think of it as a shop window!
However, it has not all been plain sailing. The cosmetic changes are just the tip of the iceberg. Significant work has taken place on the connections, authentication and the databases. This work was tricky and threw up some unforeseen issues. If you spot something that isn’t working or just looks wrong, please contact us (edina@ed.ac.uk). It helps if you can tell us which web browser you are using too (and which version!). We would also like to hear what you think of the new interface; just add a comment to this post or send comments to the help desk (edina@ed.ac.uk).
The 1:25,000 scale Raster mapping has been updated in Digimap Roam, Carto and Data Download. This new data is the latest release by Ordnance Survey from May 2012. There has been quite a few changes with just under a third of the country seeing updates with this release.
Some of the areas with the most changes have been in the Scottish Highlands and the main London 2012 Olympic site in East London.
It is great to see (what looks like) the mapping completed for the site, and to compare how it has taken shape over the last year. Download the maps from Data Download to view the changes for yourself.
Spot the difference between the Olympic site maps - 2011 (left) and 2012 (right)
On Tuesday 10th July we launched the new Digimap homepage. This makes it easier and quicker to find the services and resources you are looking for. The new interface allows you to browse the services available before logging in and you can even access all the training, help and support resources. There is a dynamic feed from the blog, a showcase of other services we offer, and links to our social media sites.
Digimap Ordnance Survey Collection Disciplines from the 2012 survey
These reports give an idea of who is using the services, what they are using them for and what their experience of using the site was like. There are a lot of interesting uses of the service quoted in the reports; it was very hard to pick the ones to include from the huge response that we had.
A final thank you to all those who filled in a survey.
Here are direct links to the reports about each geoservice provided by EDINA:
You may have noticed that there are currently surveys running on all the Digimap services. These surveys are there to give you the opportunity to help us improve the service; we want your views to help shape the future of Digimap.
There is also another reason we are asking these questions; in the current economic climate, JISC will be shortly undertaking a detailed review of all the geo-services they fund including Digimap. It is very important that you have your say about any of these services that you use as your responses will contribute to this process.
We thank all of you who have responded to this survey; last year the results were fed back into the service and many of the comments were very valuable in helping us decide future directions. It is due to your feedback last time that we have included new features such as the Annotation Tools and prioritised redevelopment of the Data Download interface. Our aim is to do the same again this time and we have given more space to finding out what you want us to do next in the questions.
For those of you that are finding the survey an inconvenience we do apologise, however we hope you understand our reasons for making it as noticeable as possible. Due to good response rates for the Ordnance Survey Collection and Historic Digimap we now allow users to ignore the survey straight away. There is still a short time delay on the Marine and Geology services to make sure people take the time to read what we are asking them to do.
The 2011 Esri UK and Eduserv Seminar will be taking place on 13th September at Surgeons Hall in Edinburgh. The event is a chance for Esri users from UK Academia to hear about the new Esri CHEST agreement which started on 1st August, as well as what’s coming in ArcGIS 10.1 and various presentations from members of the Higher Education community. Members of the Digimap team will be attending to present on using Digimap data in ArcGIS, we will also have a stand so if you are attending, come and talk to us!
All Digimap services will be ‘at risk’ from 8:00 a.m. on Thursday the 9th of June. Our servers are undergoing some software updates so there will be some brief interruptions to the service while we switch over to our back up computers. Later in the day the will again be brief interruptions when we switch back to the main servers. If you find that your Digimap session is interrupted please wait for 15 minutes and then login again; though you may find access to certain facilities takes a little longer to be reinstated.
We apologise in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.
