Handleidingen
Imago Mundi Manual
This manual introduces the Imago Mundi application which was build by the Digital Humanities Lab for the the research project Defining ‘Europe’ in Medieval European Geographical Discourse: the Image of the World and its Legacy, 1110-1500. (https://definingeurope.sites.uu.nl/)
The project will show how the Image of the World, one of the most influential texts in European intellectual history which described the world as it was known (or imagined), contributed to the development of the idea of Europe.
The app is a searchable database. It can perform a full text search, and sports several filters. One of the objectives of the research project is showing the spreading of the manuscripts through Europe. Therefore a Google map shows the current locations of the manuscripts. A detail view per manuscript can be opened. In this view a google map shows the historical locations of the manuscript during different periods.
The database can be updated by the administrator, either by adjusting individual records or by importing an Excel file.
In order to show the current locations on the map, automatic geocoding of the current addresses can and must be done. The google lat-long locations are added to each record, if the particular columns for the lat-long data are empty.
This manual is meant for the administrator of the database. For the users a help button on the frontend offers information how to perform a search.
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Step 1
Go to the admin:
https://imagomundi.hum.uu.nl/admin/
login with your credentials as provided by DHlab.
This is your home screen.
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Step 2
If you want to import an excel file:
Click on ‘imago mundis’
The list screen shows
In the right hand corner you find the button ‘import’
Click ‘import’. The import screen shows the field that will be imported from the excel file. Select the file to import by clicking ‘bladeren’. Select the file format (‘format’) by choosing ‘xlsx’.
Click ‘submit’
A screen shows the prefilled fields. When errors are showing, these are usually caused by unrecognized special characters in the file. Try to eliminate these characters in your file and try again.
Click ‘confirm’.
The file should now be imported in the database. If empty records are imported, you can delete these by selecting them in the list view. Choose in the ‘action’ in the top of the screen ‘delete selected imago mundis’
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Step 3
Now it’s time to automatically geocode the current addresses.
Go to the home screen. Click on the white title ‘Imago_mundi_app’
You enter a page that shows a button ‘geocode addresses’.
Click it. It can take a minute or so to geocode hundreds of addresses. When geocoding is finished a result message is shown. In green show the addresses that where geocoded successfully, in yellow the unsuccessful ones. These need to be entered manually.
These fields must be filled with the lat-long data: ‘Current location lat’, ‘Current location lng’.
It can happen that records were not properly geocoded, but in a next round Google will geocode them yet. A few attempts can result in a few more geocodings.
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Step 4
Deleting records
An excel file that is imported, is added to the database. So to replace the database, first the old records must be deleted.
You can select 100 records at a time by checking the most upper box. Then select in ‘action’ (top of the list) ‘Delete selected Imago Mundis’.
Last modified: 3/04/2019