{"id":979,"date":"2012-06-11T07:50:42","date_gmt":"2012-06-11T07:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.quintessential.org.uk\/sa-mathieson\/?p=979"},"modified":"2019-12-02T11:11:16","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T11:11:16","slug":"removing-the-united-kingdom-from-google-fusion-tables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/samathieson.com\/sa-mathieson\/removing-the-united-kingdom-from-google-fusion-tables\/","title":{"rendered":"Removing the United Kingdom from Google Fusion Tables"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In late May, <a href=\"https:\/\/samathieson.com\/sa-mathieson\/category\/maps\/\">most of the maps on this site<\/a> (plus <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/healthcare-network\/datablog\/2012\/may\/10\/clinical-commissioning-groups-mapped\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">those I have produced for Guardian Healthcare Network<\/a>) switched from beautiful satellite images (below left &#8211; a section of <a href=\"https:\/\/samathieson.com\/sa-mathieson\/uk-male-life-expectancy-mapped-from-glasgow-to-kensington\/\">my map on male life expectancy<\/a>) to rather less interesting atlas-style maps (below right). They also gained a big &#8216;United Kingdom&#8217; label over the Scottish borders, presumably to the chagrin of the SNP. But it turns out this and other labels can be removed &#8211; with some work.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><em>Map removed as Google Fusion Tables no longer works.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I normally use Google Fusion Tables to map data, unless I am <a href=\"https:\/\/samathieson.com\/sa-mathieson\/a44-a361-a34-chipping-norton-at-the-crossroads\/\">mapping roads<\/a>, in which case <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.co.uk\/maps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Google Maps<\/a> does the job. So I emailed Google Fusion Tables to ask about the removal of the satellite option, as well as the new &#8216;United Kingdom&#8217; label on the maps &#8211; somewhat unnecessary on a map that only shows the UK.<\/p>\n<p>Two days later, I received a helpful reply from one of the Google Fusion Tables team. The loss of the satellite version was a bug, and would be fixed shortly (and it was). He added that he&#8217;d look into the new &#8216;United Kingdom&#8217; label, and in another email three days later told me this was due to a change in Google&#8217;s base maps (outside Fusion Tables&#8217; control) &#8211; but that I could customise what appeared through use of the Google Maps API rather than simply getting a link to embed from Google Fusion Tables.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s relatively simple to use Google&#8217;s static map API to create something customised, as it&#8217;s simply a string of HTML with parameters. This allows the production, for example, of a satellite image with no labels:<\/p>\n<p><em>Map removed as Google Fusion Tables no longer works.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s also fairly straightforward to produce a customised map, such as this one with a black base and parks in light green (this is a Google example, which I&#8217;ve simply relocated from New York to London):<\/p>\n<p><em>Map removed as Google Fusion Tables no longer works.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Making this work for a Fusion Table is a bit more challenging, as you have to use Google Maps&#8217; Javascript API. After some work, adapting <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/maps\/documentation\/javascript\/layers#FusionTablesConstructor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a sample script used for a map of murders in Chicago<\/a> and uploading it to a non-Wordpress page on this server, I produced a version of the UK life expectancy map based on a plain satellite image:<\/p>\n<p><em>Map removed as Google Fusion Tables no longer works.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The shape of the UK is pretty distinctive, so I am now using this &#8216;United Kingdom&#8217;-free version on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.samathieson.com\/sa-mathieson\/uk-male-life-expectancy-mapped-from-glasgow-to-kensington\/\">the life expectancy post<\/a>, and a similar one on <a href=\"https:\/\/samathieson.com\/sa-mathieson\/\">this site&#8217;s home pag<\/a>e. Label-free maps definitely look like a good option for future data mapping at this scale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In late May, most of the maps on this site (plus those I have produced for Guardian Healthcare Network) switched from beautiful satellite images (below left &#8211; a section of my map on male life expectancy) to rather less interesting atlas-style maps (below right). They also gained a big &#8216;United Kingdom&#8217; label over the Scottish &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/samathieson.com\/sa-mathieson\/removing-the-united-kingdom-from-google-fusion-tables\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Removing the United Kingdom from Google Fusion Tables&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[11,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-maps","category-media"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Removing the United Kingdom from Google Fusion Tables<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Google Fusion Tables maps have recently gained a large United Kingdom label over the Scottish border. 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