Data Visualisation
Map of realtime bushfire incidents across New South Wales and Victoria designed to be embedded into Fairfax NEWS mastheads' articles.
The application consists of three components:
- The map
- A proxy service
- A configuration tool
It is written in PHP with Leaflet.js and jQuery front-end. See the live example on this page or on ddj.smh.com.au and check out the code on bitbucket.
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1. The map
Displays near real-time data provided by the NSW RFS and Victoria's CFA via web proxy (2) as demonstrated above on this page. It handles stale data gracefully, notifying users accordingly.
2. Proxy service
Fetches the latest feed from the RFS / CFA servers at a user configurable (3) interval and caches it to ensure minimal load posed on emergency services' infrastructure. If it encounters an erroneous response it returns the last known-as-correct information with a special status code (417) to notify the client of the stale status of this information.
3. Configuration
Simple 3 click configuration tool enables producers and news editors to rapidly generate an incident specific map (1) and embed it in news articles. It is built as a plugin to the actual interactive feature significantly reducing maintenance efforts.
