Create "Zoom to Location" button on observation maps

Feature Requests
1

When I visit an observation page, the map starts out zoomed to about a 30 mile wide area.
This lets me see other observations of the same species in that area, but half the time what I want to see is the precise location (especially when managing local projects.)
Constantly having to zoom in every time I open an observation is tedious.

In the same vein, on the Edit Observation page, I’m usually going there to make minor adjustments to the location of my observation.
On this page the map starts out at maximum zoom out and it shows the entire hemisphere of the earth!
I have to carefully zoom all the way in to my location before I can drag it or adjust the accuracy.
Since this is the Edit page, it makes no sense to have the map zoomed all the way out. It can’t be meaningfully edited at that zoom.

For both situations, a “zoom to location” button that automatically zooms all the way in the observation would be amazing.
Thanks!

2

I think it’d be a cool feature.

How are you adding your observations? Any reason you don’t do the location editing in the upload stage?

If you click on the “+” sign on the map, the map will zoom in to the pin.

2 Likes
3

I would LOVE to have this feature. Would save me bunches of time and frustration…

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4

Yes please!

1 Like
5

I guess the question would be, what map scale would be considered “all the way in,” and would that same scale work for everyone using a Zoom to Location button? If not, it might have to be accompanied by (yet another) user account setting to define a preferred zoom scale.

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7

Diana, you have this topic here - https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/taxon-map-defaults-to-pacific-ocean/4825.

You need to remove the place and refresh and then add the place again and refresh. This seems to fix it for me.

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8

Right now I’m adding observations from old iPhone photos using the website Upload screen and it automatically sets the location from the metadata. I suppose this would be a good time to tweak the location but usually I’m uploading many at a time and paying attention mostly to the ID.
Usually when I’m editing a location after the fact it is either because:

  1. On reviewing my observations I notice the location needs to be adjusted a bit. Often this is because it didn’t end up in the Place it should have.
  2. I decide I should modify the location because it’s in my yard or some other reason why I don’t want a pinpoint on the exact spot. In this case I enlarge the circle and move it slightly so the actual location is still in the circle but it’s not centered right on my house :)

Thanks for the tip on zoom in with the plus button. It would be nice to have one button and not have to click the plus sign 10 times though. Maybe auto-zoom to the size of the accuracy circle plus a margin of 1/4 of the circle.

Thanks!

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10

Thanks for the reply. I too would like a one-click zoom, but I was just trying to point out how the + sign works.

Another option would be to set the geoprivacy for such observations to “obscured”. That’s what I do for observations I make around my house, but it’s up to you of course.

1 Like