The GeoBlacklight plugin for Omeka includes a custom feature in the Spatial Coverage field. A user can type in a place term, which will query GeoNames, and produce a dropdown list of options. The user selects a value from the list, and this will pull in the GeoNames URI. The user can select multiple place names using multiple inputs.
A second feature of the plugin is that it can pull the bounding box coordinates from the GeoNames official record. This is triggered during export to the GeoBlacklight schema JSON file if the Bounding Box element for the item is empty. Although users can add multiple place names, only the first input will be queried for this function.
When you begin typing in this input, it will query the GeoNames API and pull suggestions for defined place names.
NOTE: This feature is constrained by the fact that our site is hosted on an https site, but the GeoNames API query is on http. This means that your browser will likely complain that you are trying to load mixed content and refuse to pull queries from GeoNames. At this time, you will need to figure out how to enable mixed content on your browser to use this feature. I have been using Chrome am currently using the following method:
- Close out all Chrome windows.
- Go to the Terminal.
- Enter open /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app --args --allow-running-insecure-content
Users can also create a spreadsheet to batch add GeoNames. The values should be formatted as they would be if typed into the field. Here is a document of the values for all US States.
Here are some example strings that can be added to the Spatial Coverage field:
- 4984247: Ann Arbor (city, village,...), Michigan, United States
- 2802361: Belgium (country, state, region,...), Belgium
- 5257170: Lake Huron (stream, lake, ...), Wisconsin, United States
- 5014227: Wayne County (country, state, region,...), Michigan, United States