Hi Pamela & Peter, Thanks for the solution! I've sent it on to my colleague and they're giving it a try.
Regards, Jennifer pamela fox wrote: > Cool. If you're working with spreadsheets, you could import them to > Google Spreadsheets and then either: > 1) Publish the sheet (possibly not kosher for your data?) and use the > Spreadsheets API JSON ouput (/public/values/) > 2) Use my "Spreadsheets Converter" gadget to easily create JSON to > then host on your server (Do Insert->Gadget->custom and then enter URL > "http://pamelafox-samplecode.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/spreadsheetsconverter/spreadsheetsconverter.xml";) > > Or just export to CSV and parse the CSV file... whatever floats your boat. > > On Sat, Oct 18, 2008 at 5:14 AM, Peter Batty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Pamela, that looks like a nice potential solution - I tried it with a sample >> set of data similar to that which I saw in my canvassing, and it came up >> with a reasonable looking route (and was quick). It will need a little bit >> of coding to integrate with whatever they have now, but I guess that's true >> of any solution. There is a basic file import here so it might be possible >> to do something quick but a little clunky based on some manual file exports >> and imports and a bit of spreadsheet manipulation or whatever. >> >> On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 2:24 PM, pamela fox <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >>> Since they're already using the Google Maps API, they could try to >>> adapt the javascript-ified TSP solver: >>> http://gebweb.net/optimap/ >>> >>> Only works well for about 25 points though--but you could use >>> pre-sorting to divide it up into 4 possible best clusters, and then >>> apply the TSP solving on each of them. >>> >>> >>> On Sat, Oct 18, 2008 at 4:10 AM, Jennifer Strahan >>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>> >>>> Hello Peter, Michael, Josh and Geowankers, >>>> >>>> Thanks for the detailed description of the problem and for the potential >>>> solutions. >>>> >>>> Does anyone know if there already exists a tool that canvassers can >>>> use? Peter is correct that time is of the essence so there isn't any >>>> time to develop anything. Or, are there any folks in the group willing >>>> to put in some volunteer time to quickly create something? >>>> >>>> Jennifer >>>> >>>> Peter Batty wrote: >>>> >>>>> This is actually a (somewhat constrained) traveling salesman problem >>>>> rather than requiring a point to point route, so Google Maps routing >>>>> won't help you. pgrouting supports traveling salesman but I haven't >>>>> used it and don't know what a practical number of points to handle is >>>>> - traveling salesman is a complex problem of course. I was out >>>>> canvassing for the xxxxx campaign recently (the number of x's is a >>>>> clue, in my case at least :) !!), so was an end user of what I assume >>>>> to be the same system here. Of course I immediately wondered about a >>>>> better automated solution than they had also. >>>>> >>>>> I thought it was an interesting problem though so it's worth >>>>> explaining it in a little more detail based on my experience. We went >>>>> out in pairs, and were each given a package of paper sheets. The cover >>>>> page had a printed Google map with markers indicating the houses we >>>>> were to visit (this was the same map for both of us). Then behind that >>>>> we had a set of printed sheets, one or more per street, listing the >>>>> houses we needed to visit on each street in numerical order, with >>>>> details about the person/people to talk to at that house. We were just >>>>> visiting houses of known sporadic supporters and independents, so it >>>>> was a subset of houses - in this case it would vary from maybe 1 to 4 >>>>> out of every 10 houses. One canvasser had odd numbers and one even >>>>> numbers, so you would do opposite sides of the street, so you had >>>>> someone in the same general area for support. Often you would have >>>>> more houses in a block on one side of the street than the other, so >>>>> one person would get ahead of the other. In the area that we were >>>>> canvassing, the blocks were long and thin, so we ended up walking >>>>> along the blocks "lengthwise" as most of the addresses we had were on >>>>> the north-south streets, but it was hard to tell if you were close to >>>>> a house on one of the east-west streets (on a different page from the >>>>> one that you were currently looking at). We ended up missing out some >>>>> of these. In total we had 90 houses in the package, 45 each. >>>>> >>>>> So what we really wanted was to each have a list of our 45 houses in a >>>>> suitable order for us to visit (as opposed to being listed street by >>>>> street in numerical order), with a map showing the route. Doing the >>>>> odd / even thing properly is an extra complication (i.e. taking 90 >>>>> houses and coming up with two routes, which ideally keep the two >>>>> people close to each other). The simplest initial solution to this >>>>> would probably be to take all 90 houses, come up with the best route >>>>> to all those, and then just split it into odd and even after doing >>>>> that. If you got that working, then you could look at something >>>>> cleverer. >>>>> >>>>> It seems as though for pgrouting you would need to have a reasonable >>>>> street network, which you may or may not have. In some cases, >>>>> especially if you had a pretty dense set of houses to visit, you might >>>>> be able to get a reasonable solution just using the locations of the >>>>> houses and ignoring streets altogether - but clearly in some cases >>>>> this would not work well. >>>>> >>>>> A pragmatic short term solution might be a semi-interactive one - >>>>> display the houses to visit on a map, let a user sketch a line >>>>> visually with an approximate route, buffer around that and find all >>>>> the houses close, and sort them appropriately based on that. And have >>>>> the ability to highlight any houses that were not yet added to the >>>>> route, etc. I suspect that for a short term solution (which is >>>>> presumably what you need), given the challenge of getting a good road >>>>> network, etc, this approach may be your best bet. It would need a bit >>>>> of custom development though, unless someone happens to have something >>>>> like that lying around. >>>>> >>>>> Cheers, >>>>> Peter. >>>>> >>>>> On Thu, Oct 16, 2008 at 12:01 AM, Josh Livni >>>>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> >>>>> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> pgrouting if you have the street data in postgis would be one way. >>>>> >>>>> tho as long as they're drawing over google maps, why not insert a >>>>> little javascript to use the gmaps api routing? >>>>> >>>>> -josh >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> On Thu, Oct 16, 2008 at 1:03 AM, Jennifer Strahan >>>>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> Hello Geowankers, >>>>> >>>>> I'm forwarding this email from a colleague in hopes that >>>>> someone will >>>>> have some suggestions to pass on. >>>>> >>>>> Thanks for the help. >>>>> >>>>> Regards, >>>>> Jennifer >>>>> >>>>> ps. I've stripped out political references.... that's why >>>>> you'll see >>>>> xxxxx campaign. >>>>> >>>>> -------- Original Message -------- >>>>> Subject: GIS routing question >>>>> Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:32:43 -0700 (PDT) >>>>> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>>>> <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>>>> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>>>> CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, >>>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, >>>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, >>>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, >>>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, >>>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, >>>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, >>>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, >>>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, >>>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>>>> References: >>>>> >>>>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED] >>>>> >>>>> <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Hi All >>>>> >>>>> My partner is working for the xxxxx campaign and was asked by >>>>> the regional campaign office to look for computer-based >>>>> routing solutions for canvassing. >>>>> >>>>> Nationally, all the campaign offices use a networked, >>>>> web-browser-accessible database called VoteBuilder. It manages >>>>> contacts and lets field coordinators define canvassing >>>>> territories by drawing over a Google map. >>>>> >>>>> VoteBuilder doesn't construct a route for the canvassers-- >>>>> that's up to them. In suburban neighborhoods with winding >>>>> roads and cul-de-sacs it's almost impossible for them to come >>>>> up with an efficient route that doesn't miss some of the >>>>> households. >>>>> >>>>> Some of the local and regional offices have adopted software >>>>> solutions for routing, but the techniques aren't being >>>>> disseminated. >>>>> >>>>> I know there's an extension for ArcGIS to do routing. Is this >>>>> the only solution? >>>>> >>>>> Thanks for any suggestions.. >>>>> >>>>> Louis >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> Geowanking mailing list >>>>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >>>>> http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> Geowanking mailing list >>>>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >>>>> http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> Peter Batty - President, Spatial Networking >>>>> W: +1 303 339 0957 M: +1 720 346 3954 >>>>> Blog: http://geothought.blogspot.com >>>>> >>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >>>>> >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> Geowanking mailing list >>>>> [email protected] >>>>> http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking >>>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Geowanking mailing list >>>> [email protected] >>>> http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking >>>> >>>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Geowanking mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking >>> >> >> -- >> Peter Batty - President, Spatial Networking >> W: +1 303 339 0957 M: +1 720 346 3954 >> Blog: http://geothought.blogspot.com >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Geowanking mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking >> >> > _______________________________________________ > Geowanking mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking > _______________________________________________ Geowanking mailing list [email protected] http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking
