@visualisingdata rebroadcast this tweet today:
Wireless Passwords From Airports And Lounges Around The World https://t.co/OV0WJfwj8E
— deb verhoeven (@bestqualitycrab) April 2, 2017
The Google Maps interface is a bit meh and the “formatted” data is also a bit meh but the data is useful when travelling (NOTE: always use a VPN in airports on both your mobile devices and laptops).
You don’t need their app or online access to take advantage of this data if you’re willing to do a tiny bit of work. apply
You’ll find an R-generated version of the airport Wi-Fi finder below or via this direct link.
The premise is simple:
- grab the airport data KML that the Google Maps interface uses (NOTE: Visit the original URL from the Tweet occasionally to see if the KML URL changes)
- make cleaner, more formatted text for the popups
- toss up a
leafletmap - add a searchable
DT::datatableinterface - render the R markdown page to HTML and keep it with you
- refresh the generated HTML right before you go on your world tour
The code is directly embedded in the generated R markdown document and also in this gist so I won’t pollute this post with code blocks.
I’m hoping @bhaskar_vk will apply his mad, l33t Leaflet h@x0r $k1llz to this crude, quick hack and kick this up a notch as there is substantial room for improvement. If you give that a go as well, drop a note in the comments or on Twitter. Some ideas for improvement:
- better markers (please, not those airplane ones :-)
- way better text cleanup
- link the table and map (I think that means using Shiny but I'm likely wrong about that)
- make it better on mobile (it works on mobile but there are different design considerations to make it more usable on tiny glowing rectangles)
- make a "trip planner" Shiny app, letting folks select their airports and produce a handy digital reference card for them as they move about the globe
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