Hello all,
It's Wednesday, so it's obviously time for the latest FME news. This time I'm dividing it into what my colleagues at Safe have been working on, what you beautiful people have been working on, and what I've been working on.
Our Week in Webinars, Blogs, and Customer Stories
What have our marketing and support teams been up to at Safe this week? Here's a quick review:
Blog: The Difference Between Geocoding and Georeferencing
Blog: Coordinate Systems and Earth Movements
Webinar: Coordinate Systems in FME 101
User Story: Visimind and the Polish Power Grid
This story links to a partner's blog on the project and is - I think - worth a read, especially if you work in utilities.
Tutorial: A major update to the KML Transformations Tutorial
I believe I wrote a lot of this tutorial (as part of a training module) was back in the early 2010s, so this was due an update!
It's important to know that KML is not just a data format but stores all sorts of formatting and styling information for the data too. It has way more capabilities than you might think.
So if you want to take your KML datasets to the next level (or don't even know what that level is!) this is a great set of articles to help you.
Your Week in Videos, Maps, and Events
So that's what my colleagues have been doing, but what have you been working on? Here's a selection of what I found:
Video: Another great FME Fireside Chat with the guys at Abley
Upcoming Event: Digitaal Vlaanderen in Belgium on November 24th.
The information for that event says (via a translator): "Whoever stops by our stand in the start-up village on Wednesday 24 November can choose their favourite FME swag from Safe Software. Everyone is welcome!"
30DayMapChallenge: FME User SRG is a frequent poster and most (if not all) of his work is achieved using FME:
Here's a more... "unique" approach from user mapperz:
GIS Jobs: I love seeing jobs from partners or other companies that require FME skills. Here are a few I found this week.
GIS Consultant: Consortech, Canada
Geospatial Specialist: Arup, UK
GIS Systems Administrator: City of Bozeman, USA
Any others? Let me know and I will share them.
FME Hub: The monthly digest shows us various user-created transformers, including one for color converting and others for working with Swedish mapping APIs.
My Week in Streams, Maps, and Community Stuff
What have I been working on? Well, hopefully, you already know some of these, but if not...
Questions of the Week: In case you missed it, I picked several Questions-of-the-Week and answered them; but rather than an article, as a livestream/video recording.
I covered how to name files downloaded via the HTTPCaller, how to rename files in bulk with the FileCopy writer, and how to change the encoding on an XML/HTML file (including the step that most people are likely to miss). You can follow me on Twitch to be alerted for when I go live, or on YouTube to be alerted for when the recordings are published.
30DayMapChallenge: Here's my take on "blue". One lucky user won some FME trading cards for guessing the subject of the map. Can you tell?
On the technical side it was created with the CSV reader and writing to KML:
Nothing ground-breaking, but here's one tip for you. I wanted a nice blue heart icon and there isn't one. You can apply colour to an icon, but it doesn't replace the colour! Instead, it just overlays that base colour.
For example, if you start with a yellow icon and pick blue as the colour, you'll end up with green! So I created a plain, white heart icon and used that. Now the icon will be styled with whatever colour I choose, because the white doesn't interfere.
Postcard Exchange
The Postcard Exchange is still open to sign up to. Remember, it's a small event where we get to "meet" other FME users (or Safe staff) via the medium of exchanging postcards. It'll be fun, but the more people we get signed up, the better, so I'd love it if YOU joined us!
Gartner Peer Insights Reviews
It's that time of year when we start to ask for FME reviews for Gartner Peer Insights. I'm just setting up the same system as last year (where you earn a community badge for contributing) so keep an eye out for that shortly.
But if you want to go for it right now, you can find the submission form online.
