As we all aim to better recognize and honor the lands we live on, we have added here a new plugin that offers OpenETC users the ability to add to their sites an Editor block that providers their readers an ability to do a search at https://native-land.ca/
Read more about the idea behind this plugin from Pipe Wrench Magazine.
This is what you get with the plugin
Are you on unceded indigenous land?
Enter a street address, town, or zip code to see whose.
There was a problem searching for that location.
Learn more — explore the full map.
There are no indigenous nations that correspond to that location; results are most likely for folks in the Americans and Oceania.
Learn more — explore the full map.
To add this to your site, in your Dashboard, click Plugins. Scroll down the list until you see the entry for Native Lands Search, and click Activate.
Ah, if it were that easy! To use this plugin you need to obtain a Google Maps Geocoding API Key — what is that? “The API key is a unique identifier that authenticates requests associated with your project for usage and billing purposes. You must have at least one API key associated with your project.” It is a service that can match the name of a place or an address to its map location.
Note that Google requires a credit card even to provide this service at a free level (they say that you will not be charged and must approval if your use exceeds the basic level, it is highly doubtful that will happen). If you are willing to go this far:
- Go to the Google Maps Platform – Credentials page.
- Create a new “project” something like “My Blog Native Lands”
- click Create credentials -> API key. The API key created dialog displays your newly created API key. Copy that.
- Now in WordPress, look under Settings -> Native Lands. Paste in the API key you copied.
Finally you are ready to use this! Create a new post or page, and whereever you wan to this to appear, open in your Block Editor, you should see a new option to insert this same block.
Click the + button to access the different kinds of blocks, and select/search for Native Lands Search. That will insert a block to hold the search.
Preview your post/page to try it out. If you get error messages about any location you enter not being found, it is most likely you have not entered the API key or it is not correct.
Sigh. We wish this plugin was not dependent on a Google service, and instead was built on Open StreetMap, which offers its own geocoding API.
Let us know in the Mattermost WordPress channel what you think of this plugin.
Featured Image: Land, Tress, Skies flickr photo by cogdogblog shared into the public domain using Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC0)
