Module talk:Location map

Module:Location map is permanently protected from editing as it is a heavily used or highly visible module. Substantial changes should first be proposed and discussed here on this page. If the proposal is uncontroversial or has been discussed and is supported by consensus, editors may use {{edit template-protected}} to notify an administrator or template editor to make the requested edit.

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Location map module.

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Maps This module is within the scope of WikiProject Maps, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Maps and Cartography on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.MapsWikipedia:WikiProject MapsTemplate:WikiProject MapsMaps Geographical coordinates Location map is of interest to WikiProject Geographical coordinates, which encourages the use of geographical coordinates in Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.Geographical coordinatesWikipedia:WikiProject Geographical coordinatesTemplate:WikiProject Geographical coordinatesGeographical coordinates

To help centralize discussions and keep related topics together, several talk pages redirect here.

Text and/or other creative content from this version of Template:Location map/Creating a new map definition was copied or moved into Template:Location map data documentation/doc with this edit on 15 February 2024. The former page's history now serves to provide attribution for that content in the latter page, and it must not be deleted as long as the latter page exists.

Hi. Look at this please: The entry

And these are the provided links in the entry: This, and this. Aminabzz (talk) 13:42, 27 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Aminabzz, thank you for providing screenshots, which illustrate the issue.

Which articles are affected? When reporting such issues with template, please always include links to articles, where you've encountered the problem. —⁠andrybak (talk) 01:27, 4 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Andrybak Hi. Thank you. The article was 2024–25 UEFA Champions League. Of course, I think the issue is fixed now. Aminabzz (talk) 10:58, 4 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I would like to propose an enhancement to Module:Location map that would allow for more precise label positioning. Currently, the module supports basic label positions (top, bottom, left, right), but does not include options for diagonal placements like northeast, northwest, southeast, or southwest.

• Expand the |position= argument to recognize and support:
  • northeast (ne)
  • northwest (nw)
  • southeast (se)
  • southwest (sw)

• Greater Precision: Labels can be positioned more naturally relative to markers, reducing overlap and improving clarity.
• Consistency: Many mapping tools and templates already support compass-based positioning, making this a logical extension.
• Improved Readability: This would allow editors to optimize label placement in cases where the default positions (top, bottom, left, right) do not work well.

• Modify the |position= handling in Module:Location map to recognize the additional options and adjust label offsets accordingly.
• Use a simple logic-based adjustment to move the label diagonally when a compass-based position is selected.

This enhancement would improve the flexibility and usability of location maps across Wikipedia. I welcome feedback and discussion on this proposal. Abhiramakella (talk) 23:42, 2 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I would find this very helpful, particularly for locations that are very close to each other that the editor wishes to label. I would suggest alternatively that every label could have a certain "offset" parameter, in pixels, on top of the existing position parameter. This would specify the offset from a default position so editors could adjust the label to be anywhere they wish on the map. LivinAWestLife (talk) 18:41, 8 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@LivinAWestLife: Adding some vertical offset to left- and right-positioned labels isn't too hard (Special:Diff/1305013356/1305042106). I don't think we need it for top- and bottom-positioned ones, and I'd advise against adding any left-right offset to those, as people tend to fine tune the absolute positions to what looks good on their screens, disregarding many other different devices and font sizes. The new parameter is top_offset, available in {{Location map/sandbox |top_offset=}}

current	top_offset=0	SW: top_ofset=−1	NW: top_offset=+1
Vela Luka	Map credit Vela Luka	Map credit Vela Luka	Map credit Vela Luka
current	top_offset=0	NE: top_ofset=−0.8	SE: top_offset=+0.6
Vela Luka	Map credit Vela Luka	Map credit Vela Luka	Map credit Vela Luka

Let me know what you think! Ponor (talk) 18:51, 9 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, this looks like it would be very useful, thank you! I hope implementing it wasn't very hard. I can understand why you wouldn't want to be able to fine tuning the absolute positions if it makes the display worse on certain screens. I will try it out now. LivinAWestLife (talk) 19:37, 9 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'm seeing a bug with text background color for annotations on location maps in articles, but not in the docs. Both logged-in and -out. E.g. screenshot at phab:F59386868 of the random article Fechenheim (and same elsewhere). But the examples in Template:Location_map all work properly(!?). I'm not sure where the bug is coming from, whether it's in Module:Location map/styles.css or elsewhere. I hope those clues help! Quiddity (talk) 02:12, 25 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, just like Template:OSM Location map, I think it is better to mention the type of Location map, which is in this case is pushpin. So I propose to move this article to Template:Pushpin Location map. Thanks, Hooman Mallahzadeh (talk) 03:02, 1 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The pushpin (pog) is just the default marker. Templates like {{Infobox airport}} use a different image file to show locations. There is a whole family of location maps, not just this module and template; I might support a name change if their name was something like "LM", but "Location map" is reasonably descriptive. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:16, 1 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This edit request to Module:Location map/styles.css has been answered. Set the |answered= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Description of suggested change: the whole map section, including the caption, gets affected by the grayscaling effect on lines 66 and 79 in styles.css, which causes some weird coloring (see [1])

Diff:

əkrəm. 18:06, 13 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

 Done Izno (talk) 23:48, 23 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

 You are invited to join the discussion at Template talk:Wikidata location map § fallback default map vs. mapframe. -- Joy (talk) 15:26, 16 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

 You are invited to join the discussion at Template talk:MergedMap. -- Joy (talk) 12:36, 27 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This map requires different coordinates for image and image1. I tried adding the top1/right1/... parameters (for the relief map) but they don't work. Maybe someone will be able to prepare a module with different coordinates for both images. Malarz pl (talk) 23:25, 29 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Wouldn't it be easier to just crop File:Ternopil province physical map.svg to fit the boundary of File:Ternopil Oblast location map.svg? —⁠andrybak (talk) 01:33, 4 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

In the function markLabelDiv, append ":addClass'notheme mw-no-invert')" to the line that instantiates builder.

Right now, the font color of the marker label is inverted in dark mode, which makes it completely unreadable since the underlying image is not inverted. So either the image should be inverted or the font should not be inverted. I'm not sure whether the former is possible, so I think the simplest solution is to add the classes notheme and mw-no-invert to the label div, which cause it to remain black even in dark mode. Justin Kunimune (talk) 20:30, 30 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Not done for now To avoid possible misinterpretation, please make the requested change in the sandbox, then check the test-cases. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 13:43, 31 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Description of suggested change: Append ":addClass('notheme mw-no-invert')" to line 326, to ensure the label text color is not inverted in dark mode when using the WikimediaUI Dark Mode gadget, thus matching the behavior of the underlying image and ensuring good contrast.

I've implemented this in the sandbox, so you can see the improved behavior by viewing the test cases in a browser with dark mode the Dark Mode gadget enabled.

Diff:

Justin Kunimune (talk) 02:26, 3 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Not done for now':' I don't see any meaningful difference on the test case pages with the standard dark mode. Please provide an actual test case that demonstrates the correction. Izno (talk) 23:41, 14 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Izno Ah, apparently the problem only appears in the WikimediaUI gadget version of dark mode, and not in the newer native version of dark mode. So you'll have to enable the gadget to reproduce it. Here's a screenshot of what I see for testcases#Croatia: imgur.com/a/OcsrmpA. Justin Kunimune (talk) 01:46, 15 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

So, we don't generally support that old gadget. I'd recommend disabling it. Izno (talk) 02:17, 15 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, I didn't know that. I'll do that. Is there a reason not to make this change, though? I imagine some users besides me probably still use the gadget, so it would benefit them, and adding these classes doesn't add much complexity to the module. Justin Kunimune (talk) 02:50, 15 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I am fairly certain those classes have a meaning in the supported dark mode and I don't necessarily know if their meaning is the same. Izno (talk) 03:31, 15 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Hālawa Station

class=notpageimage|

Location of Hālawa Station in southern Oʻahu (click for interactive map)

Right now when you click on a location map, it takes you to the file page for the underlying map. I think this is really unintuitive and problematic for accessibility, as many users will want to enlarge the map. I think that instead, when you click on it, it should open an interactive Kartographer map. I've mocked up a new version of Location map that does this, as can be seen to the right.

Do people here think that would be a good change to make, or have alternative ideas for how it might work? For example, another user mocked up a version that enlarges the location map rather than opening a Kartographer map, but personally I like my version because I feel that it combines the best of Location map and Maplink: a clean hand-made map for small scales, and a more detailed interactive map for large scales.

Justin Kunimune (talk) 16:38, 11 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Make it so that clicking on the image opens an interactive Kartographer map.

This is the change I described in #Making all location maps embed maplinks, which I've now implemented in the sandbox. I solicited feedback here and on WT:WikiProject Maps, and haven't heard anything for or against, so I'm presuming I have consensus until someone says otherwise.

You can check the behavior in the test cases. If you click on the sandbox version of the map you should see the Kartographer map, as opposed to the current version which takes you to the file page; otherwise as far as I can tell there is no difference in behavior. Editors won't need to change anything about how they use the template, but it does create three new optional arguments – maplink_marker, maplink_marker_size, and maplink_marker_color – which can be used to customize the appearance of the marker in the interactive map.

You can see the diff here:

en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Module%3ALocation_map%2Fsandbox&diff=1335901918&oldid=1330873844

As far as changes to the actual code, the main thing is that when the maplink argument is empty, I construct and preprocess a <maplink/> tag and wrap the image in it. I moved the part that parses the coordinate arguments into a separate function, getCoordinates, so that the same coordinates can be used in both the mark placement and Kartographer.

Justin Kunimune (talk) 21:48, 31 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding consensus: this change would affect ~700000 articles, i.e. ~10% of all articles on enwiki (see also WP:WPSIZE). Because of the potential impact, I recommend getting a wider consensus at Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals). I also recommend notifying Wikipedia:Village pump (technical) for possible technical ramifications.

The proposal is very concrete and actionable, which is good. I myself have been annoyed in the way File:Red pog.svg works, or rather how it does not. The user experience of clicking to see better and only opening the underlying map picture without any indicators is terrible indeed. —⁠andrybak (talk) 01:08, 4 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Also, Template:MergedMap (found in a section above), which was in active development just a month ago, seems to be trying to solve a similar issue. A notification to editors working on it might be a good idea as well. To their user talk pages and/or at Template talk:MergedMap. —⁠andrybak (talk) 01:17, 4 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Fair enough! I've left messages on Village pump (proposals) and the MergedMap talk page; I'll give it a while and see what people there think. I did bring this up previously on Village pump (technical); I got some advice there but no concerns relevant to the current proposal. Justin Kunimune (talk) 22:50, 4 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Great, thank you! I've disabled the edit request for now. —⁠andrybak (talk) 23:13, 4 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

No relief maps in Kartographer.

First of all, I love Kartographer, I've myself brought it to thousands of articles. Unfortunatelly, I don't think this is the way to go, at least not until Kartographer gets more layers, such as different terrain options. The red pog not appearing when you click on a location map shouldn't be too hard to fix, if people choose to do so. That's a bug. But clicking on a relief map, and getting something completely different is a WP:SURPRISE, so a NO from me. One day we'll be able to replace Location maps with Kartographer. Let's all support m:Community Wishlist/W323. Ponor (talk) 01:03, 5 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Ponor thank you for feedback. To avoid WP:DISCUSSFORK, please post it to Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)#Make it so clicking on a location map opens an interactive Kartographer map. —⁠andrybak (talk) 01:06, 5 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

It is requested that an edit be made to the template-protected module at Module:Location map. (edit · history · last · links · sandbox · edit sandbox · sandbox history · sandbox last edit · sandbox diff · test cases · transclusion count · protection log) This template must be followed by a complete and specific description of the request, so that an editor unfamiliar with the subject matter could complete the requested edit immediately. Edit requests to template-protected pages should only be used for edits that are either uncontroversial or supported by consensus. If the proposed edit might be controversial, discuss it on the protected page's talk page before using this template. Consider making changes first to the module's sandbox and test them thoroughly here before submitting an edit request. To request that a page be protected or unprotected, make a protection request. When the request has been completed or denied, please add the |answered=yes parameter to deactivate the template.

Make it so that clicking on the image opens an interactive Kartographer map.

I'm re-requesting the change described above, with some modifications. See the sandbox for the exact updated code that I'm requesting.

I posted this at Village pump (proposals), and I think we achieved consensus for implementing this (there was one voice of opposition, but the rest of the !votes and comments were all supportive). I did make two changes to my proposal based on that discussion:

• One user requested that there be a visual indication that clicking on the map will open a larger map, so I added a square button with a map icon , with the same styling as the full-screen button that mapframes have (I used a map icon instead of an enlarge icon since the large interactive map is different from the small one, so "fullscreen" is potentially misleading while "map" is still accurate). Like mapframes, you can click anywhere on the image to enlarge it, not just on the button. And the icon is now tagged as {{PD-shape}}, so it should be good to use without linking to its file page. It does cover up some of the map, which is kind of annoying, but I've rigged it to move to the left side when the marker is near the upper right, so it at least shouldn't ever interfere with the marker.
• I realized that removing the link to the map's file page is a problem for attribution, so I added a small link to the bottom right that says "Map credit" and links to the file page. Again, this is similar to what mapframes do.

While I didn't call this out last time, I should note that while all existing maps will work fine with this change without any action from any other editors, there are two new functionalities that infobox editors can use that I will note in the documentation if this change goes into effect:

• There are new tempate arguments to style the marker in the fullscreen Kartographer view: maplink_marker, maplink_marker_size, and maplink_marker_color. These work the same way as the marker, marker_size, and marker_color parameters in {{Maplink}}.
• There is a new optional argument for the data pages: publicdomain. If set to true, this suppresses the credit link in the lower right-hand corner. This can be used to reduce visual clutter for PD and CC0 maps that don't require attribution. It also works with alternative maps; you can mark image1 as PD with publicdomain1=true, you can mark image2 as PD with publicdomain2=true, and cetera.

See the test cases to see how the new button and credit link look. Note especially the maps of Brčko and Uelen where you can see the button move to the left to make space for the marker.

Justin Kunimune (talk) 22:45, 23 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

 Done * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 03:00, 5 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I have reverted this since it broke things at 2026 Iran war ("Lua error in Module:Location_map at line 223: attempt to compare number with nil.") * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 03:23, 5 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Justinkunimune: Feel free to reactivate once you've fixed your code. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 03:26, 5 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Pppery: Sorry, I forgot to check how my changes would affect {{Location map+}}, as it imports one of the functions from this module. I've fixed it in the sandbox; I had to move some code around which makes the diff annoyingly large, but now each function can be called independently, I see no problems on either Template:Location map/testcases or Template:Location map+/testcases, and there are no more errors in my sandbox where I reproduced the issue. Justin Kunimune (talk) 02:30, 6 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Question: Why not replace maps that use this module with Template:OSM Location map? Assadzadeh (talk) 03:40, 5 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I would generally support that, but it doesn't look like it's a direct drop-in replacement, so I think it would be a lot of work to replace all instances. Also, {{Location map}} has some nice features that Kartographer doesn't (like the ability to use any map image, and the ability to use any map projection), so there may be cases where changing to {{OSM Location map}} would be undesirable. The advantage of this change is that it adds functionality onto existing maps without otherwise changing them or requiring any action for infobox editors. Justin Kunimune (talk) 02:36, 6 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

(I do not generally re-implement requests after my own edit needs to be reverted for breaking things; someone else is welcome to handle this) * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 14:23, 11 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

 Done --MikeVitale 14:14, 20 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Reverted again, as it was now causing "Lua error in Module:Location_map at line 191: No value was provided for longitude." on multiple pages. The first maps I was looking at was The Ashes#Match venues, so maybe you could start from there? Zzyzx11 (talk) 14:42, 20 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Heck, sorry. I see the problem. In addition to {{Location map+}} which imports this module via #invoke:, Module:Location map/multi also imports this module via require() (specifically it calls top() to generate the base map, but without a latitude or longitude since there are multiple sets; I've now set it to safely skip over the embedded maplink code when this happens). I've searched for all modules that require this one, and there seem to be two: Module:Location map/multi and Module:Infobox military conflict.

I've fixed that problem, and I've set both those modules' sandboxes to point toward Module:Location map/sandbox instead of Module:Location map, meaning that Template:Location map+/testcases and Template:Infobox military conflict/testcases should now fully reflect this change; I see no problems on either. I also created my own copies of both under Module:Sandbox/Justinkunimune which import each other, and both work fine in my sandbox. Justin Kunimune (talk) 12:25, 22 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

For example, how can I use File:Central Europe location map 2.svg in {Location map many | Europe}? --Altenmann >talk 22:51, 14 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

More generally, can I specify top+bottom+left+right coordinates to display only a part of a standard locator map? --Altenmann >talk 22:51, 14 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think there are options for that in the template. You'll have to create a new data page with the new coordinates. See Template:Location map/Creating a new map definition. Justin Kunimune (talk) 22:58, 14 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

So |AlternativeMap= is the one parameter I see here that does not conform for MOS:INFOBOXNAME... Namely the param should be |alternative_map=. Now obviously with so many uses, not going to remove the existing... But any objection to allowing for the arguably correct form of the param to also work? Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 00:50, 22 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

It says "Lua error in Module:Location_map at line 223: attempt to compare number with nil." I don't know Lua, so that's all I can say really, sorry. Raskuly (talk) 03:22, 5 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 03:23, 5 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

The magnify icon currently has broken markup. For example, the Yellowstone map on the documentation page has:

<div class="magnify"><a href="/wiki/File:Usa_edcp_relief_location_map.png" title="File:Usa edcp relief location map.png">class=notpageimage| </a></div>

This is the corresponding code in the module:

retval = retval .. '<div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify">[[:File:' .. getContainerImage(args, map) .. '|class=notpageimage| ]]</div>' .. args.caption .. '</div>'

Opencooper (talk) 08:29, 9 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Pinging Elli, who added the parameter in this edit. The issue seems to me that, unlike the other places in the code with that parameter, the [[:File: code is not image syntax, but link syntax, so the class= gets interpreted as piped wikilink text. The solution would be to add that class to the generated link directly somehow.

Though the class probably isn't even needed at all here since the magnify icon is unlikely to ever get picked as a page image over the map it follows. Opencooper (talk) 09:12, 9 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Opencooper you're totally right, I didn't notice those were links and not images... sorry! I've changed the line now. Elli (talk | contribs) 15:51, 9 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! I've confirmed the markup looks good now. Opencooper (talk) 16:08, 9 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]