This is the beginning of a plugin for a map view for posts that have geo tags:
https://github.com/automenta/nodebb-plugin-map
A few questions before proceeding:
How should post geographic data be stored? I'm considering a markdown tag like
[[where <lat>,<lon>,<altitude>,<planet>]]
or embedded JSON like:
{where: [ 28.00, -23,44 ] }
{where: { lat: 28.00, lon: -23,44 } }
Embedded metadata like this can be processed by a server-side filter to add to a separate geoindex (for proximity searching), or it can be added directly to the post object when it's inserted into the database.
This map is currently displayed as a popup (and could also be a widget) which can change its contents according to what categories/topics/posts are being visited. What is the best way to access the currently displayed objects to scan them for any geographic location metadata in order to plot them on a map?
This set of objects might include users, other NodeBB servers, etc..

My reason for making this plugin is to replicate the features in the software shown below, but using the NodeBB framework.

