{"id":4284,"date":"2026-03-22T22:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T21:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.factgrid.de\/?p=4284"},"modified":"2026-03-22T22:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T21:12:08","slug":"introducing-gt-viz-visualize-factgrid-data-on-a-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/factgrid-tools.geschichte.uni-halle.de\/blog\/archives\/4284","title":{"rendered":"Introducing GT-Viz: Visualize FactGrid Data on a Map"},"content":{"rendered":"

GT-Viz is a browser-based tool for visualizing geospatial and temporal data from SPARQL endpoints. You write a SPARQL query, provide the SPARQL endpoint for example FactGrid or Wikidata, and the results appear on an interactive map with a timeline.<\/p>\n

It was built by a group of students at RWTH Aachen University as part of the Knowledge Graph Lab course.<\/p>\n

Try it here:<\/strong> https:\/\/gtviz-kgl.wikidata.dbis.rwth-aachen.de\/tutorial<\/a><\/p>\n

Input<\/h2>\n

The only input needed is a SPARQL query. A set of built-in example queries covers FactGrid (Thirty Years’ War battles), Wikidata (Napoleon, WW1 & WW2, Magellan and Columbus voyages, Olympic venues), and can be loaded for testing the functionalities. The sidebar holds a SPARQL editor with syntax highlighting and validation. A Help panel documents the expected query variables.<\/p>\n

The tool reads these variables from your query results: ?location<\/code> (WKT point), ?time<\/code> (date), ?category<\/code>, ?parentCategory<\/code>, and optionally ?name<\/code>, ?description<\/code>, and ?pathId<\/code>.<\/p>\n

Map View<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Query results appear as markers on an OpenStreetMap base layer. Parent categories each get a distinct color; sub-categories within a parent are separated by fill patterns. Clicking a marker shows its name, description, category, and date.<\/p>\n

Two display options can be toggled: whether to draw connecting lines between points that share a ?pathId<\/code>, and whether to show points that have no date.<\/p>\n

The Group Visibility panel shows the full category hierarchy from the query results. Individual sub-groups or entire parent categories can be toggled on or off. Item counts are shown at every level.<\/p>\n

Timeline and Animation<\/h2>\n

The timeline at the bottom filters the map to a selected date window. Drag the handles to set start and end dates; the map updates immediately. The Play button animates the window forward through time at an adjustable speed (configurable in days, weeks, months, or years per second).<\/p>\n

Historic Map Overlays<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As an experimantal feature it is possible to load historic maps. The historic maps are overlayed on the base layer as they only cover a small portion of the globe. For testing we provided a small set of over 20 different historic maps. Only thing needed to integrate such a historic map is a tile server serving the map thus the set of supported historic maps can easaly be extended.<\/p>\n

Example: Thirty Years’ War battles from FactGrid<\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. \n
      \n
    1. Open https:\/\/gtviz-kgl.wikidata.dbis.rwth-aachen.de<\/a><\/li>\n
    2. Click the lightbulb icon and select “FactGrid: Battles of the Thirty Years’ War”<\/em> \u2014 the endpoint and query fill in automatically.<\/li>\n
    3. Click Run<\/strong>. Battles appear across central Europe; the timeline sets itself to 1618\u20131648.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      From there, use the Play button to step through the war year by year, the filter panel to isolate specific belligerents, and the Map Config tab to add a period map beneath the markers.<\/p>\n

      \"\"<\/p>\n

      Feedback<\/h2>\n

      GT-Viz is a student project in its early stages. We are looking for feedback from the FactGrid community on what works, what is missing, and what would be most useful.<\/p>\n

      \u2192 Take the survey<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      \n

      GT-Viz was developed in winter semester 2025\/26 by students of the Knowledge Graph Lab at RWTH Aachen University.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      GT-Viz is a browser-based tool for visualizing geospatial and temporal data from SPARQL endpoints. You write a SPARQL query, provide the SPARQL endpoint for example FactGrid or Wikidata, and the results appear on an interactive map with a timeline. It was built by a group of students at RWTH Aachen University as part of the … <\/p>\n

      Continue reading “Introducing GT-Viz: Visualize FactGrid Data on a Map”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":4294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,10],"tags":[126,276,380,430,431,438],"ppma_author":[473],"class_list":["post-4284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-tools","tag-factgrid","tag-map-visualisation","tag-sparql","tag-visualisations","tag-visualisierungen","tag-wikidata"],"authors":[{"term_id":473,"user_id":13,"is_guest":0,"slug":"tim-holzheim","display_name":"Tim Holzheim","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d0a408f0bd97af55cc4155460eabccda7d40881977c1b0c8d13b9e729908395b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"Tim","last_name":"Holzheim","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/factgrid-tools.geschichte.uni-halle.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/factgrid-tools.geschichte.uni-halle.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/factgrid-tools.geschichte.uni-halle.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factgrid-tools.geschichte.uni-halle.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factgrid-tools.geschichte.uni-halle.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/factgrid-tools.geschichte.uni-halle.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factgrid-tools.geschichte.uni-halle.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/factgrid-tools.geschichte.uni-halle.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factgrid-tools.geschichte.uni-halle.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factgrid-tools.geschichte.uni-halle.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4284"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factgrid-tools.geschichte.uni-halle.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=4284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}