We’re excited to announce a new release of Ushahidi platform, that not only comes with some bug fixes and improvements but also contains an essential map tiles update for all users of Mapbox tiles.

Mapbox Layer Update

We’ve updated the Mapbox layer on Ushahidi deployments to the Static Tiles API. All Ushahidi.io instances have been automatically updated with this fix.

NB: If you are using a self-hosted version of the Ushahidi platform v3+ (V3.x.x and V4.x.x), it’s crucial that you apply this latest fix. You can find the Mapbox tiles update on this link.

What else has changed?

  • We’ve fixed Twitter URLs for posts and messages to align with twitter’s new format. Historic and new tweets pulled into Ushahidi will have their URLs conforming to the following format: /{twitterUserId}/status/{twitterStatusId}.
  • You can now view full media URLs in your CSV Export.
  • We’ve updated our locale files so that Transifex credentials are not needed to download a release from Ushahidi.
  • We’ve also made improvements to our build system, and have started to adopt Github Actions :octocat: ❤️

For more details, please see our release notes.

Lovebombs to the Mapbox Team!

We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to our good friends at Mapbox. We switched to using Mapbox tiles in July 2016, and have continued to work closely with them, building in features such as the “Improve the map” button, which encourages users to contribute to improving data on OSM directly from within Ushahidi deployments.

Not only have they been a massive help in getting this update out, but they also ensured that every single Ushahidi.io user continues to benefit from the services they provide, at no extra cost. Over the last six months during this pandemic, we’ve seen an increased demand for, and traffic on Ushahidi deployments. The Mapbox team has been exceptionally supportive and accommodating of our increased traffic. Thanks to their generosity, Ushahidi can provide Ushahidi.io deployments with Mapbox tiles to all users.

Special thanks to Mikel Maron and the entire Mapbox Community team for their continued support. You rock socks!