MapX key concepts#

Projects#

MapX offers dedicated environments (projects) where users can find specific maps, statistic data and/or story maps (views). Each project contains a set of views that have a common topic, or that are relevant for the institution/organization that manages the project or that cover a specific geographical area.

Projects are managed independently of each other either by the MapX team or by its partners. They can be opened to the public to reach a large audience or set to “private mode” so that only its members can access it. Being a member of a project allows access to content and features that are not available to public users. Every registered user in MapX can make a request to the administrators of a project to join it as a member (only possible if the option has been activated by the administrators).

Roles#

MapX has four types of roles which are incremental:

  • Public

  • Member

  • Publisher

  • Administrator

User rights (roles) are configured per project and will define their degree of freedom in each project. For example, a user can have a public role in a project X while being a member in a project Y and an administrator in a project Z at the same time.

Public#

Public is the default role users have in MapX when they are unlogged or when they are not granted a specific role in a project. This role offers basic rights over the content of a project:

  • visualization of content published without restrictions (i.e., maps, attribute tables, dashboards, story maps)

  • creation and export of static maps

  • approximate overlap analyses of views

  • draw new geometries on map and export them

  • download spatial data (requires to be logged in)

Member#

Members of a project can access non-public content and can be granted the right to edit a specific view in this project.

Publisher#

Publishers have the ability to add in the MapX database new data to the project (only vector data) and create content such as maps and story maps. They can be granted the right to edit and/or delete content in the project and can also grant the edit rights over a view to a specific member.

Administrator#

Administrators are in charge of managing the project and user rights. In particular, they can edit the preferences of the project (title, description, country/ies to which the project is associated, theme, projection), can invite new members to the project, change the roles of specific users, accept or deny requests of membership, set the project public/private, define if the project accepts membership requests from external users, define the default organization of the views in the views panel, and can delete the project.

Special roles#

MapX has two type of special roles which are configured per instance (i.e., valid in all projects):

  • Superuser

  • Developer

Superuser#

Superusers have access to advanced MapX features to manage the application and its content. For security and confidentiality reasons only MapX instance managers should have this role. For https://app.mapx.org/ , superusers are the MapX development team within GRID-Geneva.

Developer#

The developer role is assigned on a case-by-case basis by the MapX team and provides access to tools for creating and editing dashboards and custom code views. This organisation ensures that only users with enough knowledge of web development are able to code content in the application and thus minimizes the chance of having content in MapX that may negatively affect the user experience.

Data organisation#

MapX uses a two-level data management system based on sources and views.

A source is the underlying spatial dataset stored in the MapX database. A view is the cartographic representation of a source, defining how the data is displayed and interacted with on the map. In practice, however, views can go beyond simple map rendering and may include custom interfaces, external data connections, or communication-oriented layouts.

The main types of views available in MapX are:

Vector tile views

Vector tile views are used to display spatial data published in the MapX database.

Raster views

Raster views are based on external data services, as MapX does not store raster data directly in its database.

Custom coded views

Custom coded views are fully customizable views that can be used to display data from external sources or implement advanced interactive features, such as drop-down lists, sliders, charts, or other custom controls. Creating this type of view requires advanced web development skills.

Story maps

Story maps are communication products that combine spatial data with other types of content, such as text, images, charts, and videos.

Local GeoJSON views

Local GeoJSON views allow users to visualize vector data without uploading it to the MapX database. The data is temporarily stored in the user’s browser and is not persisted in the MapX database.