Toolbox (basics)#

The toolbox offers users a series of tools for creating and editing content in MapX, managing projects and members, and perform some basic analysis on their data. Depending on the user’s role in the project, the list of available tools varies. The tools presented in this section are those available to users with a public role. Advanced tools are presented and described in the Advanced tools chapter.

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Toolbox basic tools#

Spotlight tool#

The Spotlight tool enables users to identify areas where several layers overlap. The tool draws a highlight over the overlapping data on map and shadows the rest of the data. The tool only accepts vector tiles views as input data, but it is fully responsive to any change to the data displayed on map through filtering processes.

Note

For technical reasons, this tool is currently disabled in non-blink browsers (i.e., Safari, Firefox).

How do I use the Spotlight tool?#

First, activate the views that you want to overlap from the Data catalog. Then, define the “highlight mode” - minimum number of overlapping layers to be highlighted - from the Toolbox. Finally, activate the analysis by pressing the “Spotlight vector features” button.

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Highlight tool configuration#

The tool additionally offers an option to estimate the overlapping area. Please note that the area estimate only takes into account what is displayed on the screen and not the complete datasets. Values are updated automatically when the position or the zoom in the map are modified by the users.

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Area estimation#

Warning

This tool should be used for preliminary investigation. It uses the approximated area of spatial features and is therefore not suitable for reporting.

Example of use#

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Overlap area estimation#

Utilities#

  1. URL Mirror helper: MapX requires that the connection to external resources (e.g., web services, APIs) be secure (i.e., https) and that CORS be enabled. To bypass this restriction, a system has been developed by the MapX team which allows to generate a valid link from any URL.

  2. Clear cached data: This tool allows to remove all cached data set by MapX, including map tiles, GeoJSON layers, drafts, WMS responses, summaries and custom scripts. This tool will only impact data stored in the user’s browser. No data will be removed server side.

  3. Reset default panel sizes: Panels and menu bars can be resized in MapX. All modifications made by the users are cached in their browser to keep them from session to session. This tool simply allows users to reset the interface of MapX.

  4. Get search API key and configuration: All the information to use the MapX search tool API is provided in this tool. The API technical documentation is available here .

  5. Theme configuration: The MapX user interface as well as the basemap can be customized from this tool. For each element, users can enable/disable its display, and change its color and/or opacity. If the element is a text/label, its font can also be changed. These modifications are only effective during the current session and will therefore not be preserved if MapX is reloaded. However, if you want to keep your custom theme for future sessions, it is possible to export it in JSON format on your computer and then import it as needed.

  6. MapX version and changelog: This tool allows users to consult the version of MapX they are using as well as the change-log of the application listing all the improvements, bug fixes and new functionalities deployed over the versions.

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MapX changelog#

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