Map Mavin - Layer Editor Walkthrough

Feeling lost or confused when it comes to changing your layers? Not to worry! This video walk-through will take you step-by-step around the interface and get you mapping in no time.

So what is the Layer Editor and how does it differ from the Map Editor and other screens in Map Mavin? The key distinction here is that the Layer Editor's main purpose is to help you manipulate an individual layer, whether that be through stylizing, data visualization tools, or adding/removing/editing features.

In the Layer Editor's General tab, you can add a name and description, as well as toggle between varying levels of editing permission; this let's you decide whether users can edit the layer, not edit the layer, or only add new features. You can also choose to Update Data by appending or replacing the existing layer with another layer. Lastly, you can open the Attribute Columns drop down in order to add or remove fields in your attribute table. If you head to the Styles tab in the Layer Editor, it is here that you can perform the majority of editing on the layer. Within Global Styles you can change the style of your point/line/polygon data, whether it be setting a fill/stroke color or choosing icons to replace your points. Next is Labels, which recently we've allowed for high level editing including translating anchors, text justification, padding, adding halos, and more. Next is Conditional Styling, which allows users to create classes based on attributes and assign certain styles to those classes in order to visualize a certain aspect of the map. We also have Color Progressions (Choropleth) and Point Heat Maps, which allow users to visualize relationships in the data based on an attribute (or recently, based on solely point density). Lastly, we also have the ability to add 3D Fill Extrusions and edit the Legend appearance.

Once you've made your desired changes to a given layer, it is then ready to be added to a map, where multiple layers are stacked together and come together to make a map project.

To be clear, we have added some functionality, such as editing features, to multiple places in the system (in the case of editing, we've added it to both the Layer Editor panel and the editing function within a map by clicking the "hamburgeler" assuming editing privilege is granted to the user in question). Here you can choose to add or remove features as well as edit the attributes of those selected. We have certain functionalities in more than one place to ensure that your map-making experience is as intuitive and smooth as possible.