This section explores how to use Mapeo Desktop to create, edit and manage mapping data directly within the Desktop application, using Territory mode. The information is contained in the following pages:
We use the word features to describe things that appear on the map, such as rivers, buildings, or points of interest. In Territory mode, you can create features in the form of points, lines and areas by drawing these directly on a background map.
Points are features associated with a single location (coordinate). These could be specific places of interest like a building, place name, plant, or rapid.
Lines are features associated with a linear path (composed of a set of coordinates). Lines are used to represent features such as roads, trails, and rivers.
Areas are features associated with a bounded area (composed of a set of coordinates, and sometimes also called a “polygon”). Areas are used to show the boundaries of features like lakes, natural zones, and settlement areas.
In order to get started creating features in Territory mode, you first have to zoom in on the map until you get to a sufficiently high zoom level at which your data will be precise.
Note: if you already have territory data in Mapeo, this data will disappear from view if you are no longer zoomed in to a level where you can make edits. It will appear again once you return to a sufficiently high zoom level. You can also use the Zoom to data feature (located in the View menu) to zoom to the maximum extent of your data to help find your way back to your data at a sufficiently high zoom level.
To create a new point feature, click the Point button [or press the 1
key on your keyboard]. This will change the mouse cursor to a cross symbol. Also, the point button will now be highlighted in blue.
To place the new point on the map, position the mouse cursor where the point should go, then left-click [or press Space
on your keyboard].
To add a line, click the Line button on the toolbar above the map [or press the 2
key on the keyboard]. This will change the mouse cursor to a cross symbol.
Next, position the mouse cursor where the line should begin and left-click [or press Space
on the keyboard] to begin automatically placing nodes along the line of your mouse. Continue placing more nodes by clicking on the map [or pressing Space
on your keyboard]. While drawing, you can zoom in or drag the map in order to add more detail.
To finish a line, click again on the last node [or press Enter
on your keyboard].
To add an area, click the Area button on the toolbar above the map [or press the 3
key on your keyboard]. This will change the mouse cursor to a cross symbol.
Next, position the mouse cursor at one of the corners of the feature you want to create and left-click [or press Space
to begin placing nodes around the outer edge of the area]. Continue placing more nodes by clicking on the map [or pressing Space
in your keyboard]. While drawing, you can zoom in or drag the map in order to add more detail.
To finish an area, click again on either the first or last node [or press Enter
]. Mapeo will automatically join your last point to your first point to create a closed area.
After you create a feature on the map, the Select category panel will appear on the left, and you will be able to assign a category to the feature. Scroll down the list of categories to find the right one, or if you know its name you can search by starting to type its name in the search box. Recently used categories will appear at the top of the list, and the others are listed in alphabetical order.
Select the category that best represents what you are documenting in the feature you are creating. Mapeo comes with a default set of categories and associated icons that can be used for collecting and classifying data.
Depending on the category you have selected, you may see specific questions associated with the category. These could be text fields, “select one” buttons, or “select multiple” checkboxes. All of these fields are optional.
Depending on the Mapeo configuration you are using, different types of features may be mapped using the same category. For example, in the current default configuration of Mapeo, you can assign the Lake category for both point and area features, depending on your use case: you may want to create a point dataset of all the names of lakes across a region, or, you may want to draw the boundaries of lakes to show them on a cartographic map.
Left-click on a feature to select it. This will highlight it with a pulsing glow, and the Edit feature panel will display details about that feature.
Right-click on a feature to display the Feature commands menu, which shows the commands that are available, such as rotating, moving, and deleting.
To move a point, place the mouse cursor over the point, then press and hold the left mouse button while dragging the point to its new location.
To move an entire line, right-click the line and select the Move command from the Feature commands menu. Then move the mouse, and left-click to place the line in a new location.
To adjust the shape of a line or area, first left-click to select it. All nodes of the feature will be drawn as small circles. You can then drag the nodes to better locations.
You can also create new nodes along a line or area either by double-clicking on the line or edge of the area, or by dragging the small triangles at the midpoints between nodes.
It is possible to activate a box of measurement information for a feature, such as the geometry type (point, line, area), the length or area, and the coordinates, by pressing Ctrl + I while a feature is selected.
Once you have selected a feature, you can also edit the feature details, such as the category and any of the detail fields, shown on the Edit feature panel left to the map.
To change the category, click on the category that is currently selected. This will show the same list of categories available when creating a feature. Select the category that you want to change the feature to by clicking on one of them.
On the Save your edits panel, you'll have a chance to review what you've done. Mapeo will also perform some basic checks for missing data and may offer helpful suggestions and warnings if something doesn't seem right (for example, if there is any data that is missing a category).
If you can't finish your edits in one sitting, for example if your computer crashes or you close the browser tab, your edits are still saved by Mapeo. When you open Mapeo again later and access the Territory mode, Mapeo will offer to restore your work.
The standard background map that appears in Territory mode when you are connected to the internet is an imagery map provided by Bing, composed of various sources of satellite imagery and aerial photography.
For territory mapping, high resolution imagery is frequently one of the best background maps because you can clearly identify features in the landscape.
You can change your background map at any time while you are adding or editing features in Territory mode.
Some of the standard background maps include:
Bing aerial imagery: An excellent source of satellite and aerial imagery at low, mid and high resolutions provided by the company Bing. Satellite imagery can be helpful for mapping both natural and artificial features in many different kinds of landscapes.
Esri World Imagery: An alternative imagery layer provided by the company Esri, sometimes providing different imagery sources.
Mapbox Satellite: Yet another alternative imagery layer provided by the company Mapbox; as with the Esri imagery layer, it is possible that there are different sources from the other two.
OpenStreetMap: A vector map composed of data from the OpenStreetMap service. Depending on where you are creating territory mapping data and the quality of OpenStreetMap data there, this may be a helpful reference for orientation or direct mapping, especially in urban settings or anywhere where there is a lot of human infrastructure.
OpenTopoMap: a vector map composed of data from OpenStreetMap combined with a multi-directional hillshade layer which highlights the landscape topography, and can be helpful for mapping features in mountainous regions. The available background maps will vary depending on your map location in the world. In some countries, there will be additional regional maps made available for you to use as a map background.
There are several additional options in the Background map window that may be useful to you:
You can enable and disable a Minimap which will show a small-scale (more zoomed out) map to give you an overview of your location. This minimap will use the same map as the Background map you have selected.
You can enable and disable Overlays which may add additional layers to contextualize your background map. The most useful of these to use in conjunction with satellite imagery background maps is the Locator Overlay option, which adds administrative boundaries, roads, and labels on top of your background map.
You can also provide your own custom background map, with the information most relevant to your project. This can be an online map source, or a directory composed of offline map tiles. There are two different ways to do this:
(1) Add a path to your map tiles (typically a directory of files in a {z}/{x}/{y}.jpg
format, or a singular .asar
file) using the Custom background option. Map tiles can either be hosted online, or offline on your machine, and so the path could either be an online path (with an http protocol) or a local file path.
To use a map tiles path as a custom background, click on the [...]Edit custom background button next to the Custom option in the Background map window.
Then, enter a path in the text field in the pop-up window, click on OK and then select the option Custom in the Background map window.
You can either navigate the map using your mouse or keyboard as described in , or you can click on the Zoom in to edit button that will show at the top if you are not yet at a high enough zoom level. Clicking this button will zoom in the map at the center of your current view.
It is possible to create custom categories and icons to tailor Mapeo to your specific data collection needs. This customization currently requires significant technical knowledge. For more on customization, see .
After selecting a category and filling in any information you can click on the confirm button in the top right of the Select category panel to stop editing that point. Clicking elsewhere on the map will also navigate you away from the panel.
To learn more about how data types work in Mapeo configurations, and how to customize these to meet your own needs, see .
To delete a feature (point, line, or area), right-click on the point to select it and show the Feature commands menu, then use the Delete command.
You can undo any edits to features by clicking the Undo button, and redo them by clicking the Redo button.
To confirm a feature after adding or editing, simply click on the Confirm located at the top right of Edit feature panel. Note that this will not save the feature in your Territory database until you go through the next step of .
Also note that to confirm a new feature, you first need to select a category (see ).
Click Save to finish your edits and save them permanently to your computer. You should remember to save your work frequently!
Before saving your changes you must enter a Changeset Comment, or a short description of the changes you have made. Then click Save so your changes will be saved on the map, and can be synchronized with other devices or exported.
There are also other background map options available in the Background map window, which you can open by clicking on the Background settings icon or pressing the B
key on your keyboard.
(2) You can also add background map options by specifying them in a custom configuration. Learn more about this by visiting .
To learn more about custom and offline maps in Mapeo, visit and .
The background map that appears underneath the territory data is a vitally important resource for creating features. This map serves as your primary reference to where features might be located when you are creating or editing data.
You move around the map by dragging it and by pressing and holding down the left mouse button and moving the mouse around. You can also use the ↓, ↑, ←, → arrow keys on your keyboard.
You can zoom in or out by scrolling with the mouse wheel or trackpad, or by clicking the + Zoom in and - Zoom out buttons in the Map controls menu on the right side of the map. You can also use the +
and -
keys on your keyboard.
You can also zoom to a set of geographic coordinates (in decimal degrees) by accessing the Zoom to Coordinates feature located in the View menu. Enter a pair of longitude and latitude coordinates separated by a comma and with longitude going first, and then click Submit. The background map should travel to the coordinates.
The + Zoom in to edit button appears at the top of your screen when you are not sufficiently zoomed in. You can press it to zoom in to a minimum high zoom level where editing is possible. Once you have created territory data, you can also use the Zoom to Data feature located in the View menu to zoom to the maximum extent of your territory data on the map.
Lastly, it is possible to activate an overview map at the top of the map, by pressing the /
key.
You can change the background map used in Territory mode at any time. For more information on this, visit Changing background maps in Territory mode.
.GeoJSON
file Once you are finished creating and editing data in Territory mode, you may export your data to a .GeoJSON
file format. This is a commonly used file format which can be opened using other GIS or cartography software or platforms such as QGIS, Mapbox Studio, or ArcGIS.
Note: this will export all of your territory data at once. There currently is no way to export a selection of your territory data.
Note: Synchronized territory data will also include any external geospatial data that was added to Mapeo Territory mode; see Importing and using external geospatial data.
To learn more about how synchronizing data works in Mapeo, seeSynchronizing data with Mapeo Desktop.
Additional data sources to use could be any of the following:
.kml
/ .kmz
(A file extension used by Google Earth Pro and related tools, but commonly used by many applications)
Shapefile (.shp
and several other files, created by Esri for use in their ArcGIS software but commonly used by many applications)
.gpx
(a GPS data file that contains waypoints, routes, and tracks; generated by handheld GPS devices by Garmin and others)
There are currently three different ways to work with the above kinds of external data.
.GeoJSON
or shapefile data as territory data In the Top menu bar, click on File and then select Import territory data.
In the file browser pop-up window, navigate to the directory where the file you want to import is located. Select the file you wish to import (in either .GeoJSON
or shapefile format).
Upon successful import, the data will not show up right away; you may have to reload Mapeo by pressing CTRL-R or restarting.
Once imported and refreshed, the data will appear as uncategorized features on your map. Remember that you will need to be zoomed in to the area where they are located in order to see them on the background map.
You can then edit the features in the same way as any features that were created directly in Territory mode.
Note: currently, it is not possible to import .kml
/ .kmz
or .gpx
data directly into your Territory database. See the next section for more information on how to use these as a map data overlay.
You can add geospatial data as a temporary data layer that is displayed on top of your background, as a reference for creating Territory data but without including this data directly into your database. This could be useful if you have some geospatial data that you want to display for reference when creating data, such as place names, rivers and creeks, roads and paths, or zonal data. In Territory mode, this is currently known as custom map data.
There are four types of data that can be added as custom map data: .gpx
, .kml
, .geojson
and .json
.
There are two ways to add custom map data to Territory mode:
Click on the […] Edit custom data layer button next to Custom Map Data. This button will be grayed out if no custom map data has been added.
From here, you can click the Choose File button to select a file, or add a data file URL if it is hosted on a server.
If you are adding a file, in the file browser pop-up window, navigate to the directory where the file you want to import is located. Select the file you wish to import.
Click Ok. Now, you should be able to check the Custom Map Data option to show or hide the geospatial data that you’ve added.
On the Territory mode map, custom map data is shown with a pink outline and fill. If you hover over or click over any custom map data shapes, you will see attributes of the data in the Edit feature panel.
If you are unable to convert the file, then you can create new features by tracing over these overlain points, lines and areas. If you choose this route, you should make sure you are very zoomed in when you trace features to ensure you are as accurate as possible.
It is also possible to edit Mapeo observations data in Territory mode, to a limited degree: you can edit feature details, and these changes will be reflected in Observation mode, and will also be synchronized with other Mapeo devices. However, if you move the location of a feature, or delete a feature in Territory mode, these changes will not be reflected in Observation mode; and, when you close and open Territory mode again, moved features will reappear in their original location as they were in Observation mode, and deleted features will reappear on the map.
If your computer provides your geolocation, you can also click on theShow my Location button to pan to your location on the map.
To export territory data, click on the Export map data button on the top right of your screen, and select Export Territory Data as GeoJSON. Next, in the pop-up window, rename and save the .GeoJSON
file where you want.
It is possible to synchronize data created using Mapeo Desktop Territory mode with other devices:
If two Mapeo Desktop devices synchronize with each other in the Mapeo Desktop Synchronize mode, they will each exchange all of their territory data (as well as the observation data) with each other.
If a Mapeo Desktop device (computer 1) synchronizes with a Mapeo Mobile device (phone 1), then that Mapeo Mobile device will receive all of the territory data from the Mapeo Desktop device, and will store this data. The Mapeo Mobile device will not display this data on the map nor show any of the features in the Observations list screen. However:
When this Mapeo Mobile device synchronizes with another Mapeo Desktop device (computer 2), it will share all of the territory data from that first device (computer 1), and the second device will be able to see, edit, export, and synchronize that data as well.
When this Mapeo Mobile device (phone 1) synchronizes with another Mapeo Mobile device (phone 2), that second device (phone 2) will receive all of the territory data that was synchronized with the first device (phone 1), but won’t be able to see it or edit it. The second Mapeo Mobile device (phone 2) may now synchronize this data with other Mapeo devices.
When creating data in Territory mode, you may want to incorporate or utilize geospatial data from a source outside of Mapeo Desktop Territory Mode.
One key source of data that you may want to access in Mapeo Desktop Territory mode is data that was collected via Mapeo Mobile, synchronized with your Mapeo Desktop device, and available in Mapeo Desktop Observations mode.
.GeoJSON
(a commonly used format by many GIS tools such as QGIS or Mapbox, and also available as an export option in both Mapeo Desktop Territory and Observations modes)
You can import a file containing geospatial data (in .GeoJSON
and shapefile formats) directly into your Mapeo Desktop Territory mode database. This will add all of the data (points, lines, and areas) to your Mapeo Desktop territory data set as uncategorized features. You can then edit the features in the same way as any features that were created directly in Territory mode.
Currently, Mapeo does not provide any messaging once you have done so, but if the file you have selected has geospatial data that can be imported, Mapeo will begin importing the data. You may see a processing icon at the bottom right of the map, indicating that data is being imported.
Note: to import a shapefile, Mapeo Desktop is configured to look for .shp
file. However, a shapefile consists of a number of additional files with other extensions including .shx
, .dbf
, .sbn
and several additional optional files. Make sure these files are in the same directory as your .shp
file or the import will fail.
(1) Using the Map Data window
Click on Map Data [or use the F
key shortcut on your keyboard].
(2) You also can drag the files from a file explorer window directly onto the map view. This will automatically add the file to the Custom Map Data option in the Map Data panel.
However, neither the attributes nor the geometries of custom map data can be edited, as this data is only made available as a visual reference for creating territory data. If you want to include this data directly into your territory database, then you need to import the data as described in (and if your data is not in either of those formats, you may need to convert it using another software such as QGIS, ArcGIS, or web-based conversion tools such as ).
While there is a different workflow for working with observation data in Mapeo that is documented in the section, you can access Mapeo observation data in the Territory mode as well. Currently, Mapeo observation data will be displayed in the same style as Territory data.