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Annotations

Mapstore lets you enrich the map with special features which expose additional information, mark particular position on the map and so on. Those features make up the so called Annotations layers.

Starting from a new map or an already existing one, the editor can access the Annotations button from the TOC panel on the top-left corner of the map viewer.

The annotation panel will open:

Add new Annotation

To begin, from the annotation panel, the editor can open the new annotation panel by selecting the button.

From here the editor can insert a Title (required), a Description (optional) and choose between five different types of Geometries:

  • Marker
  • Line
  • Polygon
  • Text
  • Circle

After selecting a geometry type, the editor can:

  • Draw a Geometry on the map.
  • Enter the vertices of the geometry or modify the existing ones through the Coordinates editor using Decimal or Aeronautical formats.
  • For Line and Polygon, add new vertices using the button and typing the latitude and longitude values.

Note

If the vertices are invalid, they are notified with a red exclamation point. In this case, it is not possible to add new geometry or save the annotation until a valid value is entered. It is still possible to interact with the geometries already present in the annotation, by zooming in on it or deleting it, as follows:

  • Customize the Style of the annotation, as explained in the following paragraph.

Once the geometry has been saved through the Save button, for each geometry created, the editor can perform the following operations:

  • Zoom to the geometry annotation on map through the button

  • Delete the geometry annotation through the button

Once all the Geometries have been created, the editor can save the annotation through the Save button that will be visible in the annotation list:

Then, if not present, a new Annotations layer will be created and added to the TOC

Styling Annotations

Based on which type of annotation was chosen, MapStore allows you to customize the annotation style through a powerful editor. It is accessible from the Style tab of the annotation viewer. During the style editing a preview placed on top of the styler form shows a preview of the edited style.

Marker

MapStore provides two types of Marker annotations, so you have to choose what type do you prefer using the Type combo box (Marker is the default):

  • Marker types can be customized through the following editor:

Choose the Shape, Color and Icon that best fit your needs.

  • Symbol types can have different Shape and Size, a Fill color with a customizable Opacity level (%), a Stroke of different types (continuous, dashed, etc) and customizable Color, Opacity and Width. Only few symbols are provided by default in MapStore but a custom list of symbols can be configured.

Polyline

Polyline annotations can be styled using the following editor:

You can customize the Stroke in order to consider the Line/Dash type (continuous, dashed, dotted, etc), Color, Opacity and Width. You can also have styled Start/End Points: enable the StartPoint Style/EndPoint Style panel using the corresponding check box, the editor will be the same used for Marker/Symbol annotations.

Polygon

With polygonal annotations changing the style means choose the Shape and the size the Size of the polygon, its Fill color (with custom Opacity), the type of the Stroke (continuous, dashed, dotted, etc), its Color, Opacity and Width. See the example below to better understand these options.

Text

Text annotations are a bit different from the geometric ones. They display a formatted text on a given point of the map. The style editor allows you to customize the text Font (Family, Size, Style, Weight), the Alignment (left, center or right) and Rotation. You can also choose the text Fill color and its Opacity, the Stroke type, its Color, Opacity and Width. Take a look at the following example.

Circle

Circle annotations can have custom Fill color (with custom Opacity), Stroke type (continuous, dashed, dotted, etc) with custom Color, Opacity and Width. The Center can be also customized through the same editor described for Marker annotations. See the example below.

Click on to apply the style.

Managing Annotations

Once annotations are added to the TOC, the editor can Manage them by clicking to button from the TOC toolbar and the Main Annotations panel will be open.

From it, the editor is allowed to:

  • Download a file with all the existing annotations by clicking on button

  • Upload annotations from a valid json file by clicking on button

  • Zoom an annotation on map by clicking on button

  • Show/Hide an annotation on the map by clicking on button

From the Main Annotations Panel, by selecting an annotation from the list, the editor is returned to the Annotation Viewer where the annotation can be edited.

In particular, the editor can:

  • Change the Coordinates and the Style by clicking a geometry from list of geometries.
  • Download the annotation in json format and reused in other maps by clicking on button