How Mapji works

The ideas behind every Mapji map: map types, data sources, saving, and the addresses a map is published at.

On this page

The core ideas
Map types
Where data comes from
Saving and publishing
Map styles are shared across your maps
What Mapji does not do

Mapji turns your data into an interactive map with its own web address. There is no code to write and nothing to host: you choose a map type, bring in your data, decide how the map looks and behaves, and save. The rest of the documentation is organized around the ideas on this page.

The core ideas

Idea	What it means
A map is a site	Each map has its own address, data, style and settings. Changing one map never changes another. An account can hold up to 20 maps.
Map type	The type decides how your data is drawn and what the editor offers: clusters, a heat surface, shaded regions, a scrolling story, a submission form. You choose it when you create the map and can change it later.
Data	A file you import, shapes you draw, a connected Google Sheet, or pins submitted by visitors. A map holds one dataset, except a Compare map, which holds one per side.
Saving	Edits preview in the editor straight away, and reach visitors only when you press Save.
Publishing	Every map is live at its own address from the moment you create it. You can add a subdomain or your own domain, embed it in another site, and limit who can open it.

Map types

There are ten map types. Nine are filled with your own data; the tenth, Crowdsourced Map, is filled by your visitors. Choosing a map type compares them side by side.

Draw MapPlace markers, draw lines and areas, and build road routes by hand — for maps where the drawing is the data.Cluster MapGroup nearby points into clusters that split apart as visitors zoom in, so thousands of locations stay readable.HeatmapTurn many points into a continuous density surface, optionally weighted by a value in your data.Choropleth MapShade countries, states or districts by a value. In the editor this map type is called Region Map.Isochrone MapShow how far someone can travel from up to five places within a time or distance. In the editor this map type is called Travel Time Map.Store LocatorA searchable, filterable list of locations beside the map, with opening hours, contact actions and distance search.Time Slider MapPlay your data through time with a timeline, a play button and a choice of step and window modes.Story MapTell a story chapter by chapter as the reader scrolls, or document a trip as a Travel Journal with dated stops.Crowdsourced MapLet visitors drop a pin and fill in a form you design. Submissions wait for your approval before they appear.Compare MapShow two datasets side by side or under a swipe divider, with both maps kept in sync.

Where data comes from

Files. GeoJSON, CSV, Excel, KML, KMZ, GPX, TopoJSON and zipped Shapefiles. See Importing files.
Google Sheets. Cluster, Heatmap, Choropleth, Store Locator and Time Slider maps can stay connected to a sheet and refresh when it changes. See Google Sheets sync.
The editor. Draw maps, Story Maps, Isochrone maps and Store Locators can be built or extended by hand, and a Choropleth map's regions are picked from a catalog and their values typed in.
Visitors. A Crowdsourced Map collects pins through a form you design. Nothing is published until you approve it, unless you turn on automatic approval. See Visitor submissions.

Saving and publishing

The editor never saves on its own. Your changes show on the map in the editor as you make them, and an Unsaved changes label appears in the toolbar. Visitors see them only after you press Save (or ⌘ S). A few data actions, such as importing a file or approving a submission, are written immediately instead. Saving changes lists them.

A map's address is created with it, in the form mapji.com/map/your-map. From there you can:

add a free subdomain such as your-map.mapji.com, or connect a domain you own — see Addresses and domains
embed the map in another website — see Embedding a map
keep it out of search results, or put it behind a password — see Public, unlisted and password maps

Map styles are shared across your maps

Map styles are the one thing maps share. A custom map style belongs to your account, not to a map, and you can keep up to 5. Every map that uses a custom style shows your latest edits to it. See Map styles.

What Mapji does not do

Knowing these limits up front saves planning a project around a feature that does not exist.

It does not geocode your data. Rows in a spreadsheet or Google Sheet are placed by their latitude and longitude, in decimal degrees, and map files carry their own coordinates. A column of street addresses is not converted, so geocode the list with another tool first. A few places in the editor look up one typed place at a time, never your dataset:
- the Draw map's Go to a place box, which only moves the map, and the stops of its route builder
- the location of a Story Map chapter
- the address box for adding one Store Locator location
- a Store Locator's optional town or postcode search for visitors, which sorts the list by distance
It never writes to your Google Sheet. Mapji asks Google only for permission to read spreadsheets, so the sheet stays the source of truth.
It is not a GIS analysis tool. There is no buffering, intersection or spatial join of your own geometry. Travel-time areas, their overlap and road routes are calculated for you; other geometry processing belongs in a GIS tool before you import.