Overview

The Public Map module is a tool for creating interactive read-only maps that can be embedded into public websites.

Video Tutorial

Compatibility

Compatible Services

• Parish Online
  
• XMAP for Local Government
  

Limitations / Terms

• Safari is not currently supported (see Known Issues below) Please use Chrome, Firefox or Edge instead.
• Public Maps only work when a valid XMAP or Parish Online subscription is in place.
• Public Maps must be created to display your own information. They must not be created to only publish background mapping.
• There is no limit on usage of Public Maps, but high activity from single IP addresses will be throttled.
• It's not possible to use the Public Map to publish your Annotation layers. This only works with Map Layers.
• Safari is not currently supported (see Known Issues)

Method

Creating a Public Map

1. Log into Parish Online
2. Click on the Cog in the top right and click on Administration
3. Click on the Public Map menu item
4. Click the + button (this pops up a dialog box to guide you through the steps).
   
   1. Choose a base map, click NEXT
   2. Choose 1 or more of your own layers to display on the map, click NEXT
   3. Choose up to 10 3rd party layers to display on the map, click NEXT
   4. Set a start location for the map by zooming and panning the map, click NEXT
   5. Give the map a name (this is only visible to you for your admin purposes
   6. Tick on and off the tools you'd like to be included in the map interface
   7. Tick on and off the layers you want to be switched on when the map loads, click SAVE

NOTE: Once you've created your Public Map you may notice that map objects can't be Info Clicked in the same way as in Parish Online itself. This is because the publishing of attributes is disabled by default (to stop you accidentally publishing someone's phone number). To enable these attributes, go to the Layer settings, then under the Columns tab there are tick boxes for enabling the attributes.

Modifying a Public Map

1. Select the Public Map from the listin the Public Map section
2. Click the Edit icon (pencil symbol)
3. Go through the dialog to the setting you want to change
4. Click NEXT until you get to the SAVE button

Deleting a Public Map

1. Select the Public Map from the list in the Public Map section
2. Click the Delete icon (bin symbol)
3. Confirm by clicking DELETE from the pop-up

Publishing a Public Map

Embedding in a webpage (IFRAME)

To embed an interactive map into your webpages:

1. Select the Public Map from the list in the Public Map section
2. In the right-hand panel there's pre-generated IFRAME code labelled "Embed Code". Copy this code.
3. Paste the code into the relevant part of your website's HTML body.

You may like to edit some of the settings in the IFRAME code so that it fits in your website nicely. In the example iframe below there are two values highlighted in yellow. These define the height and width of the iframe. The height is set to 500px, meaning it will take up 500 pixels of vertical screen space on your webpage. The width is set to 100% meaning it will take up the whole width of the section of webpage that it's in.

The width and height can be changed to any pixel or percentage width and height, but be aware that making the map too small, too wide or too tall will affect the how easily viewers of your website can interact with it.

<iframe src='https://shared.xmap.cloud?map=aaaaaaaa-1111-2222-3333-bbbbbbbbbbbb' style="border:0px #ffffff none;" name="gx_iframe" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" marginheight="0px" marginwidth="0px" height="500px" width="100%" allowfullscreen></iframe>

If you're not too confident with how to use iframes, take a look at this iframe generator website which allows you to experiment with the settings of an iframe before adding it to your own website. You can take the Public Map Link from the Info panel in the Public Map settings to use as a real-world example.

Full screen Public Map (Link)

For a link that opens up full-screen in your web browser:

1. Select the Public Map from the list in the Public Map section
2. In the right-hand panel there's a pre-generated Share Link URL. Copy this URL.
3. Use the URL to create hyperlinks in your website.

Example

Here's an example of a Public Map embedded in this webpage. It's set to 100% width so will adapt to the width of this page, and 500px height, so it's got a fixed height.

Known Issues

• There is currently a bug in Safari web browser (that's used in iPhone, iPad and Mac) which means Public Maps don't display correctly (or at all). We aren't able to fix this as it's an issue built into Safari, but we are working on a workaround. In the meantime, we recommend placing a link to the Public Map so Safari users can see the map. You can use the code below as an example (replacing the red URL with your own Public Map URL).

<a href="https://shared.xmap.cloud/?map=XXXXXXXXXXXXX" target="_blank">Can't see the map, click here</a>