Book Image

Mapbox Cookbook

By : Kastanakis
Book Image

Mapbox Cookbook

By: Kastanakis

Overview of this book

Maps are an essential element in today’s location aware applications. Right from displaying earth surface information to creating thematic maps displaying plethora of information, most of the developers lack the necessary knowledge to create customizable maps with combination of various tools and libraries. The MapBox platform is one such platform which offers all the tools and API required to create and publish a totally customizable map. Starting with building your first map with the online MapBox Editor, we will take you all the way to building advanced web and mobile applications with totally customizable map styles. Through the course of chapters we’ll learn CartoCSS styling language and understand the various components of MapBox platform and their corresponding JavaScript API. In the initial few chapters we will dive deeper into the TileMill and MapBox Studio components of MapBox and use them to generate custom styled map tiles and vector maps. Furthermore, we will publish these custom maps using PHP, node.js and third party tools like Geoserver. We’ll also learn to create different visualizations and map styles like a choropleth map, a heat map and add user interactivity using a UFTGrid. Moving on, we dive into advanced concepts and focus on integration with third party services like Foursquare, Google FusionTables, CartoDB, and Torque to help you populate and even animate your maps. In the final chapter we’ll learn to use the Mapbox SDK to create and publish interactive maps for the iOS platform. By the end of this book, you will learn about MapBox GL and how to create a fully functional, location-aware mobile app, using the maps styles created in the recipes.
Table of Contents (8 chapters)
7
Index

Styling a map with Mapbox Studio

In this recipe, we will style a map using Mapbox Studio. The biggest difference from TileMill is the workflow, while other parts, such as CartoCSS, remain the same.

How it works…

If you haven't installed Mapbox Studio yet, head over to the Mapbox website and download it now from https://www.mapbox.com/mapbox-studio/.

It's available for all major platforms, and the installation is pretty straightforward. Once installed, open the application and prepare for an interface tour!

When you first start Mapbox Studio, you will be greeted with the Projects screen, just as in TileMill.

You can start either by selecting a starter style (a template), or by creating a new style by selecting a source from the ones provided by Mapbox. The sources provided by Mapbox are Mapbox Streets, Mapbox Terrain, and Mapbox Satellite.

In case you want to overlay or import external data from other sources, you can create a new source by clicking on the Blank Source button...