Webmaps Overview

The spatial data of your project can be displayed and explored in the Map tab of the project on the dashboard. As an early access feature, they can also be shared via URL.

Usage details

Webmaps are available for Mergin Maps cloud and Mergin Maps EE users.

Webmaps are not available for Mergin Maps CE at this point.

Project layers

On the webmaps, you will see your survey layers or raster layers that are packaged with the project. The default extent of maps is defined by the extent set in the QGIS project.

All maps on the dashboard by default use Mergin Maps vector tile service as a background map.

The webmap is refreshed automatically, you will see the latest version of your project all the time, even without refreshing the web page.

The Layers panel lists all available layers displayed on the map, together with their legend as defined in QGIS. The eye button next to the layer name controls the visibility of layers. If you have defined map themes in your project, these are visible on top of the layers panel.

You can also switch Map themes defined in the project:

Click on a feature on the map to display its attributes.

Available layers

Webmaps by default show layers that are packaged with the project. These are layers that are loaded from project files. These are usually GeoPackage layers, shapefile layers and background maps that are made available for offline use (e.g. mbtiles, GeoTIFF, ...).

Layers requiring network connection (e.g. PostgreSQL layers or online background maps) are by default not included on the webmap due to potential performance and connectivity problems. However, certain network layers (such as satellite background map) can be added manually, read more in the following section.

Add custom background maps

If you prefer a different background map than the official one provided by default, there are currently two ways to add a custom background map:

1. Map-script - Map-script allows you to programmatically update and customise the webmap to your specific needs. Read more about map-script here.
2. Package your background map - Make your background map available offline in QGIS. This step packages the layer into a file and it will be visible on the webmap afterwards

Background maps licensing

Keep in mind that background maps services and data sources come with their own terms of use, especially if they are to be publicly shared. You should comply with any terms and conditions of the services of your choice.

Custom webmap applications Experimental 🧪

As described in the previous section, webmaps can be further programmatically customised via map-script to build a custom webmap application. Read more about it here.

Extent

The extent of webmaps is defined in QGIS in the Project Properties.

When displaying maps on the dashboard, Mergin Maps uses primarily the project full extent defined in the View Settings tab.

If this parameter is not defined, the map extent will be set as the Advertised extent from the QGIS Server tab.

If there are no extent settings in the QGIS project, Mergin Maps will calculate the extent from layers in the project.

Sharing maps via URL early access

Webmaps can be shared via URL or embedded on a website. You can find more details about this early access feature in Sharing and Embedding Webmaps.

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting tips for webmaps can be found here.