MapClay is a JavaScript library that allows you to create interactive maps using simple YAML or JSON configurations. It supports multiple map rendering engines, including Leaflet, Maplibre, and OpenLayers, making it flexible for various use cases.
You can include MapClay in your project using npm:
npm install mapclay
OR use it directly from a CDN. The following examples will go by this way:
<script src='https://unpkg.com/mapclay@latest/dist/mapclay.js'></script>
Add script from CDN, and specify CSS selector for target HTML element by
- data attribute
data-target
- query paremeter
target
Try it out with online markdown editor
<!-- Target all <pre> elements -->
<pre></pre>
<script data-target="pre" src='https://unpkg.com/mapclay@latest/dist/mapclay.js'></script>
<!-- Or... -->
<!-- Target all elements with 'id="map"', selector '#map' in URL encoding is '%23map' -->
<div id='map'></div>
<script src='https://unpkg.com/mapclay@latest/dist/mapclay.js?target=%23map'></script>
The text content of target element would be parsed as YAML, So user can specify options to configure map.
<pre>
use: Maplibre
width: 400px
height: 50vh
center: [139.6917,35.6895]
zoom: 8
XYZ: https://tile.openstreetmap.jp/styles/osm-bright/512/{z}/{x}/{y}.png
</pre>
<script src='https://unpkg.com/mapclay@latest/dist/mapclay.js?target=pre'></script>
All valid target elements would be rendered:
<pre>use: Leaflet</pre>
<pre>use: Maplibre</pre>
<pre>use: Openlayers</pre>
<script src='https://unpkg.com/mapclay@latest/dist/mapclay.js?target=pre'></script>
If target is not given by <script>
tag, render would not be automatically executed.
Here comes API:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Play with mapclay</title>
<meta charset='utf-8'>
<script src='https://unpkg.com/mapclay@latest/dist/mapclay.js'></script>
</head>
<body>
<pre id="map">
<!-- ...Options here! -->
</pre>
<script>
//...Lets coding!
</script>
</body>
</html>
Still, write text content on target element for options.
And use mapclay.renderByYaml()
for this case:
<!-- In HTML body -->
<pre id="map">
use: Maplibre
width: 400px
height: 50vh
center: [139.6917,35.6895]
</pre>
// In <script>
const target = document.querySelector('#map');
mapclay.renderByYaml(target, target.textContent);
Instead of text content, you can manually specify options by config object:
// In <script>
const target = document.querySelector('#map');
mapclay.render(target, {
use: "Maplibre",
width: "400px",
height: "400px",
center: [139.6917,35.6895],
zoom: 8,
});
Except of special options defines a renderer, there is no mandatory options.
But there are some general optoins come with default Renderers:
option | description | value |
---|---|---|
id | id of map HTML element | String , eg: openlayers |
width | CSS width of map HTML element | String for CSS, eg: 100% |
height | CSS height of map HTML element | String for CSS, eg: 200px |
center | Center of map camera | Array in [lon, lat], eg: [24, 121] |
zoom | Zoom level for map camera | Number 0-22 , eg: 12 |
debug | Show tile boundary | Boolean , eg: true |
control | Object of control options, supports | fullscreen: true , scale: true |
XYZ | Raster tile URL | URL with {x}, {y} and {z} |
GPX | GPX file path | String for fetchable resource path |
object
contains entry for each option
To improve readability. For each option, specify aliases
with entries in key-value format:
# The following config file...
center: [139.6917,35.6895]
zoom: 10
# Is equal to the following:
center: Tokyo
zoom: Metropolitan area
aliases:
center:
Tokyo: [139.6917,35.6895]
zoom:
Metropolitan area: 10
To distinguish an alias from a normal string, each alias starts from Uppercase Char. If no value is specified in aliases
, the original value would be taken.
# This is an invalid config file
center: tokyo # Starts from lowercase, this is not an alias nor a valid value for option "center"
GPX: My-track1 # No matched value in aliases.GPX, renderer will use "My-track1" as resource path
aliases:
center:
Tokyo: [139.6917,35.6895]
GPX:
My-track2: https://example.com/track2.gpx
My-track3: ./my-track3.gpx
If you want to put more information into each alias entry, use value
to specify its value:
# The following alias...
aliases:
center:
Tykyo: [139.6917,35.6895]
## Is equals to the following:
aliases:
center:
Tykyo:
value: [139.6917,35.6895]
desc: The biggest city in Japan
URL
of other config file
To reuse written config, use apply
to specify resource path of another config file. Options in current config file are automatically assigned by it.
apply: https://unpkg.com/mapclay/assets/default.yml
# The following alias come from applied config file
center: Delhi
zoom: City
URL
of ES6 module, with Renderer class as default export
This option specify which Renderer is used to create a map.
# Use Renderer with Openlayers by resouece path
use: https://unpkg.com/mapclay/dist/renderers/openlayers.mjs
By default, mapclay.render()
and mapclay.renderByYaml()
comes with three hidden aliases for default Renderers.
To use default renderers, specify use
to one of the following aliases:
- Leaflet
- Maplibre
- Openlayers
Check out the source code for each Renderer.
# Use alias for Renderer in "use" option
use: Openlayers
aliases:
# The following aliases are hidden by default
use:
Leaflet:
value: renderers/leaflet.mjs,
description: Leaflet is the leading open-source JavaScript library for mobile-friendly interactive maps. It has all the mapping features most developers ever need.,
Maplibre:
value: renderers/maplibre.mjs,
description: MapLibre GL JS is a TypeScript library that uses WebGL to render interactive maps from vector tiles in a browser. The customization of the map comply with the MapLibre Style Spec.,
Openlayers:
value: renderers/openlayers.mjs,
description: OpenLayers makes it easy to put a dynamic map in any web page. It can display map tiles, vector data and markers loaded from any source. OpenLayers has been developed to further the use of geographic information of all kinds.,
In short:
A Renderer is an Object with 'steps' property, which value is an array of render functions.
For example, this is a minimal valid Renderer Object:
const renderer = {
steps: [
function addContent({target}) {
target.textContent = 'Hello Renderer!'
}
]
}
mapclay.render(element, {
use: renderer
})
mapclay.render()
probably do the followings behind:
-
Create a new child element with class
mapclay
, it would be assign totarget
property of config file -
Get Renderer by
use
value in current config file- If config file is within
steps
, itself is Renderer - If value of
use
is an object withinsteps
, take it as Renderer - If value of
use
is a valid URL, import it as ES6 module. And use default export as class. Get instance of Renderer by callingnew
operator
For the second case and third case, all config properties would be applied to Renderer
- If config file is within
-
Call each function in
steps
one by one. Function would be bound to Renderer, and Renderer itself is the only argument. Like the following:
console.log(renderer.steps) // return [step1, step2, step3...]
// Pesudo code in mapclay.render()
prepareRendering()
.then(() => step1.call(renderer, renderer))
.then(() => step2.call(renderer, renderer))
.then(() => step3.call(renderer, renderer))
...
With these features, each step function can use destructuring assignment to get arguments to do renderering:
// Get arguments from Renderer Object
function stepXXX({target, width, height}) {
target.style.width = width + 'px'
target.style.height = height + 'px'
...
}
Default Renderers only implements basic features. Create a new one if they don't fit your need. Here is a short example about creating a new custom Renderer Class, which is based on default Renderer Maplibre
:
import MaplibreRenderer from 'https://unpkg.com/mapclay/dist/renderers/maplibre.mjs'
export default class extends MaplibreRenderer {
// Override default steps in default class
get steps() {
return [...super.steps, this.customStep];
}
// Override method createView()
async customStep({target, customOption}) {
doSomething(target, customOption)
}
}
Then put the new Renderer into option use
:
use: https://path/to/custom-module-with-renderer.mjs
Since YAML is a superset of JSON , user can still write JSON in text content of element:
<pre>
{
"use": "Openlayers",
"center": "Tykyo",
"zoom": 8
}
</pre>
Since YAML docs are separated by ---
, you can render multiple maps at once in a single target element by multiple YAML docs.
# These are three valid YAML docs
use: Leaflet
---
use: Maplibre
---
use: Openlayers
Default Renderers use eval
options for custom scripts, it simply run eval(VALUE_OF_OPTION)
.
# Get methods in current Renderer
use: Openlayers
eval: console.log(Object.entries(this))
# Get View projection from ol.Map, it returns EPSG:3857 by default
use: Openlayers
eval: console.log(map.getView().getProjection().getCode())
Though YAML supports multi-lines string by symbol >
and |
, but indent really bothers.
To make it simpler, if YAML doc is parsed as string, it would be treated as value of eval
of last YAML doc.
So the following config...
# This YAML doc would be parsed as a JSON object
use: Leaflet
eval: |
console('This is the first YAML doc')
console('with multi-lines')
console('string of script')
---
# This YAML doc would be parsed as a JSON object
use: Openlayers
eval: console('This is the second YAML doc')
Equals to this... (;
at end of line matters):
# This YAML doc would be parsed as a JSON object
use: Leaflet
---
# This YAML doc would be parsed as String
console('This is the first YAML doc');
console('with multi-lines');
console('string of script');
---
# This YAML doc would be parsed as a JSON object
use: Maplibre
---
# This YAML doc would be parsed as String
console('This is the second YAML doc');
- Features
- Sync map cameras
- UI components for camera reset
- Management of layer group
- Show current Coordinates
- More aliases
- Supports PMTiles from Protomaps
- Style
- Crosshair at center of map
- Tests for a variety of options