Your first map in ten minutes

This walkthrough takes you through the whole Spatibase loop once, in about ten minutes: you create a project, put a few places on the map, give them the details you need, publish them and see the result a website or app would get. You don’t need to write code.

The example is a small store locator, but the same steps work for trails, events or anything else with a place on a map.

Before you start

You need a Spatibase account and a few addresses to put on the map. If you have not signed in yet, open app.spatibase.com/signup, enter your email address and click Send me a sign-in link. The link in the email signs you in and creates your account. See Create a project for details.

Tip: In a hurry? Choose the Store locator template in step 1 instead of an Empty project. It sets up steps 2 and 3 for you with sample stores, and you can jump to step 4.

Step 1: Create a project

A project is the home of one map and everything on it.

1. Click New project at the top of the side panel. The New project screen opens, with a map beside it.
2. Under Start with, choose Empty project.
3. Enter a Project name, for example “My stores”.
4. Click Create project.

The new project opens on Entries: the map on the right, and on the left an empty list that says Click the map to add your first place. A Getting started checklist is one click away at the bottom of the side panel; it ticks itself off as you complete the next steps.

Step 2: Add your first place

Each store is an entry. You don’t have to set anything up first: the project learns what a store looks like as you add them.

1. Find the store on the map (type its address into Find an address… on the map and pick the result to zoom there), then click the map at the store’s spot. The entry editor opens with a point where you clicked.
2. Replace “Untitled entry” with the store’s name, for example “Main Street”.
3. That’s it: the entry saves as a draft by itself while you type (Saved shows next to Ready to publish).

When this first entry is saved, Spatibase creates a type for it called “Place”. A type says what kind of thing an entry is and which details it has; for now, a place has a title and a location (a point, a line or an area).

Note: A draft is private. Saving never changes what visitors see, so you can save half-finished work at any time.

Step 3: Add the details you need

A store needs more than a name. Add fields to it right in the entry editor:

1. Below the fields, click Add field and choose Description. The field appears, and a short line says it was Added to every Place.
2. Click Add field again and choose Opening hours.
3. Fill in Description and Opening hours for “Main Street”.

Add field also offers Photos, Address, Website, Contact details, Date and time and Category, and Custom field… for anything else (give it a Name and pick its Kind). Every field you add is on all your places, so each new one has the same form.

Now add two or three more stores: click New above the list, choose Place, then click Place a point in the editor and click the map, or find the address. Each store shows on the map and in the list with the status Draft.

If you’d like the type to be called “Store” instead of “Place”, or want to change what the fields allow, open Content model: see Types and Elements. Only Owners can add fields and change the content model.

Step 4: Publish

Publishing copies your drafts to the live version that websites and apps can read. It has two steps: you say which entries are ready, then you publish them together.

1. Click Publish in the side panel. The dialog lists your drafts. Because none is marked ready yet, the main button reads Mark all ready and publish: click it. This marks every draft that passes the checks as ready and publishes them in one go.
2. Spatibase confirms “Published as version 1”. If some could not be published, for example because a required field is empty, a list shows each one with the reason. Fix them and publish again.

To mark one entry ready by itself, open it and click Ready to publish in the entry editor; it goes live with the next Publish. In the list, the Draft label disappears once the entry is published, and every publish is saved as a numbered version you can go back to (see Versions and going back).

Step 5: See your content through the API

Every project has an address, the Content Delivery API, that serves its published content to websites and apps.

1. Open API.
2. The Overview page shows the address under API address of this project. Click Copy API address to copy it for your website or app.
3. Open Endpoints in the side panel for ready-made links: all entries, map data (GeoJSON) for map libraries, groups and types.
4. Open Try it. Choose the Endpoint “Entries (JSON)” and click Send request. The result shows your published stores, each with its title, location and fields, exactly as an app would receive them.

New projects are public: anyone with the address can read the published entries, but never the drafts. After you publish, websites may take a few minutes to show the change.

That is the whole loop: model, add, publish, deliver. The Getting started checklist now shows every step done except the last, Create your first API key, which is ticked once you create a key under API > Access & keys. A public project like this one doesn’t need a key to be read, so create one when you want to give a website or app its own.

What to do next

• Add photos: open a store, click Add field, choose Photos and upload pictures. See Media.
• Bring in many places at once from a spreadsheet or a GeoJSON file. See Import.
• Make a hand-picked list such as “Featured stores”. See Groups.
• Invite your team. See Members and roles.
• Show the map on your website or in your app. Follow the Quickstart.
• Let an AI assistant help with the content. See Connect an AI assistant.

Related

• What is Spatibase?
• Entries
• Drafts and publishing
• Access and API keys