How to create a CrowdNewsroom Atlas
The CrowdNewsroom Atlas is based on the classic CrowdNewsroom. The first step, therefore, is to create a CrowdNewsroom survey. You can learn how to build your own CrowdNewsroom here. Make sure that all the information you want to publish on the map is collected in the CrowdNewsroom.
Once you have created your CrowdNewsroom, follow these steps to enable the Atlas feature:
In your CrowdNewsroom, make sure you have added an Address field. You can find the Address in the Advanced field section.
Once you have added your Address field, navigate to the Response display section of the CrowdNewsroom. There, you can select Display responses publicly and then Enable map view of public responses.
Did you know? You can also add a Gallery display for your answers! Any CrowdNewsroom with an image-upload field can also display those images in a public gallery.
Next, choose in the Response display section how the Atlas should be configured:
The Visible repsonse buckets allows you to choose which responses are displayed on the map. Selecting Inbox will allow all responses to appear immediately after submission. If you select only Verified, you can filter and allow only selected responses to appear publicly.
The Response Title is shown at the top of the response on the map, and in the gallery mode (if enabled)
c. If you have an image field in your CrowdNewroom, you can select that field under Response image for the answer display.
The final step is to configure the Map settings. Go to Response display and then select Map settings.
Choose the Address field that you added to your CrowdNewsroom as the field used to plot responses on the map.
b. The Map Style URL will be provided to you by the beabee Support team.
Note: If this is your first time building an Atlas, please write to [email protected]. The CrowdNewsroom Atlas is not a default feature for all beabee users, and may need to be enabled for your instance.
c. The Map Center, Map Bounds, and Zoom Levels are coordinates you can set to configure where geographically the map should display. You can also restrict your map to specific countries using ISO codes.
Important: if you have set your Address field to hidden, you can still display portions of the address in the public responses. To do this, you will need to add a Text Field to your CrowdNewsroom. You can then select that field in the section Do you want to populate a field with the address?.
d. In the field below, titled What format would you like to use?, you can select which parts of the address should be displayed publicly. For example, {postal_code} would only display the postal code and hide the rest of the address. You can also use the | symbol, which means "or". For example, the following would display the postal code + municipality OR country OR region, if one is not available in the address field: {postal_code} {municipality|county|region}
Finally, you can assign icons and colors to specific answer types. Please note that this is only possible for CrowdNewsroom elements with predefined answer options (e.g., drop-down, radio). Under Select a question to display category incons on the map, select the CrowdNewsroom element on which the icons should be based. Under Label, you can then select icons and colors for the respective answer options.
Your map is now fully configured. You can either embed the map-URL into your website or display the map as a stand-alone page in the browser.
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