Imported maps contain a vast amount of data that needs to be organized and presented in a way that is easily understood and suitable for its intended purpose. For example, you may want to create a map in which you can zoom smoothly from a small scale view to large scale view while displaying only information relevant to each particular zoom level. To do this, data sets need to be associated, displayed, changed, hidden, and so on. Additionally, you will want to use styling properties, such as color and transparency, to make the information easy to understand. JViews Maps uses layers and styling to achieve these goals.

Layers

JViews Maps defines a recursive hierarchy for map data. For example, you can define:

JViews Maps allows you to zoom from worldwide views down to a street level view using different data sets, but presenting a smooth transition to the end user.

Importing data into layers

Data is imported to populate layers as follows:

Styling

Styling enables you to change colors, transparency, and so on to enable the data to be better understood. You can define styles for all objects in a particular layer or layer tree.