To understand the implications and uses of this feature, you'll fist need to understand what map tiles are. Briefly, web maps use a tile server to obtain map tiles for display.
A Map Tile is a small, square image that represents a portion of a map. Map Tiles are used in web-based mapping applications to display different levels of detail for a given geographic area. They are typically created by dividing a larger map into a grid of smaller tiles, with each tile representing a specific geographic area. These tiles can then be loaded and displayed in a web-based mapping application as needed, allow the user to zoom in and out and view different levels of detail for a given area.
This also allows users to view maps offline, without an internet connection.
The term "map rendering" refers to the creation of a visual map from raw geospatial data. Custom map tiles allow you to use different map tiles from various GIS (Geographic Information System) service providers that provide map tiles, allowing you to use maps better suited for your purposes than the default maps in our platform.
Our platform uses default mapping sources for iOS (Apple Maps), Android (Google Maps), and for Window and Web (Thunderforest).
Custom map tiles can be globally set on an organizational level on your Organization's Setup or individually when designing screens. The screen and fields which support this feature are:
- Mapping Screens
- Data Entry Forms
- Location Field
- Media Field (when you specify "Include GPS Information")
- Gallery Field Media (when you specify "include GPS Information")
Note: Tile loading times can be affected by poor device connectivity, the provider, or the types of tiles being used.