Learn how to build a map viewer application using React-Leaflet, an open-source library for creating interactive maps
What you'll learn
- Learn and understand React Leaflet
- Have a working React Leaflet application that is open for extension for personal/professional projects
- Have knowledge of useful tools for a geospatial web application development
- Be equipped with the confidence and knowledge to use online documentation to take your map app building skills to the next level
Requirements
- JavaScript + HTML + CSS fundamentals.
- A basic knowledge of React
- No prior Leaflet or geospatial experience is required!
Description
React Leaflet Version 3, the one that has been rewritten to use hooks, is used for this course. It is based on two widely used open-source Javascript libraries - React and Leaflet. Let’s set the scene with a brief introduction:- React - is the most popular JavaScript library you can learn to build modern, reactive user interfaces for the web. It has become so popular because it can be implemented on an individual component basis rather than having to update an entire web-application. This is a big advantage when it comes to modernizing entire web applications. Furthermore, React.js is built with performance as its core objective. Put simply, it stores Javascript objects in memory (without the heavy rendering step!) in a “Virtual DOM”. When the Virtual DOM is updated, a diffing algorithm identifies the most efficient way to update (i.e. re-render) the components to the actual visible DOM. React is developed and maintained by Meta (Facebook) and is here to stay.
- Leaflet - due to its simplicity, being open-source and designed with the specific intention of being easy to use, it is a very popular Javascript library for building mobile friendly interactive maps. Leaflet is trusted by Github, Facebook, Esty and Pintereset among others, and again, it is also here to stay!
- Leaflet can be integrated seamlessly into React applications;
- React third party Javascript libraries can be utilized within Leaflet components (see course contents below);
The course starts with introducing concepts for beginners and gradually progresses to some advanced topics. Each section will build on the last and by the end you’ll have a functional React Leaflet web application.
What's in this course?
- Creating a React application with create-react-app
- Setting up React Leaflet with create-react-app
- Initialising a React Leaflet map
- Configuring tile layers
- Where to find sample spatial data and tile servers
- Tools to generate your own sample spatial data for development purposes
- What is GeoJSON?
- React Leaflet hooks
- Filtering points within a radius
- Filtering point by clicking on a polygon
- How Leaflet looks in the DOM
- Adding markers
- Implementation of third party layers from plugins
- Marker clustering
- Centering the map to a clicked position
- Adding custom Icons (how to implement font-awesome icons on React Leaflet)
- Adding and customising popups
- Adding and customising tooltips
- How to customise React Leaflet popups with any React UI library
- Adding Polygon layers
- What is a layer in React Leaflet terms
- How to filter points based on Polygon clicks (using Turf.js)
- Adding a layer control
- Building your own custom controls
- Showing Geospatial information from a different Coordinate Reference System on React Leaflet map
- Asynchronous calls and updating React Leaflet components
Who this course is for:
- You are interested in map-based applications for professional or personal reasons
- Have a background in React and would like to learn how mapping applications work
- You are somewhat familiar with Leaflet and are considering a move to React Leaflet
