Quick Launch
Quickly build and deploy a map in any environment
What does this solution do?
Mapbox Quick Launch rapidly creates a mission-ready situational awareness dashboard. Once deployed, it enables users to connect to their internal data sources, collaboratively annotate the map, and share knowledge with their stakeholders.
Quick Launch works out of the box in both online and offline environments and can be customized to fit any use case. This allows teams to quickly add and update the data necessary to inform operations and the public, without requiring the dedicated resources to build and maintain a complex situational awareness application.
Whether it is the military conducting operations abroad, first responders assisting in a natural disaster, or departments of transportation informing the public about road conditions, Quick Launch lets teams with tight resources and urgent missions understand where things are happening right now and make decisions, distribute resources and information accordingly.
Using Quick Launch
There are three phases of use: configuration, development, and deployment. All are handled with single commands from your terminal. Development is optional if you want to use the application straight out of the box.
Configuration starts with a single command: npm run config.
After this configuration process, you run a single command, npm start, to create the development environment. Development is entirely optional, Quick Launch will work out of the box.
The third phase, deployment, is started by running the final command npm run deploy. This will build the final application and prepare it to be used in production. Once deployed, you can drag-and-drop existing data and create your own data by drawing directly onto the map. Quick Launch works with both Mapbox.com and Mapbox Atlas. Users now have the ability to visualize and interact with data everywhere they need to be.
Solution Details
Quick Launch consists of three phases:
- Configuration: Asks about the purpose of the application.
- Development: An optional phase allowing changes to the application.
- Deployment: Compile the application for production.
Configuration phase
The process begins when you clone or download the solution from GitHub. After installing dependencies you run the configuration script, which prompts your to define some core aspects of the application:
- Name
- Use-case
- Style-related options (favicon, image) [Optional]
- Mapbox URL
- Mapbox token
- MongoDB URL
- MongoDB collection
If you specified the default localhost MongoDB URL, then the configuration script will deploy a database container in the background to manage application state and storage. If you do not specify localhost, the configuration script will assume that you have MongoDB running in a another environment and you will need to provide the corresponding URL.
Once configuration is complete, the solution is ready for development and testing.
Development phase (Optional)
The application can be updated and tested as needed. This includes adding additional data sources, custom map styles, and other custom integrations necessary for production.
Deployment phase
Once you have finished development and testing, running npm run deploy will compile the application and start up the necessary server infrastructure to view your application locally and over a shared network.
Technical Information
What you’ll need:
- Current Mapbox account and valid token: You will need a public token to access Mapbox API services. If you are running Atlas, you will need the public access token for your Atlas installation and not your Mapbox.com token. For a trial of Atlas, please contact Sales.
- Docker: If you would like to use the development MongoDB, you will need to have Docker installed.
- MongoDB: The configuration phase will create a MongoDB for your use, but for production, we recommend installing MongoDB externally.
- Node and npm: You will need to have Node v8.15+ installed.
Usage considerations
You will be consuming services from Mapbox and are responsible for that usage and any associated costs.
- Mapbox usage
This solution consumes Mapbox Vector Tiles. The first 50,000 map loads using the Vector Tiles API requests are free of charge. For more pricing details, consult the Mapbox pricing documentation. Atlas is licensed separately, contact sales for an Atlas trial.
- MongoDB
The version of MongoDB used in the Docker container is MongoDB Community edition. This edition is free to use and its features are documented on the MongoDB website.
