Share your map

When the map is ready for your team:

Open the settings menu in the map header.
Press Share.
Copy the link.
Send the link as you usually do, such as by email, in Teams, or on an intranet page.

When your team clicks the link, the map opens on your data, with your configuration. The User Guide tells your team what they can do next.

What the link includes

The link always includes the map’s name, its data source and its basemaps. So a shared map always opens with a basemap behind the data. The link also includes:

Map extent. The area that you left the map on.
Layer settings. Your choices for title, category, description, label, status and style, and any symbol that you set yourself.
Filters. The values that you filtered the layer to.
Active layer. The layer whose features fill the panel.

What a link leaves behind

Your set location: the link never includes it.
Bookmarks: each bookmark belongs to the person who made it. A person who opens your link sees no bookmarks from you, and their own bookmarks do not change.
Layers from files opened directly on a device: a link cannot point to their source, so the dialog lists each layer that the link leaves out. If your team needs that data, publish it to a cloud folder.
Unit preferences (metric or US): these belong to the device, so each person keeps their own.

Decide who can edit

Require sign-in to open decides whether recipients get the editing tools:

Not ticked. The link opens for anyone who has it, and the map is view-only. Recipients can browse, search, filter and download, but Groundwork does not show the editing tools.
Ticked. Each recipient signs in with Dropbox or Microsoft before the map opens. After sign-in, Groundwork shows the editing tools.

A demo link also shows the editing tools, but saves nothing. See other share choices.

The tick does not control access. It is part of the link, so you cannot use it to keep anyone out. Your data source controls access. A private Dropbox folder does not open for people who do not have access, and a public endpoint stays public, whatever the tick says. For a map from a cloud folder, the folder’s own sharing settings also apply. See public link or private folder.

Other share choices

Share as a demo map: tick it to show the editing tools to everyone who opens the link. Groundwork keeps each change on that person’s device only, and the change is gone when they reload. Your own map does not change.
Require a location to start: tick it if your map answers the question “what applies at this address?”. The link then opens on a dim map that asks for the person’s location before the panel and layers show. To skip the question, they can press Show the map anyway. So a device that does not share its location never stops anyone.
Travel by: choose how Nearby measures for the people who open the link: Automatic, walking, cycling, driving or straight line. To turn off routing for the link, choose None. A new link with a travel mode turns routing on again.

Check the link before you send it

Open the copied link in a private browsing window. Your usual browser cannot show you what the link does, because the map is already yours in that browser. There, you keep the editing tools whether or not Require sign-in to open is ticked, and you are already signed in. A private window shows the sign-in prompt or the view-only map exactly as a recipient sees it.

Send an updated link

When only the data changes, keep the link that you sent. Groundwork reads the source each time a map loads, so new and updated features show automatically.

When the configuration changes, such as different filters, a different start area or different field choices, configure the map again and send a new link. When the recipient opens it, Groundwork updates the map that they already have, so they still have one map.

If a link shows “This shared link uses an unsupported map format.”, send a new link from the same map. An update to Groundwork can change the format of links, and a link sent before such an update does not open.

Embed Groundwork in another page

Give the frame enough space for the map and the Data panel. When you scroll the page over an embedded map, the map does not zoom. To zoom, hold Ctrl while you scroll.

Embed a map only to view it. If your team must capture or change data, give them a full-page link. To edit a map from a cloud folder, a person must sign in. The sign-in takes the frame to Dropbox or Microsoft, and their sign-in pages can fail to open in a frame.

Next: Troubleshooting.

Configure the map Troubleshooting