Help Reference

The Features Tab: Interactive Mapping

Interactive Mapping is a way for users of the e-WV Web site to overlay different geographical mappings on a map of West Virginia. Users can map counties, cities, rivers, battles, and many other historical and modern geographical items to suit their interest or researching needs. Interactive Mapping allows users to see how the state has changed through time with the use of timelines that have been associated with key geographical data. Using Interactive Mapping to its full functionality can help users see and experience the patterns and relationships between various resources and events throughout the history of the state.

Using Interactive Mapping

Once on the e-WV Web site, navigate to the Features tab; Interactive Mapping will be displayed as an option under the “Interactive Maps & Timelines” heading. Upon clicking this link, the user will be directed to the “Interactive Mapping” page. Underneath the “Interact with our WV Map” menu will be a detailed map of West Virginia. This map, although useful, is not interactive. The interactive maps are reached by choosing a category and map from the “Interact with our WV Map” menu.

The first step to finding an interactive map is to choose a category from the “Choose a Category” drop down menu. Categories can include things like battles, counties, transportation, or national parks. When a category has been chosen, the user can then choose a map by selecting one from the “Choose a Map” drop down menu. After choosing a map, the user can click the Filter button for the page to refresh and load the specified map.

Once the map is loaded the user has a few things they can do with it. First, the user can use the “Interactive Options” menu on the right side of the page to control what information is displayed on the map. Each item listed in the menu has a + next to it. By clicking the plus sign, the item will be “expanded” to show all the things on the map associated to it. For example, one item in the menu might be “Roads” and when the user clicks +, they will see things like I-79, Route 50, or Route 7 appear in the menu. Also, the user can select or deselect the checkboxes next to items listed in the menu; this will make the items selected appear on the map and the items deselected disappear.

Second, the user can click on an item on the map which will cause a popup to appear giving extra information to the user about the item they clicked on. In the popup the user will see the + located in the upper right corner. If the user clicks the +, the popup will refresh to show the user other items on the e-WV Web site that relate to the mapped item. To close the popup the user can either click elsewhere on the map or click the x in the upper right corner of the popup.

Third, the “Interactive Options” menu has an option that will allow users to pick another map on the site (from any category) to “overlay” on the map they currently have loaded. To overlay a map onto the current map the user can click the More Layers… option located at the top of the “Interactive Options” menu. This option will cause a popup to appear asking the user to choose a map layer from the “Available Map Layers” drop down menu. The user can click the Add button when they have chosen a map, and then the Interactive Map will refresh to show the first map and the new map layer together. A user can overlay as many map layers as they want to create the ideal map.

When applicable, a timeline indicator (like seen when using the Interactive Timeline feature) will appear for certain maps. This feature will allow users to load new views of the map’s contents without having to select them or overlay them. This can happen because map data is associated with dates in the system giving some maps the ability to “go through time.”

Try our example.