Current Issues, FAQ and Feedback

There is a persistent and annoying old issue that happens when you are using (logged in or not) multiple Google accounts in the same browser session

When doing anything from the add-on sidebar, you would get one of the following error messages:

• "ScriptError: Authorization is required to perform that action"

• "Exception: You do not have access to perform that action. Please ask the owner of this item to grant access to you."

• "Exception: You do not have permissions to access the requested document."

This issue should disappear,

• If you log in with just the intended Google account, or

• If the intended Google account is the Default (the first one you logged in) among the others

Alternative, you can use multiple profiles/people, as described on this Google post

This way, each account will run in an isolated browser session, avoiding this and many other potential issues

p.s. This error is related to a very old issue at Google side (since Nov. 2017) as detailed in this post. You can star it to get some more attention from Google support.

If using the Basic Free Plan, you can only build a map with up to 50 locations, while with the Advanced Premium Plan you don't have that restriction (cap).

However, 

• It might take from a few clicks to a few days to build a large map (on the thousands), depending on the type of Google account you are using, due to daily Geocoding quotas

• Also, we have found some practical limits on the very many thousands of locations

See more details on this question, as well on how long it takes to BUILD a large map, on this post.

Our short answer: yes. The Mapping Sheets add-on is safe to use. You can trust this add-on.

• But that's not enough. As a user, you have to do your own research about the developer/organization behind any application and come to your own conclusions. 

• Trust in the Cloud is critical. It requires time and transparency. Learn more about us and what we do on this post and under our Privacy and Terms.

Among the many columns you can have in your datasheet, there are 3-key required columns that plays a special role in your map: Title, Filter, and Location.

• You would have to select those three column headers from the add-on sidebar as the first step to build your map

• After doing that you can click on BUILD and then on VIEW

See more details about these required columns and the roles they play on your map on this post.

Your map is a URL (link) in the browser with parameters passing your map data file ID and Name in your Google Drive, to our Mapping web app for loading

To share your map or in other words to give others access to your map URL and map file, just do as follows

• First, share the .json file for view access, with anyone you want to give access to your map. You can do this from the add-on sidebar > ⋮ menu > Share my map.

• Then, send them the full link (URL) to your map so they can open it.

See full details, procedure and background notes on this post

This feature is not yet publicly available, though it is already a working prototype as an extended custom feature (∗)

• This feature is only intended for high traffic public maps as an alternative to default hosting on Google Drive

• It would provide higher reliability and improved performance on loading the map

Please let us know if you are interested into be part of this project by submitting your feedback.
See more details and examples on this post.

p.s. You can also check this post about embedding your map in a web page

You can choose your own custom icons, colors and shapes, associated with each unique value of the column you select as Filter

• But also define alternative properties to your icons based in other column's values, from the add-on Preferences > Icons section

• You would also need to create a new sheet with the name Icons to further customize your marker icons

Learn more about how to customize your icons on this post

The add-on calls the Google Geocoding service from your Google account to convert your location addresses into map coordinates

• There is a daily quota limit on the number of calls to the Geocoding service that depends on the type of Google account you are using

• If/when you hit that quota limit you would get the following warning: "Service invoked too many times for one day: geocode." until it resets within 24 hours

Learn more about Geocoding Service quotas and what to do about it on this post.

This error happens when the Mapping web app is loading the .json data file from Google Drive. The cause could be among the following

• You don't have access to that file (ask the map owner to share it with you for view access)

• You are using multiple Google accounts in the browser and the default account account doesn't have access to that file (switch to the account with access)

• There might be something in your browser (computer or network) blocking the Mapping app from accessing that file (check the browser error console for details)

Please read this post for more details on how to solve this issue.

If you have the full address split across several columns, you can combine them into a Location template using those column's headers as {{placeholder}}, 

• You can even add some static content if required

• For example: {{Address1}}, {{City}}, {{Postcode}}, Canada

See full details and procedure on this post.

If you already have a set of numeric map coordinates (Latitude and Longitude) for some or all your data

• You just need to have those numeric coordinates under a pair or columns with names Latitude and Longitude

• Those coordinates must be valid numbers: Latitude between -90 and 90 (excluded) and Longitude between -180 and 180 (included)

See full details and procedure on this post.

After you BUILD the first map in your datasheet, you would be able to set a time-based trigger (under Preferences > Document)

• That will do an Unattended BUILD to update your map, if the spreadsheet file has changed since the last BUILD

See full details and procedure on this post.

By default, the Infowindow shows all the datasheet headers and data in a tabular format, with the Title column values as a header and dimensions as 250*300 pixels

Under Preferences > Infowindow you can customize several options as follows

• Dimensions width and height, as well as locking height or let it be flexible to fit the content

• Select the headers to show and their order in the standard tabular format

• Define a full custom markdown template content with data placeholders

You can use Markdown as a simplified markup language when creating the templates for a rich content format in your Infowindow and Listing

• Those rich text templates can be defined and tested under Preferences for both Infowindow and Listing

See more details and examples on this post.

This feature is not yet publicly available, though it is already a working prototype as an extended custom feature (∗)

• When enabled it would show a drawing toolbar at the top/center of the map

• That would allow for drawing shapes (like circle, rectangle, polygon or even a freehand contour) on the map 

• With options to filter locations within, edit, drag, download / upload and others

Please let us know if you are interested into be part of this project by submitting your feedback.
See more details and examples on this post.

This feature is not yet publicly available, though it is already a working prototype as an extended custom feature (∗)

• The content of each icon label would come from your datasheet values under a selected header or template

• Other options could be the position related to the icon and the label style (available css properties)

Please let us know if you are interested into be part of this project by submitting your feedback.
See more details and examples on this post.

The custom layers will add context, relevance and insights into your own data, in a way of enriching your mapping experience.

So far custom layers include Circles, Heatmap, GeoJSON, KML, Shapes, Buffers, WMS, WMTS and some more coming

• Find how to set these custom layers under the add-on Preferences > Layers with several sections like Basic, Advanced, Extended and Extras

• Learn more about each of these custom layers on this page

[FIXED-OLD] Issue: "Warning: Problem loading the map data file" 

We were hit by an issue reported on Jan.08 2024 by some users getting the above warning when loading a map

• It was most likely caused by an update from Google that blocked the browser to access your map file in Google Drive in the way it used to work before

• Between Jan.15 and Jan.22 we fixed this issue (no users should be affected anymore) by updating the Mapping app code in the  following three affected scenarios:

  1. Restricted maps accessed only by the owner, as explained under UPDATES (1) below

  2. Restricted maps (shared with specified users) when opened by the shared users, as explained under UPDATES (2) below

  3. Public maps (shared for view to anyone with the link) for access without using a Google account, as explained under UPDATES (3) below

• There might be some public maps embedded in a website still using the older URL (link) that needs to follow the suggestions as explained under UPDATES (3) below

UPDATES: 

1. The VIEW blue button in the add-on sidebar is now working as expected for the map's owner by using Google Drive API for access. It will ask you to "Sign in with Google to Access"

2. The shared users require using the Google File Picker to select and authorize access to the shared map file when first loading the map

3. If your map is already public "shared for view to anyone with the link" and you want it to be accessed without using a Google account, you have to publish your map in Google Cloud Storage as an alternative to Google Drive, as explained in this post
   https://www.thexs.ca/posts/how-to-publish-your-public-map-on-google-cloud-storage

4. Just for background technical reference there is a Support ticket on the Google Issue Tracker "403-Forbidden access error when accessing a json file in Google Drive from a web app" asking Google for help on this issue.

(†) Disclaimer: You might get a similar Warning message for other different reasons, like the following (quick suggestions between parentheses)

• You have no access to the map (contact the owner of the map that shared the link with you)

• The map is published, either embedded or by a link, in a website but the map's URL has not yet been updated with the new link (contact the website's owner or us)

p.s. We are still updating all the documentation related with the changes we have made to avoid being affected by this issue from Google.