Fulcrum supports map layers in the standard Web Mercator projection on both the web and mobile platforms. This allows you to include custom external basemaps and GIS overlays from a variety of sources.

See our entire collection of Maps & Layers articles

Most web maps are made up of many small, square images called tiles. These tiles are typically 256×256 pixels and are placed side-by-side in order to create the illusion of a very large seamless image.

On the Side Navigation, click on 'Setup' to display the available options. There under the 'APP SETUP' section, click 'Map Layers'. To add a layer, select layers from the navigation pane/sidebar on the left side of the Fulcrum web app.

Once you are on the Map Layers page, click the + New Map Layer button, located on the top right corner of the screen.

Give your layer a name, adjust the permissions to ensure appropriate access to the layer within your organization, and fill in the information (more below on each type).

There are several different tiling schemes, but among the most popular is the standard XYZ tile scheme. Tile images are served through a REST API with a URL where Z is the zoom level, and X and Y identify the tile coordinate location.

The URL pattern style for an XYZ layer looks something like this:

WMS layers point to a base server URL that contains the live layer data.

In Fulcrum, specify the base URL, specific layers, and any required URL parameters that the layer requires.

With the GeoJSON format, you can either use a URL to point to the hosted GeoJSON file or paste the raw data directly into the URL or GeoJSON field.

Fulcrum uses a built-in uploader right inside the web app to add your custom layers to your account. Layers can be exported to MBTiles format and then uploaded to be used on the both the mobile and web apps.

With Fulcrum, creating a layer from the records in one of your apps is very useful and easy to set up. This can be helpful if you want to examine the data from separate apps on a single map in Fulcrum.

The Fulcrum App layer will not be editable, but it will contain the latest collected data. This could also be used to allow users to see the location of records contained in apps they do not have permission to. This will allow them to see the latest data but not be able to edit it.

The mobile apps currently support layers in the following formats: ArcGIS Feature Service, MBTiles, Tile XYZ, GeoJSON and WMS sources.

MBTiles can be directly uploaded to the mobile devices (Android, iOS) or synced down to the devices by first uploading the layer to the web app. These layers can be used in an offline or online environment on the mobile apps.

Tile XYZ and GeoJSON layers can be set up on the web app and then synced down to the mobile apps. These layers can only be used in an online environment.

To learn how to connect to ArcGIS Feature Service on both mobile apps and in the web app, please check out Connecting an ArcGIS Feature Service.

In the web it is possible to use the Title property of a WMS as a valid name of the WMS layer, but the native iOS and Android applications require the Name property of the service.

As an example we will use this USA Pop Density map layer that wasn't working on iOS and Android.

This is the current layer configuration in Fulcrum:

The name of the layer in this case is NLCD_2016_Land_Cover_L48.

To find the correct Name attribute to use, access the Base Server URL and add the parameters service=wms and request=GetCapabilities to access the XML data.

https://www.mrlc.gov/geoserver/NLCD_Land_Cover/wms?SERVICE=WMS&REQUEST=GetCapabilities

Find the desired layer within the page. Notice the Title attribute is NLCD_2016_Land_Cover_L48.

The Name property is different: mrlc_display:NLCD_2016_Land_Cover_L48

Use this Name property to access the correct Layers to display.

The layer is now displayed correctly:

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