Main Menu

Area borders and symbols

Borders and Symbols

  • Area borders can be best drawn using a line string. Polygons need to be well configured (line width, line color, fill color), if used at all.
  • The shapes and placemarks will be shown in the maps only after successful loading.
  • Once successfully loaded they will be stored by the app - hence will be available after restarts of the app.
  • After changing the online maps you have to explicitly reload them in the app in order to see the changes.
  • By unloading the shapes and placemarks they can be removed from the maps again.
  • The loading of many shapes and placemarks can potentially decrease the responsiveness of map representations by the app - hence you should use this feature with care.
  • The following elements are supported: Style, StyleMap, LineString, Point, Polygon, Placemark.

Alternative 1: Creating Google Maps Engine - My Maps URLs (recommended)

  1. Open https://mapsengine.google.com/map/
  2. Draw the overlays, e.g. as LineString representing the area border
  3. More information about Google Maps can be found at http://maps.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=23523 (ignore "classic Maps" content) 
  4. Export the URL with the button "Share" on top right. Set the access rights to allow "access for everyone having a link", as the app will load it without your user credentials.
  5. Copy the URL which is typically in the form of "https://drive.google.com/open?id=12345...", copy the ID behind the "id=" and append it behind "https://www.google.com/maps/d/kml?mid=", so that you get in this example "https://www.google.com/maps/d/kml?mid=12345...".
  6. To test the URL for correctness open it in a fresh browser window. A KML file with proper content should be downloaded. If the file is empty, your URL is either incorrect or you have no lines and/or placemarks in your map.
  7. Continue with the section below "Loading from URLs"

Alternative 2: Creating Google Earth KML files

  1. Best is to create the files with Google Earth. Google Maps though, can create KML files but they in turn only contain URLs and not the actual shape and placemark descriptions.
  2. More information about KML can be found at http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/kml_tut.html
  3. To validate KML files visit: http://www.kmlvalidator.com.
  4. For editing the KML files have to be changed outside the app and placed again on the device.
  5. Continue with the section below "Loading KML files"
Loading KML files - The files must be in the format '.kml', the compressed format '.kmz' is not supported.
  • iOS: Put the KML file via the 'Files' App into the directory 'On this iPhone' > 'iHunt Journal'
  • Android: Put them in your Dropbox in a directory 'iHunt Journal', then in the app use 'Map'/'Locations' > 'Area borders and symbols' > Menu: 'import from Dropbox'
Loading from URLs
  • Obtain the link like described above, send an e-mail to your device. 
  • Open the e-mail on the device, copy the URL string
  • Open the app, enter the  'Map'/'Locations' > 'Area borders and symbols' dialog, paste the URL in an appended new field.
To actually load the KML files or URLs as overlays on the map, open the dialog: 'Map'/'Locations' > 'Area borders and symbols' and press 'Load and save'.