Skip to content

2-2. Key concepts

Before get into the details, it is worth knowing a few things about the Config Builder and how it fits into the wider Geospatial Explorer stack.

  • The Geospatial Explorer Configuration Builder ("CB") is an authoring tool for the JSON files that deterimine what a Geospatial Explorer ("GE") shows and does when deployed.
  • The JSON is complex. The CB exists to reduce the technical barrier for building GE configurations by hand.
  • The CB runs entirely in your browser. There is no backend, no login and no server-side storage of your work.
  • You "save" your configuration by exporting it to your local machine as a JSON file, and reload it later by importing that file back into the CB.
  • Configurations are shareable — email or Slack the exported JSON to a collaborator and they can load it into their own browser using the CB.
  • A run-time version of the GE is integrated into the CB on the GE Preview tab. Both released versions and interim development versions of the GE are available, so you can build configurations that target features not yet in a stable release.
  • The deployment of a completed configuration involves posting it to a location where it is picked up by a GE deployment. For APEx hosted GE instances, most GE instances read their configurations from a config.json file deployed in the https://github.com/ESA-APEx/apex_geospatial_explorer_configs/ repository.

No cloud storage

Because everything is browser-side, closing your browser tab loses your work unless you have exported it. Get into the habit of exporting after every meaningful change.