Author: David Cooley
Date: 2025-11-29

# mapdeck

#### David Cooley

#### 2025-11-29

    library(mapdeck)

# What is Mapdeck?

Mapdeck is a combination of Mapbox and Deck.gl

# Why did you build it?

Because Deck.gl is one of the most user-friendly WebGL javascript libraries and can produce some beautiful maps. And it integrates nicely with Mapbox.

# The basics

You need a Mapbox Access Token to load a map. Then call `mapdeck(token = token)` to give you a map

    key <- 'abc'    ## put your own token here
    mapdeck(token = key)

You can make your token available ‘globally’ to all `mapdeck()` calls by either

1. using `set_token()`, which sets the token as an `option`
2. having the token in your environment (e.g., using `Sys.setenv()` ) with the key one of “MAPBOX_TOKEN”,“MAPBOX_KEY”,“MAPBOX_API_TOKEN”, “MAPBOX_API_KEY”, “MAPBOX”, “MAPDECK”

Here’s an example using `set_token()`

    set_token('abc')
    mapdeck_tokens()
    #  Mapdeck tokens
    #   -  mapbox : abc

You can style the map using any mapbox style template styles, or you can create one of your own

    mapdeck(token = key, style = 'mapbox://styles/mapbox/dark-v9')

I’ve provided a convenience function to select one of the mapbox defined styles

    mapdeck_style(style = 'dark')

Once you have a map you can start adding layers through the various `add_*()` functions (there is an example of each one in this vignette).

All details about layers, colours, tips & tricks, etc, are here

- layers
- colours
- legends
- tips & tricks
- benchmarks
- issues