Frequently asked questions

vectorstream is a geometry editor for web maps. Areas, lines and points are drawn and edited on a Leaflet, OpenLayers or MapLibre GL map, and where two areas meet, vectorstream stores their border once, so an edit on one side is an edit on both. Shapes go in and out as GeoJSON.

vectorstream is built as libraries: an editing core, an editor with the drawing tools, and one adapter each for Leaflet, OpenLayers and MapLibre GL. The playground on this site runs a complete editor application on top of these libraries, with documents, a layer tree and a GeoJSON panel.

vectorstream can be tried today in the playground on this site. vectorstream is in pre-release: no package has been published, and no price for Pro has been announced.

vectorstream is for teams that build web map applications in which people draw and correct areas that border each other, such as parcels, zones, districts or forest stands. Developers add vectorstream to a map their application already shows, and the people using that application draw and edit on it.

A drawing-only editor stores every shape on its own, so two neighbouring areas each keep a separate copy of their shared border, and moving one copy opens a gap or an overlap. vectorstream stores that border once and lets both areas use it, which keeps neighbours flush through every edit and every undo.

Topology means that vectorstream records which shapes touch: every corner and every border is stored once, and each area knows the borders around it. Moving a shared corner therefore reshapes every area that meets there, and vectorstream rejects an edit that would make two borders cross.

vectorstream stores the border between two neighbouring areas as one shared edge. Dragging a corner or an edge of that border changes both areas in the same step, so no gap or overlap can open between them.

vectorstream stores a corner once, however many areas meet there. Dragging a corner where three areas meet reshapes all three in one step, and a single undo puts all three back.

Undo in vectorstream restores the previous state exactly, including every neighbouring shape that an edit touched. The automated tests of vectorstream compare the whole model after each undo with the state before the edit, and redo is checked the same way.

While you draw or edit, a new corner in vectorstream snaps onto nearby corners and edges, so neighbouring shapes meet exactly. The magnet button in the toolbar of the vectorstream editor switches snapping off, and holding Alt lifts it for a moment.

Yes. The straighten tool of vectorstream (key G) squares up corners that are nearly right angles and removes small jitter along the edges. Walls that two shapes share stay shared while they are straightened.

The cut tool of vectorstream (key S) removes a drawn shape from every area it covers, and the difference tool (key D) removes it only from the selected areas. Both cut from the outside in: the drawn shape has to reach across the outer edge of the areas, and vectorstream rejects a cut that would leave a piece in the middle of an area, with a message that says so.

Yes. The union tool of vectorstream (key U) merges neighbouring areas that share at least one edge, and the split tool (key X) divides an area along a straight line between two of its corners. Areas that touch only at a single corner cannot be merged, and each merge or split is one step that a single undo takes back.

Each layer in vectorstream holds its own set of shapes with its own shared borders, so shapes on different layers do not share borders with each other. Layers can be added, renamed, hidden, locked and reordered, and a locked layer stays visible as a reference that no tool changes.

vectorstream draws polygons, rectangles, circles, lines, points, markers, text labels and freehand shapes, and it has triangle and star stamps. Further tools select, move, rotate and scale areas and points, copy and simplify areas, and a lasso selects several areas at once.

vectorstream has adapters for Leaflet, OpenLayers and MapLibre GL, and all three run the same editing core, so the tools behave alike on each.

Yes. The drawing tools, the topology and the undo history of vectorstream live in one core that does not depend on the map library. Each adapter only draws the result and passes pointer input back, and the same conformance tests run against every adapter.

Yes. vectorstream keeps shapes in its own model rather than in the map library, so moving an application to another supported library means swapping the adapter, not redrawing the data. In the playground, the library buttons reload the vectorstream editor on another library and the saved documents stay available.

vectorstream attaches to a map that your application already creates with Leaflet, OpenLayers or MapLibre GL: the adapter takes that map object as its input. The base map, its tiles and its style stay yours to choose; the vectorstream playground uses OpenStreetMap tiles.

Yes. GeoJSON imported into vectorstream goes through a geometry check before it can be edited. A file with crossing edges or other broken geometry is refused with a message, and vectorstream creates no document from it.

vectorstream exports a document as one GeoJSON FeatureCollection: areas become Polygon features, lines become LineString features and points become Point features, with their attributes as properties. Each feature also carries the id and the name of its layer, so importing the file into vectorstream again restores the layers.

GeoJSON cannot store a shared border, so vectorstream writes each area as a complete polygon. A border shared by two areas appears in both polygons with identical coordinates, and importing the file into vectorstream joins them into one shared border again.

The core of vectorstream treats coordinates as plain x and y values and assumes no reference system. The vectorstream editor in the playground uses longitude as x and latitude as y, the order GeoJSON uses, and the adapters convert to the projection of the map view only for display. Heights in an imported file are dropped, and the import says so.

In the browser only. The vectorstream editor saves each document in IndexedDB on your device while you work and sends nothing to a server. Clearing the site data of the page removes the documents, so export a GeoJSON file for any drawing you want to keep.

Yes. The vectorstream editor keeps several documents, each saved automatically in the browser, and its Document panel opens, renames, deletes, imports and exports them. For each document, the previous saved version can be restored.

vectorstream checks every edit before it is kept. An edit that would make edges cross or break a shared border is rejected, the shapes stay as they were, and vectorstream reports the rejection instead of saving a broken state.

Yes. The playground page loads the actual vectorstream editor application, not a recording or a mock-up. vectorstream is in pre-release, so its interface may still change.

The labels of the vectorstream editor are German for now, and an English interface has not been released yet. The single-key shortcuts work in any language, for example P for the polygon tool and A for the edit tool.

Partly. Every tool of the vectorstream editor has a single-key shortcut, Ctrl+Z or Cmd+Z undoes a step, Ctrl+Shift+Z or Cmd+Shift+Z redoes it, and Escape cancels a shape that is being drawn. Placing corners on the map still needs a mouse, a pen or a touchpad.

The vectorstream editor is not laid out for phones yet, and the playground page shows a note about this on small screens. A desktop or laptop screen works best.

Not fully. vectorstream edits and saves in the browser without a server, but the page has to be loaded from the network and the map background is drawn from OpenStreetMap tiles, so a connection is needed to see the map.

The vectorstream playground keeps your documents in IndexedDB and remembers the last opened document and the chosen map library in the local storage of the browser. All of it stays on your device.

To start fresh in the vectorstream editor, create an empty document with the Neu button in the Document panel, or delete a document with the Löschen button after confirming. Clearing the site data of the page removes all saved documents, and vectorstream then opens with its example document again.

The free packages of vectorstream cost nothing, because they are under the MIT license. Pro is priced on request, and no price has been decided.

Yes. The free packages of vectorstream are under the MIT license and hold all tools, the topology, GeoJSON and image export, the three map adapters, the toolbar, five languages and two kinds of rule between layers, without a license key.

vectorstream Pro adds ten more kinds of rule between layers, attribute conditions, rules measured in meters, the red preview, the list of violations, snapping onto the target layers, the incremental check and the circle as a cutting shape. Pro plugs into the free editor, and its license check makes no network call.

No date has been set. vectorstream is in pre-release, and the pricing page shows no amount for Pro until a price is decided.

The free packages of vectorstream will be released under the MIT license. Pro is a separate package with a proprietary license agreement of its own, which is a draft and has not been published.

vectorstream has no order form yet. The Ask about Pro button on the pricing page opens a mail to the sales address, and the pricing page lists what has been decided so far.

vectorstream suits any field where areas border each other and have to stay flush, such as cadastre, urban planning, utilities, forestry, agriculture, public safety, energy, delivery zones and parking. The solutions pages describe the tasks and the workflow for each field.

No. Drawing in vectorstream works like a drawing program: click to place corners and drag to change them. Snapping keeps neighbours flush and an exact undo takes back any wrong step, so the tools do not assume GIS training.

No. vectorstream contains no parcels, zones, boundaries or other reference data. Your application brings the data as GeoJSON and the base map from its own tile source, and vectorstream is where the shapes are drawn and corrected.

Only the rules between layers that you define. The free editor knows the kinds within and overlap-free, and Pro adds ten more. vectorstream knows no law, permit or regulation: whether a zone meets one is decided by the people and the systems that work with the exported GeoJSON.

No. vectorstream is an editing component for web maps: it draws, edits, cuts, merges and splits shapes and keeps their borders consistent. Spatial analysis, map production and the record of the data stay in the GIS or the database that receives the GeoJSON.

Pre-release means that vectorstream works and can be tried in the playground, but nothing has been published yet: no package, no version and no price for Pro. The interface and the tools of vectorstream may still change before a release.

Not yet. vectorstream is in pre-release, and no package has been published so far.

No release date has been announced. Until a release, vectorstream can be tried in the playground on this site.

No newsletter, feed or other update channel for vectorstream has been announced yet. This website describes the current state of vectorstream, and its playground runs the current editor.