How to share and access my map

Your map is Private by default

• When you click BUILD in the Mapping Sheets add-on, it creates a .json file in the xsMapping folder in your Google Drive with your data and settings, ready for mapping using the Mapping web app

• The name of that .json file is based on the spreadsheet and sheet names for easy recognition as follows:
  spreadsheet-name-sheet-name.sheet-id.json

• By default, your map is private (only you, the owner, can access it)

• If you open the Google Drive Share dialog, it will look as the screenshot

Share your map with other specific people 

• Add the Google accounts of the persons you want to share your map

• Then select access as Viewer

• In the notification message include the map link you copied before, for them to open it

• Click Send

• The Google Drive Share dialog will look as the screenshot

In this case the shared map users will be asked to Sign in with their Google account to access and also on the first time to select the file from the Picker dialog to authorize access

Share your map  within your Organization (domain)

• This option is available if you are part of a Google Workspace domain

• The Google Drive Share dialog will look as the screenshot

In this case see note about how the Picker can discover and show the shared map file 

Share your map for public access without using a Google account

• On General access select Any with the link can view

• Then select access as Viewer

• Click Done

• The Google Drive Share dialog will look as the screenshot

In this case you also have to publish your map in Google Cloud Storage, as explained in this post

When a user opens a restricted map

• For a restricted map, the Mapping web app will ask the user to "Sign in with Google to Access", regardless if the user is the map's owner or a shared map user

• If you want to avoid clicking that button every time you open a map, you can click on the Pop-ups icon in the address bar (circled in the first screenshot) 

  • Then select "Always allow pop-ups and redirects from https://mapping.thexs.app/". That way it will process the Sign in as if you had clicked that button

• If you are using multiple Google accounts in the same browser session, you will always have to first choose the intended account, before continuing into the Sign in workflow

p.s. you can access the pop-ups setting in Chrome browser using the following link
chrome://settings/content/siteDetails?site=https://mapping.thexs.app:443

On the first time a user opens the Mapping web app

• Google will ask the user to authorize the app to "See, edit, create and delete only the specific Google Drive files that you use with this app"

• The Mapping app only needs the **See** part just to load the map file into a custom Google Map

• Click Continue to proceed loading the map file

p.s. (/dev) The Mapping app uses the following 'Recommended Non-sensitive' scope:
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.file
"Create new Drive files, or modify existing files, that you open with an app or that the user shares with an app while using the Google Picker API or the app's file picker."

If the user is the owner of this restricted map

• As the owner has already authorized access to its own map file

• Then the Mapping app will continue loading and then showing the map in the browser

If it is a shared map user accessing this restricted map

• The map will first fail to load showing a "Warning: Problem loading the map data file" message

• But immediately after that, it will show a dialog to select and authorize access to this map

• That dialog is based on the Google File Picker, see below for more details

(†) The first time using the Google File Picker it will ask you to allow embedded content (If all cookies are disabled)

• Since March 2024 Google started asking to allow "necessary cookies" to access embedded content
  Tip: Some Google embeds apps require third-party cookie access to work properly and will prompt you to grant cookie access to google.com.

• When you click "Allow cookies" in the large dialog (see screenshots) 

• It will then open a small dialog, just click the "Allow" button

• And immediately it will show the Google Fie Picker dialog, see "Using the Google File Picker..." below

• p.s. On Mar.15 2024 Google, as a temporary measure reverted this change, but no further updates yet

Disclaimer: Our Mapping solution does not create or directly use any kind of cookies.

More information from Google

• Allow cookie access for google.com embeds

• About embedded content from Google

• About third-party cookie deprecation

• See Third-party cookies in Chrome browser > Allow or Block and Allowed sites
  chrome://settings/cookies

• See Embedded content in Chrome browser > Allowed to use info they've saved about you
  chrome://settings/content/storageAccess

Using the Google File Picker to authorize access to this restricted map

• The Google File Picker is like the Search dialog in Google Drive

• The title suggests "Click on the map's file name shared with you, then 'Select' to authorize access"

• The Search section would show the map file name that is included in the map's URL (screenshot)

• First click the map file name to enable the Select button

• Then click Select to actually authorize access to that map file

• After a successful authorization, the Mapping app will reload the browser page

• And from there on, the map loading will be similar to that for the map's owner

Exception: it's a shared map user but the Picker doesn't show anything

• When the user opens a valid shared map URL from the owner

• The map will first fail to load showing a "Warning: Problem loading the map data file" message

• But the Picker dialog only shows a "No items matched your search" message

• Technically, the user has access to the map file, but the Picker is not aware of that

• This would happen when the owner has shared the map in an indirect way, as the following 

  • Share the map with the domain where this user belongs

  • Share the map with a group that this user is a member of

  • Share the (xsMapping) folder where the map is located with this user (testing, OK)

  • Share the map to "anyone with the link can view" (public)

• The shared map user can fix this situation as follows

  • Click Cancel to close the Picker dialog

  • Click the "map data file" link in the Warning message

    • That would open the map file in the browser, then close that tab

  • Finally, just reload the map and the Picker would show the map file name as expected

When anyone opens a public & published map

• As the map was published on the Google Cloud Storage there is no need to Sign in with Google

• The map could be either embedded in a website or available by a link

• Either way the Mapping app will load and show the map in the browser