The goal of the property view is twofold:
- Provide a space for user to apply changes to layers in a systematic way, informed by values used by other layers
- Provide a schematic view that helps users understand their style better.
Great idea!!!
We could super-charge the way we display selected layer values together by adding a shared graph, and add ways for users to make bulk selections ('select all layers that use source X' or 'select all layers that have 'motorway_' in the name').
Most users we interviewed mentioned that they wished they had constants and color transforms. "When I set my water color, I want my water labels to update too" was a common bit of feedback.
The amount of UI apparatus required on top of these features is pretty intense and I don't think we should try again.
Instead, we should try to identify the problems constants and transforms solved (maintaining color relationships and maintaining road width + road casing relationships) and look for ways of solving these problems that are more intuitive.
For me, constants were great for preserving relationships between layers, so that a property change would automatically propagate to all related properties elsewhere in the style.
- Peter
How can Styleguide generator function as a relationship outline for the map style. Could that become a format for styling a map? Updating a generic style layout with the tool and translate into a map style based on those new design decisions?
We could add right toolbar items for sprites and fonts. This has downsides of it's own. Maybe simply advertising drag and drop more would help here.
Is this a thing?
We should think of a way to help users easily change colors of the entire style, without opening the layer edit panel.