MapboxUtils (Docker)

This tool is an alternative to Mapbox Studio and lets you easily create or update vector tilesets on Mapbox from your CSV, SHP or GeoJSON files using command line. It can be especially handy if you need to:

periodically update some vector tileset (e.g. every day updates) using some script
fine tune zoom levels or other parameters of vector tiles
overcome Mapbox Studio upload limits

Under the hood the tool is using Mapbox Python API, ogr2ogr and tippecanoe utilites. Just pass your geofile, specify some parameters and you are done.

Installation

MapboxUtils is distributed as a Docker image so you need to have the Docker platform installed. You can get Docker here.

MapboxUtils is publicly available on Docker hub: https://hub.docker.com/r/clevermaps/mapbox-utils

Use the following command to get the image:

CODE

docker pull clevermaps/mapbox-utils:latest

Data requirements

Input file needs to be either in CSV, SHP or GeoJSON format
Geometry needs to be in WKT format in case of CSV format
Geometry needs to be in WGS84 coordinate system

MapboxUtils parameters

name	mandatory	example	description
inputfile	yes	CODE `--inputfile /workdir/countries_wkt.csv`	Path of the input CSV file with geometry
pkeycolumn	yes	`--pkeycolumn id`	Name of the primary key column
geomcolumn	yes in case of CSV format	`--geomcolumn wkt`	Name of the column with WKT geometry.
tilesetmapid	no	CODE `--tilesetmapid cleveranalytics.14j1fhp2`	Mapbox tilesetmapid. If not specified than random value is generated by Mapbox. Specify in case of updating an existing tileset.
tilesetname	no	CODE `--tilesetname countries_wkt-02ssft`	Mapbox tilesetname. If not than specified than tilesetname is generated as combination of input file name and random hash. Specify in case of updating an existing tileset or if you need your own tilesetname.
layername	no	CODE `--layername countries_wkt`	Mapbox layername. If not specified than same value as tilesetname is used. Specify in case of updating an existing tileset or if you need your own layername.
minzoom	no	CODE `--minzoom 5`	Minimal zoom of the tileset
maxzoom	no	CODE `--maxzoom 10`	Maximal zoom of the tileset. Maximal allowed zoom is 10.
mbtiles_params	no	CODE `--mbtiles_params "drop-fraction-as-needed extend-zooms-if-still-dropping"`	Parameters of MBTiles generation internally used by tippecanoe. Parameters can be found here https://github.com/mapbox/tippecanoe
mapboxtoken	yes	CODE `--mapboxtoken abcdefgah1234`	Your Mapbox account token. Token needs to have following priviliges: TILESETS:WRITE, TILESETS:READ, TILESETS:LIST, UPLOADS:READ, UPLOADS:WRITE. Check https://docs.mapbox.com/help/how-mapbox-works/access-tokens/ for more information.

Running MapboxUtils

Create a new tileset from CSV file

CODE

docker run -t -v /home/user/clevermaps/mapbox-utils:/workdir clevermaps/mapbox-utils:latest --inputfile /workdir/countries_wkt.csv --pkeycolumn id --geomcolumn wkt --minzoom 5 --maxzoom 10 --mapboxtoken abcdefgah1234

Create a new tileset from SHP file

CODE

docker run -t -v /home/user/clevermaps/mapbox-utils:/workdir clevermaps/mapbox-utils:latest --inputfile /workdir/countries.shp --pkeycolumn id --minzoom 5 --maxzoom 10 --mapboxtoken abcdefgah1234

Update existing tileset

CODE

docker run -t -v /home/user/clevermaps/mapbox-utils:/workdir clevermaps/mapbox-utils:latest --inputfile /workdir/countries_wkt.csv --pkeycolumn id --geomcolumn wkt --minzoom 5 --maxzoom 10   --mapboxtoken abcdefgah1234 --tilesetmapid cleveranalytics.14j1fhp2 --tilesetname countries_wkt-02ssft