See the data before you load it

Before you put a dataset in a map, you should be able to see it. This release makes sure you always can.

The data, not a placeholder. If a dataset doesn't have its thumbnail yet, its page now draws the data itself, live from the publisher, on a map you can pan and zoom. When you press Open in map, the map you use to choose your area shows the dataset too, so you can see where the data is before you load it.

Thousands more pictures. OrionGIS now reads the formats many publishers use for large data: PMTiles, including the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team's country exports of roads, buildings, health facilities and more on HDX, plus zipped GeoJSON, GeoParquet and OGC API Features. Each is drawn from the data itself. When a publisher ships its own picture of a dataset, we use that.

Exact areas. Many records say nothing about where their data is. The index now asks the publisher's own service, whose extent is exact, before working out an approximate area from place names.

Never an empty map. A thumbnail that shows only the basemap tells you nothing, so we don't show one. A dataset whose data can't be drawn yet keeps Preview coming on its card until it can.