Using Mapbox GL JS
Your gateway to Mapbox GL JS v3 in R is the mapboxgl()
function. Run the function with no arguments to get an interactive globe
using Mapbox’s Standard style:
To use Mapbox maps, you will need a Mapbox
access token. If you are a user of the mapboxapi package and have
installed your Mapbox access token, mapboxgl() will pick up
your token for you. If you are new to my R packages, you’ll want to get
a token from your Mapbox account, run
usethis::edit_r_environ(), and set the environment variable
MAPBOX_PUBLIC_TOKEN="your_token_here". It’s important for
you to know that Mapbox GL JS is a commercial product that charges you
for map views; however, it does have a generous free tier.
Mapbox’s default styles are accessible with the
mapbox_style() function, and can be passed to the
style parameter to change the style of your map. Mapbox GL
JS also supports modifying map projections; here we use
projection = "winkelTripel" for the Winkel Tripel global
projection.
mapboxgl(
style = mapbox_style("satellite"),
projection = "winkelTripel")To get a more local view in your map, you can use the
center, zoom, pitch, and
bearing arguments. In the example shown below, these
arguments are incorporated into a “fly to” animation.
mapgl supports several of these animated transitions.
In Mapbox GL JS v3, the new Standard style includes custom-rendered
buildings around the world, such as the American Airlines Center in
Dallas.
mapboxgl(
center = c(-97.6, 25.4)
) |>
fly_to(
center = c(-96.810481, 32.790869),
zoom = 18.4,
pitch = 75,
bearing = 136.8
)
Using Maplibre GL JS
Maplibre GL JS, a fork of the more permissively-licensed Mapbox GL JS
1.0, is also available to R users in mapgl. The core
function to initialize a MapLibre map is maplibre(). The
default tiles in maplibre() are CARTO’s Voyager tiles,
which are usable without an API key.
MapTiler tiles are also
available via the maptiler_style() function. These styles
work quite well with MapLibre, but do require an API key; set the
environment variable MAPTILER_API_KEY in your .Renviron
file to store your key. The example below uses the Bright MapTiler
style, and adds a fullscreen control and a navigation control to the
map.
These controls and styles are available with mapboxgl()
as well; mapgl aims to provide a consistent API to work
with either Mapbox or MapLibre.
maplibre(
style = maptiler_style("bright"),
center = c(-43.23412, -22.91370),
zoom = 14
) |>
add_fullscreen_control(position = "top-left") |>
add_navigation_control()Comparing map views
mapgl includes a function compare()
that allows users to create synced swipe maps that can compare two
styles. This function works for either Mapbox or MapLibre maps.
m1 <- mapboxgl()
m2 <- mapboxgl(mapbox_style("satellite-streets"))
compare(m1, m2)