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  • CARTO Academy
  • Working with geospatial data
    • Geospatial data: the basics
      • What is location data?
      • Types of location data
      • Changing between types of geographical support
    • Optimizing your data for spatial analysis
    • Introduction to Spatial Indexes
      • Spatial Index support in CARTO
      • Create or enrich an index
      • Work with unique Spatial Index properties
      • Scaling common geoprocessing tasks with Spatial Indexes
      • Using Spatial Indexes for analysis
        • Calculating traffic accident rates
        • Which cell phone towers serve the most people?
    • The modern geospatial analysis stack
      • Spatial data management and analytics with CARTO QGIS Plugin
      • Using data from a REST API for real-time updates
  • Building interactive maps
    • Introduction to CARTO Builder
    • Data sources & map layers
    • Widgets & SQL Parameters
    • AI Agents
    • Data visualization
      • Build a dashboard with styled point locations
      • Style qualitative data using hex color codes
      • Create an animated visualization with time series
      • Visualize administrative regions by defined zoom levels
      • Build a dashboard to understand historic weather events
      • Customize your visualization with tailored-made basemaps
      • Visualize static geometries with attributes varying over time
      • Mapping the precipitation impact of Hurricane Milton with raster data
    • Data analysis
      • Filtering multiple data sources simultaneously with SQL Parameters
      • Generate a dynamic index based on user-defined weighted variables
      • Create a dashboard with user-defined analysis using SQL Parameters
      • Analyzing multiple drive-time catchment areas dynamically
      • Extract insights from your maps with AI Agents
    • Sharing and collaborating
      • Dynamically control your maps using URL parameters
      • Embedding maps in BI platforms
    • Solving geospatial use-cases
      • Build a store performance monitoring dashboard for retail stores in the USA
      • Analyzing Airbnb ratings in Los Angeles
      • Assessing the damages of La Palma Volcano
    • CARTO Map Gallery
  • Creating workflows
    • Introduction to CARTO Workflows
    • Step-by-step tutorials
      • Creating a composite score for fire risk
      • Spatial Scoring: Measuring merchant attractiveness and performance
      • Using crime data & spatial analysis to assess home insurance risk
      • Identify the best billboards and stores for a multi-channel product launch campaign
      • Estimate the population covered by LTE cells
      • A no-code approach to optimizing OOH advertising locations
      • Optimizing site selection for EV charging stations
      • How to optimize location planning for wind turbines
      • Calculate population living around top retail locations
      • Identifying customers potentially affected by an active fire in California
      • Finding stores in areas with weather risks
      • How to run scalable routing analysis the easy way
      • Geomarketing techniques for targeting sportswear consumers
      • How to use GenAI to optimize your spatial analysis
      • Analyzing origin and destination patterns
      • Understanding accident hotspots
      • Real-Time Flood Claims Analysis
      • Train a classification model to estimate customer churn
      • Space-time anomaly detection for real-time portfolio management
      • Identify buildings in areas with a deficit of cell network antennas
    • Workflow templates
      • Data Preparation
      • Data Enrichment
      • Spatial Indexes
      • Spatial Analysis
      • Generating new spatial data
      • Statistics
      • Retail and CPG
      • Telco
      • Insurance
      • Out Of Home Advertising
      • BigQuery ML
      • Snowflake ML
  • Advanced spatial analytics
    • Introduction to the Analytics Toolbox
    • Spatial Analytics for BigQuery
      • Step-by-step tutorials
        • How to create a composite score with your spatial data
        • Space-time hotspot analysis: Identifying traffic accident hotspots
        • Spacetime hotspot classification: Understanding collision patterns
        • Time series clustering: Identifying areas with similar traffic accident patterns
        • Detecting space-time anomalous regions to improve real estate portfolio management (quick start)
        • Detecting space-time anomalous regions to improve real estate portfolio management
        • Computing the spatial autocorrelation of POIs locations in Berlin
        • Identifying amenity hotspots in Stockholm
        • Applying GWR to understand Airbnb listings prices
        • Analyzing signal coverage with line-of-sight calculation and path loss estimation
        • Generating trade areas based on drive/walk-time isolines
        • Geocoding your address data
        • Find similar locations based on their trade areas
        • Calculating market penetration in CPG with merchant universe matching
        • Measuring merchant attractiveness and performance in CPG with spatial scores
        • Segmenting CPG merchants using trade areas characteristics
        • Store cannibalization: quantifying the effect of opening new stores on your existing network
        • Find Twin Areas of top-performing stores
        • Opening a new Pizza Hut location in Honolulu
        • An H3 grid of Starbucks locations and simple cannibalization analysis
        • Data enrichment using the Data Observatory
        • New police stations based on Chicago crime location clusters
        • Interpolating elevation along a road using kriging
        • Analyzing weather stations coverage using a Voronoi diagram
        • A NYC subway connection graph using Delaunay triangulation
        • Computing US airport connections and route interpolations
        • Identifying earthquake-prone areas in the state of California
        • Bikeshare stations within a San Francisco buffer
        • Census areas in the UK within tiles of multiple resolutions
        • Creating simple tilesets
        • Creating spatial index tilesets
        • Creating aggregation tilesets
        • Using raster and vector data to calculate total rooftop PV potential in the US
        • Using the routing module
      • About Analytics Toolbox regions
    • Spatial Analytics for Snowflake
      • Step-by-step tutorials
        • How to create a composite score with your spatial data
        • Space-time hotspot analysis: Identifying traffic accident hotspots
        • Computing the spatial autocorrelation of POIs locations in Berlin
        • Identifying amenity hotspots in Stockholm
        • Applying GWR to understand Airbnb listings prices
        • Opening a new Pizza Hut location in Honolulu
        • Generating trade areas based on drive/walk-time isolines
        • Geocoding your address data
        • Creating spatial index tilesets
        • A Quadkey grid of stores locations and simple cannibalization analysis
        • Minkowski distance to perform cannibalization analysis
        • Computing US airport connections and route interpolations
        • New supplier offices based on store locations clusters
        • Analyzing store location coverage using a Voronoi diagram
        • Enrichment of catchment areas for store characterization
        • Data enrichment using the Data Observatory
    • Spatial Analytics for Redshift
      • Step-by-step tutorials
        • Generating trade areas based on drive/walk-time isolines
        • Geocoding your address data
        • Creating spatial index tilesets
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On this page
  • What is CARTO Builder
  • CARTO Builder UI Elements
  • 1. Data sources
  • 2. SQL Editor
  • 3. Layers
  • 4. Widgets
  • 5. Interactions
  • 6. Legend
  • 7. Basemap
  • 8. Map view
  • 9. Search locations
  • 10. Select features
  • 11. Measure distances
  • 12. SQL Parameters
  • 13. Data export
  • 14. Map Description
  • 15. Share and collaborate
  • 16. Map settings

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  1. Building interactive maps

Introduction to CARTO Builder

Last updated 10 months ago

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What is CARTO Builder

Builder is a web-based mapping tool designed for creating interactive maps and visualizations directly from your cloud data warehouse. It offers powerful map making capabilities, interactive data visualizations, collaboration and publication options - all seamlessly integrated with your data warehouse for a streamlined experience.

CARTO Builder UI Elements

This diagram provides a quick look of the Builder interface so you know your way around before getting started.

1. Data sources

The data sources section allows you to add new sources to Builder, access each source options as well as enabling features at source level.

2. SQL Editor

3. Layers

4. Widgets

Each widget is linked to a specific data source. After configuration, they are displayed in the right panel of the interface. As an Editor, you have the flexibility to define the behavior of these widgets: they can be set to update based on the current viewport, providing localized insights, or configured to reflect global statistics, representing the entire data source.

5. Interactions

Enable interactions in Builder to reveal attribute values of your source, allowing users to gain insights by clicking or hovering over map features.

As a more advance feature, you can customize tooltips using HTML, which lets you embed images, gifs, and more, enhancing the visual appeal and informativeness of your data presentation.

6. Legend

The legend in Builder helps viewers understand layer styles in your map. Configure it in the legend panel to apply properties to specific legends, customize labels, and access controls to set legend behavior.

7. Basemap

In the basemap panel, you have the flexibility to choose a basemap that best fits the specific needs of your visualization or analysis.

For those utilizing CARTO Basemap, you can easily adjust the basemap's appearance to show or hide different map components, such as labels, roads, or landmarks, tailoring it to your project's requirements and enhancing the overall clarity and effectiveness of your map.

8. Map view

While working in Builder, you have the option to customize your map view according to your preferences. You can choose between a single view, which provides a focused perspective on one area of the map, or a split view, offering a comparative look at different regions or aspects simultaneously.

Additionally, there's a 3D view option, which is particularly useful if you're utilizing our height intrusion feature to represent polygon features in three dimensions. This 3D view can significantly enhance the visualization of spatial data, offering a more immersive and detailed perspective.

9. Search locations

Builder contains different features that allow users to easily find locations. Users can leverage the Location Search Bar located at the top left corner of the map to either find address or lat/long locations. Additionally, they can make use of focus on your current location that will focus the map to the device IP location.

10. Select features

In Builder, the feature selection tool lets you highlight areas on the map and filter data at the same time. You can choose how to select areas: use a rectangle, polygon, circle, or the lasso for free-hand drawing.

11. Measure distances

Also available in the top bar, you can use Builder measure tool to measure point-to-point distances. Once the measurement is finalised, the total distance will be displayed.

12. SQL Parameters

13. Data export

The data export feature in Builder, found in the top right corner, lets users export features from selected layers. It exports features within the current map view, including any filters applied through the feature selection tool, widgets, or parameters.

14. Map Description

15. Share and collaborate

Once you've finished your map in Builder, it's easy to share it with your organization or the public. While sharing, you can activate collaboration mode, permitting other organization members to edit the map. Additionally, you can grant map viewers specific functionalities, like searching for locations or measuring distances, to enhance their interactive experience.

16. Map settings

To access map settings in Builder, click on the three dots in the top right corner. From here, you have the option to either delete or duplicate your map as needed.

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The button allows you to add SQL Parameters to your map as long as your map contains one SQL Query source.

You can access your data source options using this button , located in the right side of the data source card. From here, you can access different options depending on the nature of your source:

Open SQL Editor , so you can view and edit the SQL query of your source.

Query this table , so you can access transform this source from table to SQL Query.

Add layer linked to this source.

Rename your data source.

Refresh data source , to ensure your data is up-to-date.

Delete source , which will remove every component associated to it.

When adding new sources to Builder, its direct connection to your Data Warehouse ensures your data remains centralized, facilitating seamless geospatial visualization creation within your own data infrastructure. Learn more about .

The Builder SQL Editor enhances your ability to precisely control and flexibility for the data you wish to display and analyze on your map. By defining your data source via SQL queries, you can fine-tune your map's performance, such as selecting only essential columns and conducting data aggregations. Refer to this for essential recommendations on using the SQL Editor effectively.

Once a data source is added to Builder, it instantly creates a map layer. From here, you can dive into the map layer options to choose your preferred visualization type and customize the layer's styling properties to your liking. Learn more about .

enable users to dynamically explore and interact with data, resulting in rich and engaging visualizations. These widgets not only facilitate data exploration but also allow for filtering based on the map viewport and interactions with other connected widgets.

Builder allows you to add as placeholders in your SQL Query sources. This allows end users to update these placeholders dynamically by entering input in the parameter controls. Learn more about SQL Parameters in this .

A rich map description is essential in Builder for giving users context and clarity, thereby improving their understanding and interaction with the map. To add a description, use the button at the top right corner.

This feature supports , offering options like headers, text formatting, links, images, and more to enrich your map's narrative.

data sources and map layers
data sources and map layers
Widgets
SQL Parameters
section
Markdown syntax
Data sources
Basemaps
Data export
SQL Editor
Map view
Map description
Layers
Search locations
Share and collaborate
Widgets
Select features
Map settings
Interactions
Measure distances
Legend
SQL Parameters
section