Our Public Folder offers a robust method to share your data with the entire Aqua Map community.
When you store your data in the "public" folder within your GEC Account, anyone using the Live Sharing feature can access it, ensuring automatic synchronization of your data in their app.
Upload content in your Public folder
To upload content to your Public Folder, you can only do so from a browser using the Chart Viewer on our website, not directly from within the app.
First, you need to log in to your GEC Account from our website at www.aquamap.app. For additional information on the advantages of having a GEC Account, please visit the detailed help page.
Once you have logged in, select the tab called "CHART VIEWER" to access your GEC Account area.
In your GEC Account's main directory (on the left side), there's a folder called "public" (you can see it in the image above, marked in red). This folder has been created by the system and cannot be changed or deleted. This is where you will upload the files you want to share with the Aqua Map community. Everything else in your GEC Account stays private, so no one else can see it. But the items in the "public" folder is open to anyone in the Aqua Map community who's using Live Sharing. And if you ever want to take something out, you can also simply remove it at any time.
You can upload only GPX, KMZ and KML file types to your GEC Account, as well as to the Public folder.
To upload a file to your Public folder, you can:
- use the 'upload' button on the top menubar
- or simply, drag and drop a file into the Public Folder.
You can delete, move, and rename files within the GEC Account, as well as within the Public folder.
Update your public files
Users who have downloaded your files (from your Public folder) can automatically keep them synchronized as long as you do not alter the original filename.
To update a file within the Public folder, you need to create a new version of that file elsewhere, name it exactly the same as it is found inside the folder, and upload and replace it into the Public folder.
Note: The system is case-sensitive, so you must pay close attention to capital letters in the filename.
Access content to the Public folder of another user
You can access data published by other users in their "public" folders directly from the app.
Open the User Details page (from the Live Sharing page) of the user whose data you are interested in, and select the Public Folder icon.
If you currently have no files synced with that user, the app will directly open their Public Folder's page in the GEC Account Server, where you can select the file you wish to upload.
For testing purposes, you can search for a test user named "EVTest" among the Live Sharing users to find the test account below.
To download a file from that user, select the file from the list (you will see a preview in the map panel) and then click the download button (highlighted with a red box in the image above).
Once you tap on the download button, the app will close the Public Folder online page and after processing the selected file (which may take a few seconds), it will open a pop-up asking you to choose between two options:
- Download: This option will add the data to your User Data as you import it from your GEC Account.
- Download & Keep in sync: This option will download the data to your User Data in a read-only format and create a link to the original file. This option will automatically synchronize any changes made to the original file (depending on the settings you selected in the Automatic download page).
If you select "Download & Keep in Sync," you will land on the synced file list page (which is the same page you will access after selecting the "Public Folder" button in the User Details page if you have at least one file synced with that user).
In this page, you can manage the downloaded files (deleting and updating them) or download additional files by tapping the "Download from online Public Folder" row.
Use synced data in the app
When you decide to keep at least one file in sync, you will find the data from the synced files among your data, highlighted with a special color to easily identify them.
The data from the synced files is highlighted with a light yellow background. You can use them exactly as you use your own data (navigating, hiding, searching, etc.), with the exception that you cannot modify them in any way, except by changing their color on the map. However, every time the file is updated, the color will revert to the original one.
If you enter the Details page of one of these data (see image below):
You will see a new section at the top of the page that displays the name of the file from which this data has been extracted, the Live Sharing username of the person who made it available, and the last time it was updated in your app.