Heatmaps

Heatmaps are a great way to show large amounts of data.

Mapster WP Maps Pro offers a lot of options when it comes to creating a heatmap and managing it directly inside Wordpress. This requires a Mapbox or Maplibre map. See an example here.

Map with some simplified earthquake data.

The functionality of the heatmap in Mapster WP Maps Pro is very similar to the example shown here in the Maplibre documentation.

First, you need to create the Locations for your heatmap. This would be done most efficiently by importing many features at once and assigning them a common category. Once they are imported, create a new Map and add those features to the map.

After you've added the features, go to Specialty Maps > Heatmap and enable the heatmap.

You'll need to choose the Location Type to turn into a heatmap with Heatmap Layer. All of the geographic features of that type will be substituted with a heatmap.

Layer Visibility allows you to cause the original features (markers, circles, or icons) to reappear once the user zooms in far enough. This can allow users to open popups or see the exact location of data once they are zoomed in to a certain level.

If your data has a specific property you'd like the heatmap to cluster with, enter the property name in Weighted Property field. This should correspond to metadata that you uploaded or created with your locations. Otherwise, your heatmap will cluster strictly by proximity. You can use ACF fields as well -- just make sure you give the full ACF field name.

Intensity works with the Weighted Property to increase the overall intensity of your heatmap. Play with this to get a broader range of colors.

For the color range, you can enter as many colors as you like, from low to high intensity. You may enter hex values, RGB, or RGBA. Be aware that every color should be on a separate line!

You can change the Point Radius to change the overlaps of the points when the heatmap is generated. A larger number will generally create more overlaps, causing a more intense but less geospecific heatmap.

Finally, modify the opacity to change the overall transparency of the heatmap layer on your map.