Embed maps on your website

Through the geoportal Paikkatietoikkuna, anyone may embed maps on their own websites free of charge. The contents and functions of embedded maps are easy to customise.

"The system provides you with a piece of code, which is copied and pasted into the source code of your website. It takes about ten minutes to create and embed a map", explains Jani Kylmäaho, who is responsible for the development of Paikkatietoikkuna at the National Land Survey (NLS).

Several map layers make a map

You may assemble the kind of map you like by placing several map layers on top of one another. You may define the contents, size, opening view and scale of the embedded map, as well as add functions such as address search fields. Embedded maps are available in Finnish, Swedish and English.

Map data sets that can be used in embedded maps are currently offered by the NLS, the Geological Survey of Finland, the State Treasury, the Regional Council of Southwest Finland, as well as the cities of Jyväskylä, Vihti, Espoo and Tampere.

Some maps that can be viewed in Paikkatietoikkuna are not available for making your own map. Each data provider decides which map layers are available for embedding and which are only available for viewing.

Try My Places

The NLS is developing the national geoportal Paikkatietoikkuna in cooperation with several spatial data producers. The portal is used to support the aims of the EU's INSPIRE Directive, such as a well-functioning Finnish spatial data infrastructure.

Now you can also try marking up your own places on the map with My Places. Kylmäaho suggests possible uses for the new feature, "You may keep a record of the best sites for picking mushrooms in the autumn or of all the ski routes you've completed during the winter."

"We hope that many of you will try the service and give feedback to us developers. In future, a good map interface could be very useful for example in electronic services, as clients are able to make annotations on the maps and attach them to an online application," says Jani Kylmäaho.

Paikkatietoikkuna won the Excellence Finland award for quality innovation in 2010.

How to embed maps on your website

1. Go to www.paikkatietoikkuna.fi/web/en 
2. Register as a user in the top right corner
3. Go to the tab "Embedded maps"
4. Create a map in four stages by following the directions:
   choose a background map
   select and add map layers (such as place names and contours)
   define settings (such as language and size) and
   copy the HTML-code of the finished map.
5. Paste the HTML-code into your website and a functioning interactive map will appear.

More information

www.paikkatietoikkuna.fi/web/en

Chief Expert Jani Kylmäaho, 040 489 0307, jani.kylmaaho[at]nls.fi