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Tutorial: Build your first map

Build a public map of the world's major cities from sample data in about 10 minutes. Colour the cities by population, add a popup and search, and publish.

In about 10 minutes, you build a map of 1,072 of the world’s major cities from MangoMap sample data. You colour the cities by population, add a popup and a search box, and publish the map so anyone can open it. To see where you will end up, open the finished map.

Before you start

  • A MangoMap account. A free trial is enough.

Step 1: Download the sample data

Open the MangoMap Examples Data portal. Search for World Major Cities and open it. Click Download, then CSV.

World Major Cities dataset page in the public Data portal, under the portal header with the MangoMap Examples logo and name, with the Download menu open listing Shapefile, CSV, and MapInfo TAB

A file named like World_Major_Cities_2026-10-07-01.csv downloads. It holds each city’s name, country, population, and location.

Step 2: Create a map

Sign in to MangoMap. In the left menu, click Map portal, then click Create a map. A new map named Untitled Map opens, with an empty Manage layers panel.

New map editor titled Untitled Map with the empty Manage layers panel and the Import new data button tooltip

Step 3: Add the cities

  1. In Manage layers, click Import new data, the orange upload button. The Import data page opens.
  2. Set Data format to CSV, click Upload files, and choose the file you downloaded.
  3. In Dataset name, replace the name with Major cities.
  4. Click Save.
Import data page with Data format CSV, World_Major_Cities.csv under Required files, Dataset name Major cities, and Cancel and Save buttons

MangoMap processes the file, which takes about 30 seconds. Stay on the page until it finishes. The map then shows a Major cities layer with an orange marker for each city, and the layer’s settings open at Style.

Major cities layer settings with the Style section open, Colour markers by Single colour, beside a world map of orange city markers

Step 4: Colour the cities by population

  1. In Style, set Colour markers by to population. MangoMap sorts the cities into 5 classes.
  2. Click Save.

The markers change to five shades of teal: the darker the marker, the larger the city. The map shows a style change only after you save it.

Style section with Colour markers by population, Style as 5 classes, Natural Breaks (Jenks), and a teal Colour palette, beside the map of cities in five teal shades

Step 5: Write a popup

A popup shows a city’s details when a viewer clicks it.

  1. Open Popup and set Type to Custom.
  2. In Title, click Insert simple variable (the { } button) and choose Name. The title becomes {name}.
  3. The popup body starts with one line for each field. Delete every line except Country: and Population:.
  4. Click Save Changes.
Popup section with Type Custom, Title {name}, the body lines Country: {country} and Population: {population}, and a Saved button

Click a city on the map, for example Tokyo. Its popup opens with the city’s name as the title, and its country and population.

Map editor with the Tokyo popup showing Country: Japan and Population: 35676000, and Tokyo highlighted on a map of Japan

Search lets viewers find a city by its name.

  1. In the left menu, click Extensions. Search is already on for a new map, so on the Search card, click Settings.
  2. Turn on Data search. Under Indexed layers, click Add next to Major cities.
Search Settings with Data search turned on and Major cities under Indexed layers with a Remove button
  1. At the top of the page, set Default search type to Data search, so the search box looks for cities first.
Search Settings with Default search type set to Data search, above the Address Search settings

The settings save as you change them.

Step 7: Name the map

  1. In the left menu, click Configuration.
  2. In Map title, type World's major cities.
  3. In Description, type The world's largest cities, coloured by population.

Each field saves when you leave it.

Map settings, Map details section with Map title World's major cities, the description, and a preview card

Step 8: Publish the map to the web

  1. On the same page, go to Access, then Publish to web.
  2. Turn on Allow public access. Publishing mode changes to Public.
  3. Click the copy button in the Public link field.
Publish to web section with Allow public access on, Publishing mode Public, and the Public link with its Copy link button

Step 9: Check your map

Open the link in a private browser window, so you see the map as a visitor who is not signed in. The map opens with its title and the legend. Click a city to see its popup. To search, close the legend, type a city name in the search box, and press Enter.

Published map World's major cities with the Legend showing five population classes and the Tokyo popup, on a map of East Asia

What you’ve built

A public map of the world’s major cities. The cities are coloured by population, each one has a popup, and viewers can find any city by name. Anyone with the link can open the map, and it is listed in your public Map portal. Compare it with the finished map.

Next steps