How to write hyperlinks to local files in GeoJSON properties?

GeoJSON and Local Files: Making Maps Clickable (in a Good Way!)

GeoJSON’s pretty cool. It’s the way to store geographic data, letting you represent anything from simple points to complex shapes. But here’s a trick a lot of people miss: you can actually embed links to files right on your computer inside the GeoJSON itself. Think of it like adding little doorways to your map, letting users jump straight to documents, images, or whatever else you’ve got tucked away.

So, how do you actually do it? Well, GeoJSON is basically just fancy text, structured in a way that computers understand. That structure is called JSON, and inside it you have key-value pairs. To add a link, you just create a property where the value is the path to your file.

Now, about that file path… this is where it gets interesting. You’ve got two main choices: absolute or relative paths. Absolute paths are like giving the full street address: “C:/Users/YourName/Documents/Project/images/feature_1.jpg” on Windows, or “/home/username/project/images/feature_1.jpg” if you’re on Linux or macOS. They work, but they’re not ideal. Why? Because if you move the GeoJSON file, or share it with someone else, those paths will probably break.

That’s where relative paths come in. Think of them as directions from where you are now. So, if your GeoJSON file is in the same folder as an “images” folder, you can just use “images/feature_1.jpg”. Much cleaner, right? Plus, it means your links will still work even if you move the whole project around. I learned this the hard way after sending a map to a colleague, only to realize all the links were broken!

Here’s what the GeoJSON might look like:

json