Release Notes

What's new, recently fixed, and under development.

That which is live.

5 months ago
  • We are now using revision lists to track last changes to a google sheet as the file last modified date often does not include all data changes. tldr: maps should sync better.
2.2 years ago
  • We'll give some direction and insights when creating a map if a user has Excel files in their Google Drive, and not Google Sheets.
3.4 years ago
  • Added option to hide the yellow-ish orange street view control on the map (from edit and manage map pages).
3.6 years ago
  • New optional assignment field for IP Address. If populated, we will geolocate the IP address to closest city, state, and country.
3.7 years ago
  • New optional assignment field for pin label if you want text overlayed above icon.
3.7 years ago
  • Added option to hide busienss points of interest icons, which google started showing by default.
3.9 years ago
  • Added alarms to alert us when geocoding services have issues.
3.9 years ago
3.9 years ago
3 years ago
  • Added "starts with" and "ends with" as operators for advanced criteria maps.
  • Speed hacked/optimized geocoding on wizard steps - that step should be faster.
  • Fixed adding new SVG icons to advanced criterian maps.
  • Added new neon green icon to complete a set.
4.1 years ago
  • In a Google sheet where there were more columns than row headers, a user was not able to get past the first map wizard step.
  • The work around was to ensure your sheet had the same number of headers as columns, for all rows.
  • However, now the code accounts for this, as it should.
4.1 years ago
  • Advanced type maps and group by column maps were returning no pins due to a bug.
4.1 years ago
  • Map sync had a race condition where by a sync that was started, but not completed, before a new Google sheet update was applied, would register to us as not requiring a sync.
  • We now track the last updated Google sheet timstamp for the last succesful sync.
  • Hopefuly we have addressed this issue.
4.1 years ago
  • New set of SVG Icons.
  • Default map icon is now SVG Green and 200% pin size.
  • Why? Because the old PNG set did not scale well in weighted maps and looked/was grainy.
4.2 years ago
  • Beta support anonymizing a map.
  • Preliminarily we remove the directions link and set a wider zoom on click. Later on we will use the postal code from the address to generalize the location.
4.4 years ago
  • Beta support for adding pin search from your map URL query string.
  • To get the map to load w/ a default pin search, add "?search=tom and jerry" to your map url.
4.4 years ago
  • Fixed bug where user w/o a payment method (on file) could not explicitly downgrade to free - it would have otherwise just failed to renew.
4.4 years ago
  • Fixed change plan bug not replacing old subscription plan.
4.4 years ago
  • Fixed auto-sync bug not pulling all candidtae new maps.
4.5 years ago
  • Added geocoding service heartbeat and health check.
4.6 years ago
  • Upgraded and migrated DB to more performant system. Added support for unicode UTF8MB4 while we were at it. Transaltion: you can now use emojis as ... map names, map pin info, etc.
  • Fix to geocoding when weights were populated.
4.6 years ago
  • We were allowing a user to skip ahead pbefore geocoding was complete, which lead to pins not appearing on the next step, pending a fresh sync. Now addressed.
4.6 years ago
  • Turns out subscriptions to mapalist are considered taxable digital goods per D.C. Code § 47-2001(d-1). As a result, we’ve implemented a 6% sales tax as part of the checkout/invoicing process.
4.6 years ago
  • One can now create heat maps based on pin weight, as well as set icon size based on pin weight.
  • Unabridged: Previously a heat map was only a pin count heat map. But what if you wanted to have disticnt weights for each pin? We added the ability to capture a column that has a relative weight (on assign field step). Thus, on heat maps and pin maps we look for that weight, if you have "apply weights" set on your map (defualt is on). If applied and populated, you will see pin sizes and heat map concentration driven off this. Video Tutorial here.
  • Spring cleaning.
4.7 years ago
  • First pass at a dashboard.
  • Now you can sync, print, click to view, and see when your map was last viewed not by you, on the dashboard.
4.7 years ago
  • Removed username and password signup in lieu of long delayed 'sign up via Google'. Having different email and google docs accounts is still an option, if desired, and can be managed on the accounts page.
  • Added "sign in via Google". Users can now sign in with one click (w/o password) if their username is their Gmail or Gsuite address. In the future we may extend this to handle username or email, as long as there is one match, or by google docs account, again, if there is only one match.
4.7 years ago
  • Upgraded infrastruture to enable us to send updates to the browser.
  • You will now see status of map sync attempts on the manage maps and respective map page.
  • Map Page: If you are logged in, are viewing a map, and if map sync resulted in an update (i.e. more pins, or changes to pins), your map will auto-reload.
  • Manage Map Page: If you are on the manage maps page, and a sync was attempt was executed for a map row you can see, that row will be updated to show the status - an updated search or page refresh is no longer required.
4.7 years ago
  • We were not showing the status of those addresses in the map creation process that geocoded to 0,0, or not plottable.
4.8 years ago
  • List of Google Sheets on map creation was also including other files from one's drive. Fixed the filter.
  • Previous issue where if you had more than 100 sheets, not all were showing has been addressed.
  • Fixed 'open selected sheet' link on choose source page.
4.8 years ago
  • Email on manual sync attempt from manage maps page now shows a more useful message when there was a column name change, and we are not able to sync map.
4.8 years ago
  • Updated the pin and group key styling as well as the footer styling to be more... pleasing and consistent.
4.8 years ago
  • Addressed issue where a single quote in the worksheet title prevented us from getting worksheet data.
  • Removed the restriction where if there are data columns on the far right w/o headers, allow such.
4.8 years ago
4.8 years ago
  • Patch for worksheet having a space preventing getting sample data.
4.8 years ago
  • Patch for map sync when a worksheet had some, but not all, empty columns. The old version of the Google API would auto-generate column names. We now also autogenerate column names in this case. We will explore replicating the legacy Google auto-generation logic so as to provide a backward compatibility.
4.8 years ago
  • Google updated their APIs to access Sheets and docs, and is soon turning off the old APIs we previously consumed. Thus, we had to update how we accessed docs and sheets on your behalf, before they turned off the old means of accessing such. Therefore, we refactored, from the bottom up, our connection layer to your Google sheets and worksheets. We now ask for less invasive permissions (we now only ask for read only access). An outcome from this is that users will be prompted to re-link you google account when creating new maps. However, all old maps should still sync as they did before.
  • While under the hood, we removed a previous limitation where by sheets w/ empty rows were an issue. Now empty rows are simply disregarded, but maps are still sync-able and able to be created from a sheet w/ empty data rows.
  • On account page we now show the number of deleted maps, as such are counted against total map count for free accounts.
  • Upped defualt zoom level option from 18 to 21.
4.8 years ago
4.9 years ago
4.9 years ago
  • Patch for add payment method (when user had "incomplete expired" subscription).
4 years ago
  • Patch for users with multiple billing accounts
5.1 years ago
  • Added 504 gateway timeout protection for processing large worksheets.
5.1 years ago
  • We now show the addresses that we were unable to geocode on the manage maps page when "view sync history" is clicked. Will be none if all succeeded, otherwise will be shown below sync attempts.
5.1 years ago
  • Added November and December themed icon sets.
5.1 years ago
  • Map default center is now weighted center mass (geographic midpoint), not just one of the pins at random.
5.1 years ago
  • On failure to geocode, keep going!
5.1 years ago
  • Pin search was failing when icon key was not visible.
5.1 years ago
  • Pin filter was ignoring icon filter but not vice versa.
5.1 years ago
  • There was an issue rendering maps with >25k points. KML was not rendering tiles properly, and JS was too resource intensive and sunk the browser. Thus, we swapped out KMZ loading for GeoJSON.
5.1 years ago
  • Added pin counts to icon group key for advanced maps (applied on edit map page and on map sync).
  • Added pin counts to map point key (on load and on filter).
5.2 years ago
  • Added Waldo and Halloween icons.
5.2 years ago
  • At max zoom, show pins, not cluster number.
  • Removed the legacy map creation wizard.
  • Added filter clear icon.
  • Now even when pin is not available on cluster it will pan to location.
5.2 years ago
  • Icon Key now is toggable, and updates pins on map as well as icons in map pins key if visible.
  • Map points key is now visible by default on new maps.
5.2 years ago
  • Cluster map types now also support filtering.
  • Map pin key now supports tabbing and use of space bar and enter to pan and zoom.
5.2 years ago
  • Pins on map now also show/hide based on filtered list.
5.2 years ago
  • We finally updated the FAQ.
5.2 years ago
  • Added primative ability to filter the list of pins on the 'map points/pin' key on the right side of the map.
5.2 years ago
5.2 years ago
  • Map pin key click was not panning and selecting pin.
5.2 years ago
  • Added share buttons to the manage maps page
  • Refactored share via email.
5.2 years ago
5.2 years ago
  • Refactored map viewer to use MVC instead of WebForms.
  • Made old viewer URLs redirect to new page instead of using server transfers.
  • New welcome email
  • Hot fix for google refresh token length.
5.2 years ago
  • Users can now set pin size (50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 200, 300%).
  • Upon save of a map, changes are immediately applied to production map. (In addition, a sync job is queued for good measure in case sheet was updated during configuration.)
5.2 years ago
  • Map Pins: Cut new versions of legacy pins and upgraded spiderify plugin. To improve how this feature looks/works.
  • GDPR: More thorough processing on map deletion.
  • Map Creation Wizard: Progress spinner on queuing geocode jobs. Added back link to sample google sheet.
  • Printing: hide some map footers on printing of map
5.2 years ago
  • Build from the ground up map creation workflow. Features include: use of dynamic controls like google sheet and worksheet search, better error messages and error handling, back button now enabled, full sheet previews, better showing of status, offloaded geocoding, less steps, less error prone, less memory intensive.... we changed a lot on the back-end so that the front end experience should be more smooth.
5.3 years ago
5.3 years ago
5.3 years ago
5.3 years ago
5.3 years ago
  • Added ability to revert a cancellation request.
  • Now showing badge and tooltip on manage maps page for maps over lifetime view limit, and maps over points per map limit.
  • Now including deleted maps in free plan total map count.
5.3 years ago
  • Candidate fix for previous issue when Google Sheets API ListFeed would not return a cell when it was empty, and we treated such as an error as opposed to setting to empty string.
5.3 years ago
  • Upped the premium renewal allowance from 2 hours to 4 hours.
5.3 years ago
  • Added 3 new icon sets (kittens, new colored google map markers, a new GIS special set of SVGs in lieu of fontawesome, which was used prior, but didn't display right on maps, bc black w/o stroke).
5.3 years ago
  • Security: New maps will be referenced by map guid. Legacy maps still have map id support. Old links to map ids should still work on share, and view pages. KMZ no longer supports map ids.
  • Security: Enforcement of TLS 1.2
  • Rebuilt maps view page in newer tech.
  • Added share map button to manage page
5.3 years ago
  • Users can now view recent sync history on the manage maps page
  • Privacy: New maps are private by default.
5.3 years ago
  • Cleaned up/lightly refactored save map step to be consistent w/ configure map controls.
5.4 years ago
  • On manage maps now have the crude ability to see field asignments - will assist with debugging.
5.4 years ago
  • Added all the options short of re-assigning fields. For the moment, map center can only be set on manage maps page.
5.4 years ago
  • Added new sets of icons for use in edit map and wizard.
  • Added support for custom user uploaded GIFs and JPEGs
5.4 years ago
  • Added Ability to clone/duplicate maps (settings, data, et all).
5.4 years ago
  • Change configuration including type, and icons, and filters for maps. One is now able to do everything short of re-assigning fields.
  • Daily sync now includes all premium account maps (previously was restricted to users having logged in in prior 2 months.)
  • Tweaked the previous map sync statuses that would prevent trying next day (ie if we had lost access to google sheet due to google auth permission changes). Will now try again more often, might/will tweak this again moving forward.
5.4 years ago
  • Download map KMZ from manage map page.
  • Cleaned up acquire geocode page layout.
  • Reverted heat map change per request from user.
  • Added support for multiple billing accounts tied to one mapalist account.
5.4 years ago
  • Map creation geocode step made more layman and also finally added auto-refresh during process.
  • Heat map fixes to load via JS by default if < 40k points. Also changed stlye to make better at higher zoom levels.
5.4 years ago
  • Manage maps page refactored from the ground up. Now has filters. Access/see source google sheet and work sheet. Edit with less clicks. Basic and advanced config visible. Responsive desgin. Infinite scrolling.
  • Custom maps styles (currenty available on the manage maps page): pink, retro, night, aubergine, silver, dark
5.4 years ago
5.4 years ago
5.4 years ago
  • Default card set fix on subscription, on adding of new card.
  • Ability to delete payment methods.
5.4 years ago
  • Fixed map creation issue.
  • More detail when map sync fails due to source sheet structure changed.
5.5 years ago
  • Map sync status messages are now more consumable.
5.5 years ago
  • Fix for horizontal bar on printed maps.
5.5 years ago
  • Again update your email at will.
5.5 years ago
  • Enabled downloads of invoices on account page.
5.5 years ago
  • Email alerts are sent on thresholds reached for max maps in account (currently 10), and lifetime map vews per map (currently 100).
5.5 years ago
  • Show payment methods and invoices on account page regardless of plan (ie if user has downgraded to free).
5.5 years ago
  • Added a little redundancy to password reset flow.
  • Added 2 hour grace period on payment processing failure.
5.5 years ago
  • Ability to manage usage notification preferences on account page.
  • Usage alerts for 50, 90, 100% of used map views in paid plans.
5.5 years ago
5.5 years ago
  • Notification management on account page in advance of usage notifications.
  • Fix for manage map page.
5.5 years ago
  • Fixed issue w/ default payent methods not being set and thus affecting prompt renewals.
  • Fixed issue with subscription cycle dates.
  • Fixed issue w/ negative prorated credit resulting in charges.
5.5 years ago
  • Self-serve ability to upgrade and downgrade plans.
  • Prorated credit on change of paid plans in effect. (see pricing page for details)
  • Added billing cycle dates, days left in cycle, if cancellation scheduled to account page.
5.5 years ago
  • Map View Counts: For free accounts map view counts are calculated on a calendar month (ie Feb 2019). For paid plans, map view counts are according to billing cycle (ie 2/13/19-3/12/19).
  • Updated account page w/ more plan and usage details.
  • Launched support for higher volume plans and updated pricing. (Ability to downgrade and upgrade on one's own in active development still.)
5.6 years ago
  • We'll now email you the status of your async map sync request
5.6 years ago
  • Map pin limit for paid plans is now 5000 from 2501 previously. Free limit is now 500.
5.6 years ago
  • Most of the site made responsive UX (map creation, account, about, pricing, terms, FAQ, press)
  • Added premium plans to cover increased costs (see blog)
  • Data sync between maps and sheets now queued as asynchronous task from the manage maps page - previously there was an issue with update action timing out.
  • Unicode/UTF8 support: now/finally foreign characters supported! Emoji characters (UTF8MB4) on the roadmap, but requires coordination to prevent site outage.
  • Too many things refactored to list - that is what happened when you have a code base a decade old and you finally get back into it.
  • Upgrade lot of site from ASP.NET Web Forms to MVC 5.
  • Bootstrap 3 -> Bootstrap 4. FontAwesome added.
  • Removed aged nabble help forum.
  • Zendesk domain from innovationgeo.com -> blarghlabs.com
  • Help email from help@mapalist.com -> ping@blarghlabs.com
  • Gave blog a little face lift.
  • Restyled and added content on usage to the account page
  • Sharing release notes #metamoment

Ambitions and priorities on the horizon

  • creating map from multiple google sheets
  • refactor map search
  • editing of field assignments post creation / change map source sheet
  • raising per map pin limit to 50k
  • search on map for address
  • updates to maps as you update your sheet, and/or more frequent updates
  • add back route optimization
  • embed maps via more secure means
  • enable users to map sync via API
  • recover an archived map
  • more frequent map syncs
  • Zero downtime deployments
  • faster and redundant geocoding
  • moving map sync to AWS lambda and thus more instatenous and scalable syncing
Shoot us an email if you need something and don't see it here.