GeoVivé Docs

What AppConnect is

GeoVivé is a shared map canvas. It keeps no subject-matter layers of its own. Your app brings its layers when your users open GeoVivé from your app, and GeoVivé shows them in the AppConnect section of the Layers panel for that visit only.

• Your data stays yours. GeoVivé doesn't list your layers for other users or other apps, and doesn't offer them for download.
• No code changes on our side. You describe your layers in a file on your own site. Change the file and GeoVivé picks up the change.
• No meetings needed. Signing up is semi-self-service: automated checks, then approval.

Checklist

Have all of these ready before you sign up. Signup stops at the first missing item.

1. Your domain

Everything you connect is tied to one verified domain, for example hunt.example.com. To verify it you'll publish a token we give you at signup, in either place:

DNS TXT record:  _geovive.hunt.example.com  →  geovive-verify=<token>
or a file:       https://hunt.example.com/.well-known/geovive.txt  →  <token>

Keep it in place while you're connected. If it disappears, your app goes back to sandbox.

2. A layer list

A JSON file on your verified domain that describes each layer: where the data comes from, how to label it and which fields to show. The full format is in the developer docs. Limits:

• Up to 200 layers per list and up to 40 shown fields per layer.
• Layer IDs use letters, numbers, - or _, and stay the same over time (your links use them).
• Every layer needs id, name, group, source, label, attribution and license.

3. Data sources

• Types: ArcGIS FeatureServer/MapServer layers, OGC WFS 2.0, or GeoJSON files.
• HTTPS on a public host. Private networks, local addresses and sources behind a login are refused.
• Each source must answer quickly and return real shapes. Empty or broken sources fail the check.
• Choose a delivery for each layer:
  • Relay: GeoVivé fetches the data, simplifies it for display and keeps a short-lived cached copy. Your source address isn't shown to browsers.
  • Direct: the user's browser loads the source itself; GeoVivé keeps no copy. Use this when the data's terms don't allow caching. The source must allow browser (CORS) requests from https://geovive.link.

4. What people see

Decide this before you sign up. We won't approve an app that doesn't know what it's showing.

• Label: the text on each shape, built from your fields, for example GMU {GMUID}. It must fill in on your real data.
• Fields: the few fields shown when someone clicks a shape, with readable names. Nothing else is shown.
• Name, group, color and description for each layer, as they should appear in AppConnect.
• No personal information about individuals in labels or fields.

5. Credits and rights

• Every layer needs attribution (who made the data) and license (the terms you show it under). Both are shown to users.
• At signup you confirm you have the right to display each source this way, and that relay caching is allowed for any layer you set to relay.

6. Return addresses

List the addresses on your site that GeoVivé may send users back to, and that may host outlines you pass with area=. They must be on your verified domain. Links pointing anywhere else are refused.

How connecting works

1. Register: app name, contact email, domain and layer list address. You get an app ID.
2. Verify your domain with the token.
3. Automated checks on your layer list and every source. You get a pass/fail report and a preview link showing your layers on the map.
4. Sandbox: your links work from your verified domain with limited use, so you can test your real “Open in GeoVivé” button.
5. Accept the AppConnect terms and pay the yearly fee. Your validation report includes the payment link.
6. Live for one year. You get a “your connection is live” notice with your term end date.

Leaving AppConnect

Leaving is structured, not a slow fade. From your AppConnect page choose Leave AppConnect, pick now or at the end of your term, and type your app ID to confirm.

1. Your layers stop showing immediately (or at term end).
2. GeoVivé deletes its display, relay and review copies of your data.
3. Checks, reminders and notices stop.
4. You receive a disconnection certificate (PDF) listing what was deleted and what's kept, plus a JSON export of your settings and history.
5. You can reconnect for 90 days. After that, reports and history are deleted and your app ID stays reserved for you.

If a term lapses and isn't renewed within 90 days, GeoVivé runs the same disconnection automatically, so nothing is left half-connected.

Ongoing rules

• Connections and terms renew every year with payment. We email you 30 and 7 days before your term ends; if it lapses, your layers stop showing until you renew.
• Checks include automated rules and, when enabled, an AI review of each layer's text values on Amazon Bedrock. You're told about findings so you can fix them at the source: urgent ones immediately, the rest weekly. See Trust & Security for exactly what's sent, kept and for how long.
• GeoVivé re-checks your list when it changes and on a schedule. If it breaks, points to sources that aren't allowed, or your domain token is gone, your app returns to sandbox and we email your contact.
• Layers only appear for users who arrive through your links or open maps your app created.
• Account linking (optional): with a user's consent your app can read and add to maps it created for them. See account linking. Leaving AppConnect ends every user's link.
• New and changed layers are approved before they show. When you publish a change, GeoVivé checks just the new or changed layers. Passing layers go live within minutes; anything a person must look at is reviewed within 5 business days; failing layers aren't shown. You get a report each time, and the previously approved version keeps showing until a change is approved.
• GeoVivé can suspend an app that shows data it has no right to show or misleads users.