Getting started

1. Join or create your organization

The first time you sign in, terranode asks for your organization's details. Every user belongs to exactly one organization — all of your catalogs, projects, and surveys live inside that boundary and stay private to it, with one exception: a catalog Terranode itself has published as public (see below).

2. Build (or import) a catalog

Before you can configure a project, you need some GIS layers to work with — check the catalogs list for a public one from Terranode first; if there's one you can use as-is, you can skip straight to configuring a project with no import at all. Otherwise:

• Import vector or raster data from disk, or pull it from a cloud bucket you already have (S3, GCS, and similar).
• Assign a style to each layer so it renders consistently across projects.
• Tag and describe layers so your team can find them later — see Find anything below.

3. Configure a project

Organization owners and editors can create and archive projects. Editing a project takes two things: a role that allows editing projects (all three roles do) and a part in that particular project, meaning you created it or you were assigned as its manager. Other owners and editors, and field members generally, can still see projects in their organization so they know what work is available to download and collect against. See Roles and permissions for the full picture.

Project teams can assign organization members as managers, collectors, or reviewers. The person or API key that creates a project is always its first manager and cannot be removed from that role. Collector and reviewer roles will control more project-specific actions as those workflows are introduced.

A project ties together:

• A boundary — the geographic area field work covers. A project can't start without one.
• A description and kind — enough context to explain the work and group it by your organization's local workflow.
• An estimated deadline and point goal — optional planning targets for the team.
• A review requirement — whether collected submissions need review before they are treated as final.
• Participating layers from your catalog — the base maps and reference data field users will see on their device. A project can include multiple layers, each using a catalog data source and style.
• Participating surveys — the forms field users fill out while collecting data. A project can include multiple surveys; start from a template when your organization has a reusable base or example form, then customize it for the project.

4. Send your team to the field

Field users open the mobile app, sign in, and download the project. The download bundles the boundary, layers, and surveys so the app works with no network connection. As data comes back in, the project dashboard shows submission counts, survey breakdowns, and live tracking.

Find anything

The search bar at the top of terranode searches across catalogs, layers, projects, surveys, and users in your organization — one place to find anything, regardless of which "epic" it belongs to.

See the Glossary for definitions of terms used throughout this documentation.