HappenBoard can show a small map next to a venue address. You choose the map service once for the whole site, and any individual block can override it. This guide covers both.
Open the Maps panel
Go to HappenBoard → Integrations and click the Maps card. The settings open in a panel over the screen.
Pick the site default
Default map provider is what every map uses unless a block says otherwise. Two choices work as a site default:
- OpenStreetMap (no API key): the default, and the one to keep unless you have a reason not to. It needs no account, no key and no billing.
- Google Maps (requires API key): familiar to most visitors, but it needs a key from the Google Cloud Console and a billing account attached to it.
Click Save changes when you are done.
The OpenStreetMap layer
OpenStreetMap layer picks the cartography. Four styles are available:
- Standard (Mapnik): the familiar OpenStreetMap look. This is the default.
- CyclOSM (cycling): cycle routes and bike infrastructure to the front.
- Transport: public transport lines and stops emphasised.
- Humanitarian: high contrast, strong on infrastructure and amenities.
This choice applies every time a map renders with OpenStreetMap, including the cases below where another provider falls back to it.
Using Google Maps
- Create a key in the Google Cloud Console and enable the Maps Embed API on it.
- Restrict the key to that API and to your own domain. An unrestricted key can be copied off your pages and billed to you.
- Paste it into Google Maps API key and set Default map provider to Google Maps.
- Click Save changes.
The panel refuses to save Google as the site default while the key field is empty, and tells you so. If a stored key ever goes missing, maps quietly render with OpenStreetMap instead of breaking the page.
Once saved, your key becomes write-only: the field comes back empty when you reopen the panel, and leaving it empty keeps the stored key. Type a new value only when you actually want to replace it.
Where the map appears
Maps are drawn by the Event Venue block, one of the HappenBoard blocks, which you place on the single event template. Turn on Show map in the block sidebar. The map only appears when the linked venue has latitude and longitude saved on it, so fill those in when you create the venue. No coordinates, no map.
Two more controls sit under the toggle: Map height (px), from 120 to 800, and Map zoom, from 1 (the whole world) to 19 (a single building). 15 is a sensible street-level default. The same block prints the meeting link for virtual and hybrid events, so one block covers both kinds of location. Building a single event page shows where the Venue block belongs in a template.
Overriding the provider on one block
Each Event Venue block has its own Map provider setting: Use site default (Integrations), OpenStreetMap, Google Maps or Custom. Leave it on the site default unless a particular page needs something else.
Custom is how you use a third-party tile or style host such as MapTiler, Stadia or Carto, or your own server. Put the address in Custom iframe URL in the Maps panel, using {lat}, {lng} and {zoom} where the coordinates and zoom level should be substituted. The address must start with http:// or https://. Then set the Map provider of the individual block to Custom. Keep the site default itself on OpenStreetMap or Google Maps.
If a block asks for Custom and no address has been saved, the map falls back to OpenStreetMap rather than rendering an empty frame.
A note on privacy
Every map is an embedded frame served by the provider you chose, so the visitor’s browser contacts that provider directly. OpenStreetMap needs no key and no account, which makes it the lighter choice if you are keeping third-party requests to a minimum.
What’s next
- Add coordinates to a venue so the map has somewhere to point.
- Place the Venue block on your event template.
- See the clustered map and design studio in Pro.