Software we use at Simplemaps | Article

Since we're in the business of software, I thought it might be appropriate to share the software (free and commercial) that we rely on to build and support our maps:

1. Text Editor - Notepad++
   This free text editor includes features like auto complete, search using regular expressions, syntax highlighting, multiple views and more! I use a customized theme with a dark background, and soft colors to give my eyes a much needed break.

2. JavaScript Compression - JavaScript Obfuscator
   The source code for our maps is minimized for speed and obfuscated for security reasons. After trying a number of free products, I got the best results with this commercial tool.

3. Contact Form - ContactMetrics
   Currently in private Beta, this SAAS tool is owned by the Simplemaps parent company. It includes a drag-and-drop form builder that makes it simple to customize your own contact form. What sets it apart though, is that it sends you individual-level analytics about the person contacting you. This has proven very useful in troubleshooting bugs and knowing which product a prospective customer is referring to when they use ambiguous language.

4. Cross-Browser Testing - BrowserStack
   This SAAS fires up a virtual server with the operating system and browser of your choice. This makes it easy to quickly test our maps on a number of different platforms. It has been an invaluable tool to isolate browser and OS specific bugs in our maps.

5. SVG Editing - Inkscape
   We use this open source tool to edit the SVG vector maps that are eventually turned into our interactive JavaScript maps.

6. Screencasts - Screencast-O-Matic
   There are a lot of tools in this space, but I use the downloaded version of this commercial software for my tutorials and screencasts. It is intuitive and makes it easy to upload the videos quickly to YouTube, Vimeo, or other sites.

7. Online Spreadsheet - Handsontable
   This open source Excel-like data grid powers our online customization tools. It has great documentation and I am very thankful for it!