Geo Data Viewer Fast

Geo Data Viewer Fast is a VS Code extension for opening geospatial files directly inside an interactive kepler.gl map webview. It is designed around a simple workflow: open a file, preview it immediately, and keep the extension architecture small enough to evolve.

Why This Repo Exists

This project is heavily inspired by RandomFractals/geo-data-viewer.

That project pioneered a very useful VS Code workflow for geospatial preview, but it has not been actively updated for a long time. I wanted to keep the same core idea while rebuilding the internals around a simpler and more maintainable architecture.

So this repository is not just a patch release or a direct continuation. It is a re-architecture of the same product direction:

• the overall "open geo data in VS Code and see a map immediately" workflow is borrowed from geo-data-viewer
• some gallery data, screenshots, and documentation structure are adapted from that project
• the current extension host logic, parser pipeline, webview bridge, PMTiles support, and compatibility fixes are redesigned for this repository

Features

• Interactive map preview for local geospatial files inside VS Code
• kepler.gl compatibility for .map.json, .kgl.json, and dataset-style JSON payloads
• Adapter-based parser pipeline for easier format support and maintenance
• Built-in map gallery backed by remote sample datasets and configs
• PMTiles vector preview with native kepler.gl hover/click interaction
• Automatic basemap fallback for older kepler.gl configs whose original styleType is no longer available
• Large-file preview safeguards to avoid freezing the UI
• In-memory parse cache for faster repeat previews
• VS Code webview panel restore/reload support

Supported File Formats

The extension currently supports the following local file types:

• GeoJSON / JSON: .geojson, .json
• Kepler configs: .config, .map.json, .kgl.json
• TopoJSON: .topojson, .topo.json
• CSV / TSV: .csv, .tsv
• Excel: .xlsx
• KML: .kml
• GPX: .gpx
• GML: .gml
• IGC: .igc
• WKT: .wkt
• Shapefile: .shp, .zip
• FlatGeobuf: .fgb
• Parquet / GeoParquet: .parquet, .geoparquet, .gpq
• PMTiles: .pmtiles for vector tile preview

Usage

• Open a supported file and run Geo Data Viewer: Open Current File
• Or right-click a supported file in the Explorer and choose Open in Geo Data Viewer
• Shortcut: Ctrl/Cmd + Alt + M
• Run Geo Data Viewer: Reload Map to refresh the current preview
• Run Geo Data Viewer: Map Gallery to open built-in sample data and map configs
• Shortcut: Ctrl/Cmd + Alt + G
• Run Geo Data Viewer: Open from URL or Path to open a workspace-relative path, absolute local path, or supported raw http/https URL
• Shortcut: Ctrl/Cmd + Alt + U

Note:

• Local file preview is still the primary workflow
• Supported raw http/https geo data URLs are cached locally and then previewed in the map panel
• Unsupported remote URLs still fall back to opening in the editor

Map Gallery

The extension includes a built-in map gallery for quickly trying supported formats and kepler.gl configs.

Current gallery entries include:

• Chicago Bike Routes
• Chicago Green Roofs
• Chicago Traffic Crashes
• Top Expat Destinations
• USA Airports
• USA Counties
• World Cities
• Major World Rivers
• World Lakes
• Countries
• OpenClaw PMTiles

Additional gallery/sample data notes live in data/README.md.

Configuration

Create User or Workspace settings in VS Code to change the default extension behavior:

Architecture

The current codebase is intentionally split into a few focused layers:

• src/extension/: VS Code commands, gallery wiring, panel registration, serializer, and lifecycle management
• src/data/: adapter-based parsing for each supported format
• src/webview/: HTML/webview shell, message bridge, and panel state persistence
• media/: kepler.gl runtime assets and webview-side loaders/helpers

Notable implementation differences from the original geo-data-viewer:

• local-first data loading instead of relying on the old remote/public-map workflow
• explicit parser adapters per format instead of a more mixed loading path
• PMTiles support via a local tile server bridge
• compatibility fixes for legacy kepler.gl JSON payloads
• automatic basemap fallback when old configs reference unsupported style presets

Installation

This repository is currently geared toward local development/use rather than a Marketplace release.

To run it locally:

npm install
npm run compile

Then press F5 in VS Code to launch an Extension Development Host.

To validate changes:

npm test

Credits & Attribution

• Original product inspiration: RandomFractals/geo-data-viewer
• Map rendering: kepler.gl
• Data parsing: loaders.gl, topojson-client, and format-specific adapters in this repo
• PMTiles reading: pmtiles

Some screenshots, sample gallery materials, and documentation structure in this README are adapted from the original geo-data-viewer project. The current repository redesigns the extension architecture around those ideas rather than attempting to preserve the old implementation.

License

MIT