Documentation / TileMill

Usage

After TileMill is installed you will want to familiarize yourself with the basics of starting and stopping the app as well as configuring any relevant settings.

Mac OS X

TileMill for Mac OS X is meant to be run as a desktop-style application.

  • Start TileMill by double-clicking its icon in the Applications folder
  • Stop TileMill by quitting the application
  • Files used by TileMill are in your user account’s Documents/MapBox folder
  • Logs are viewable by choosing Console from the app’s Window menu
  • Preferences are available from the TileMill menu.

Ubuntu

TileMill on Ubuntu may be run as a system-wide service, or from the Desktop.

Desktop usage

Start TileMill from the Desktop with the TileMill menu item, located in the Graphics section in the Applications menu, or using the Launcher. When TileMill launches a terminal window will open; this window must stay open to keep TileMill running. After starting TileMill from the menu, go to http://localhost:8889 to access TileMill.

Upon first start of TileMill from the Desktop, a configuration file will be created at ~/.tilemill.json which can be customized to, for example, change the default port on which TileMill runs. TileMill will write to a log file at ~/.tilemill.log. TileMill also creats a directory at ~/Documents/MapBox which holds data and project files.

System-wide usage

TileMill on Ubuntu runs as a server and is kept up and running by upstart. TileMill as a system-wide service is not running by default.

  • Start TileMill by running sudo start tilemill
  • Stop TileMill by running sudo stop tilemill
  • Restart TileMill by running sudo restart tilemill
  • Files used by TileMill are in /usr/share/mapbox
  • Logs are written to /var/log/tilemill

Once TileMill has been started you can access the interface in your web browser at http://localhost:8889.

You can alter the server settings of TileMill by editing the configuration file at /etc/tilemill/tilemill.config. The configuration file should contain a JSON object:

{
  "port": 3001,
  "files": "/home/ubuntu/mapbox"
}
  • port the port that the server should listen on. Defaults to 8889
  • host a single or array of hostnames that can be used to connect to the server. Defaults to localhost
  • files path to the files directory. Defaults to /usr/share/mapbox