Add an outline map of NZ (+other changes) to help navigation

Feature Requests
#1

I live outside my trapNZ project area. So when I (A) fire up TrapNZ at home (and its not already in the background), or (B) mistakenly push the “Centre on my location” button (in the centre or the bottom of the screen) I get either a blank map or a gray grid with “OFFLINE” in each cell. It’s quite a pain to zoom out, pan, and then zoom in to get back to displaying the project area.

I recently introduced a new team member to TrapNZ. He was completely perplexed by this behaviour, so much so that he declared the app “useless”.

Can I suggest the following:

  1. Add an outline map of NZ behind the map tiles. That should help with navigation in cases (A) and (B).
  2. When the TrapNZ app fires up (and it is not already in the background), check if the current location is outside the geographic bounding box of the current project. If it is, then use that bounding box for the initial map display. This will help with (A).
  3. As an alternative to (2), use the map bounds from the previous session for the current project.
#2

Having a low res or outline map of NZ sounds ideal. We’ll need to see how much space it would take up.

#3

Oh, gosh… yes!
I found this a major pain point also, and these are great suggestions.
Any updates? 2025 and this still doesn’t appear to have been implemented in the app.

#4

@yachal.upson I get a background map of NZ regardless of where I am, and the app usually zooms to the project area. (I agree it’s really annoying on the odd occasion when the map goes to the wrong project area and I have to zoom out to NZ and back in!) Might be worth checking whether your app has got all its updates? If that isn’t the problem, you could check your map tile settings: App: Project settings | Trap.NZ Help & User guides

The other quick fix I often use for map display issues is to switch to another project and back again, although obviously this isn’t an option for people who are in a single project.