Administrator Options
A small group of settings is meant for whoever installs and maintains GIPS rather than for whoever configures how it looks, and they stay hidden until you ask for them.
Administrator options live in admin.json, not configuration.json, and are never copied into an
exported GIPS Lite or Pro deployment. GIPS Desktop only.
Switching the options on
Create a file named admin.json in the configuration directory — Configuration Files... in GIPS Desktop opens it, and
it is %LOCALAPPDATA%\PowerGEM\GIPS by default. An empty JSON object is enough:
{}
Restart GIPS Desktop and the Settings dialog gains an Administration group in its left-hand list. GIPS never creates this file itself: its presence is the switch, so creating it is how an administrator opts in and deleting it is how they opt back out.
Why a second file
configuration.json is deployment configuration. GIPS Desktop writes it, and Export GIPS Lite... and
Export GIPS Pro... copy it into every deployment, so everything in it is read by every user.
admin.json applies to the one installation it sits in. It is explicitly excluded from the export, so an option that
unlocks an administrator pane on your machine can never unlock one for a reader of GIPS Lite or Pro — and it is excluded
from every build of GIPS as well. A file that exists but cannot be parsed still opens the pane, with nothing applied, so
a typo never hides the only place it can be fixed.
Map sources
Map sources is the first administrator option. GIPS downloads three MapLibre style files from PowerGEM — the light basemap, the dark basemap, and the power infrastructure layers:
| File | Draws |
|---|---|
liberty-style.json | The Streets basemap in the Light theme. |
dark-style.json | The Streets basemap in the Dark theme. |
power-style.json | Transmission lines, substations, power plants, and wind turbines. |
If your network does not permit reaching assets.maps4powergem.com, host your own copies of the three files and enter
the folder they are served from as the Map styles base URL. The pane lists the three full URLs the base resolves to,
so they can be checked against your server before saving. The address must be an absolute http:// or https:// one; a
trailing slash is tolerated.
{
"stylesBaseUrl": "https://tiles.example.com/v1/styles"
}
Blank means the shipped default — what every deployment used before this option existed, and what any installation that
never creates admin.json keeps using.
The setting covers the style files only. The vector tiles each style points at are named inside that file, so a mirror must also serve tiles your copies of the styles can reach — or your copies must be edited to point at tiles it does. Where the tiles come from follows whatever your styles say.
Because the setting is not exported, a GIPS Lite or Pro deployment keeps downloading its styles from PowerGEM. See External sites contacted.