How to check if a location is Core POI or a Place and find its primary category in HERE Map Creator

How to check if a location is Core POI or a Place and find its primary category in HERE Map Creator

---

Symptoms / Triggers

You may need this article if you encounter one or more of the following:

You are unsure whether a location is Core POI content or an Extended Place (Place)
You need to identify the data source behind a POI / location
You want to determine the primary category of a Place
You are validating POI data differences between Core vs. Place layers
You are using HERE Map Creator for data QA or content analysis

---

Quick Answer

In HERE Map Creator:

Core POIs and Places are visually distinguishable by color
Primary category is only available for Places (Extended POIs)
You can identify both by:
+ Activating the correct layer
+ Clicking on the location icon to view attributes

---

How to Identify Core POI vs. Place

Step 1: Open HERE Map Creator

👉 https://mapcreator.here.com

Log in using your HERE account credentials

---

Step 2: Activate the “Places” Layer

Open the Layer menu (right-hand side)
Enable “Places” layer

---

Step 3: Enable Color Coding

Click the layer visualization toggle (icon in the layer panel)

This will apply color coding:

| | | |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Type | Color | Meaning |
| Core POI | 🟠 Orange | Core POI content (HERE base dataset) |
| Place (Extended) | 🔵 Blue | Extended Place (additional POI content) |

---

How to Find the Primary Category (for Places only)

Step 1: Select a Place

Click on a blue icon (Place / Extended POI)

---

Step 2: Open Place Attributes Panel

The Place attributes panel opens on the left side

---

Step 3: Identify Primary Category

The Primary Category is:
+ displayed in the attributes panel
+ shown in bold
+ marked with an asterisk (*)

---

Important Notes

✅ Primary category applies only to Places (blue icons)
❌ Core POIs (orange) do not expose a “primary category” in this context
✅ Color coding is essential for correct interpretation
✅ Always ensure the correct layer is enabled before analysis

---

Applies To

HERE Map Creator
POI / Place data validation
Content differentiation (Core vs. Extended POI)

---

Tags

HERE Map Creator, core POI vs place, POI data source HERE, place primary category HERE, extended POI HERE, map creator layers places, how to identify POI type HERE, HERE POI validation