Table of Contents

Documentation of the POI Manager

Graphical user interface

Overview

The graphical user interface of the POI Manager can logically be subdivided in a map and list section. The map allows browsing, visualizing, editing and selecting existing POIs or visualizing additional base map raster layer like aerial image, topographic or basic maps as well as a point layer containing street addresses.

The second section contains the non geographical representation of the POIs in form of lists. Lists allow enabling to look for single POIs by name based filtering or sorting functions.

The map view and list view are interactive based on the fact that the selection of a POI in the map leads to the selection of the corresponding entry in the listed view of the collection.

Description of the graphical user interface

  1. Search bar allows searching for places, localities, municipalities or coordinates
  2. Spatial coordinates bar allows defining the type of spatial references as well as reading the coordinates of the mouse cursor
  3. Activate or deactivate the list of available additional layers
  4. Login or logout button to create or terminate a user session
  5. Activate or deactivate the overview map
  6. Non geographical view of the available collections (see following sub chapters)
  7. Dynamic scale bar
  8. Map navigation bar allows zooming in and out, panning vertical or horizontal and zooming out to the initial extent of the country

Map

The map section allows browsing, visualizing, editing and selecting existing POIs or visualizing additional base map raster layer like aerial image, topographic or basic maps as well as a point layer containing street addresses. A detailed description of the map navigation can be found here. Next to the manual navigation the map supports searching by localities, coordinates or places, a detailed description to the search bar can be found here.

Changing the base (background) map

Generally the map contains a base map layer and the POIs of a selected collection, the base map should give additional support for orientation on the map. Several types of base maps can be displayed by selecting the accordingly layer at the table of layers available the “couches” button or the double arrowed button on the upper right corner of the map. (see point 3 of the GUI description). This table of layers contains next to the current available aerial image, the topographical map, a simplified base map and point layer representing the street address. The selected layer will be displayed by checking the accordingly check box next to the desired layer description.

Overview map

On the lower right corner of the map you can find a second double arrowed button allowing to show or hide a small interactive overview map (see point 5 of the GUI description). The extent of the current map windows is represented by a red square, as both windows are interactively connected the extent on the overview map will change when the main map extent is changed and vice versa.

Context menu

The context menu of the map can be opened by clicking the right mouse button anywhere on the map. The context menu includes the following three options:

Note: If no collection is selected at the “My collection” tab at the listed view section all buttons of the map context menu are disabled. You have to select a collection first to enable the collection related functions. The current selected collection can be check at the label Active collection: located on the left side of the bar separating the map from the list section.

Collections

A collection is a set of POIs created by users or accumulated by including public collections into a new one. Visually each collection is one list of POIs. All collections are managed in the lower part of the application. The management of collections is organized in tabs including the following tabs:

My Collection

All collections that I can access are listed in this tab. Collections are visible to me if I am the creator of it or if a friend shares a collection with me. The tab menu bar includes only one New collection button allowing me to create new empty collections. The listing section contains 5 columns displaying attribute values for each collection. The listing navigation bar is located at the bottom of the page, it facilitates to navigate trough the pages of a list. Collections comprehend 5 attributes including :

Context menu

The context menu of a collection can be opened by a right mouse click on the collection entry. It contains all options that are available for those collection.

Public collection

All collection that are accessible to the public are listed in this tab. Own collections can be shared with the public by using the Share this collection button at the My collections tab (see section My collection for further information). Public collections comprehend 5 attributes including :

Context menu

The context menu of a public collection can be opened by a right mouse click on the collection entry. It contains all options that are available for those collection.

Collection data

All POIs that are in the currently selected collection are listed in this tab. It includes several option as well as a text filter search function. The listing section contains 19 columns displaying attribute values for each POI. If you want to scroll through POI entries you can use the browsing toolbar located at the bottom of the page. Each column is headed with a filter field allowing to filter the entire collection by the appropriate field. The listing section contains the following 19 columns:

Toolbar menu

The toolbar of the collection data tab is located between the tab selection bar and the listing section. The toolbar contains five buttons, two sub menu buttons, one textual filter bar and one check box to switch between editing and none editing mode. Some toolbar elements maybe disabled depending on your current selected collection or if there are unsaved changes. The toolbar of the collection data includes the following functions:

Context menu of POI entries

The context menu of POIs can be opened by hitting the right mouse button on a POI line or by using the POI actions button. The following options are available at the context menu:

Available styles

All available style for the selected collection are listed in this tab. The toolbar of the Available styles tab includes one sub menu and one button. The listing section contains five columns. The following attribute fields are defined for styles:

Note: Styles are connected to selections, this leads to the fact that styles cannot be accessed via other collections

Toolbar of the POI styles tab

The toolbar of Available styles tab is located between the tab bar and the list section. It contains one sub menu and one button. The following options are available at the toolbar:

Context menu of the POI styles

The context menu of the available style of a collection can be opened by hit the right mouse button or the Styles actions button at the toolbar. The context menu of a style includes the following two options:

Symbol definition dialog

The symbol definition dialog can be accessed by hitting the Modify symbol button at the context menu of an existing style or by creating a new style with the New style button at the toolbar of the Available styles tab or the context menu of the listing section.

The dialog allows to define unique or categorized symbols as well as illustrating labels. For each task you find a specific tab at the dialog:

Available tool tips

Tool tips are the small windows including additional information that pops up when users click on a POI. All available tool tips are listed at the Available tooltips tab. This tab is very similar to the Available style tab and includes a toolbar with a sub menu button and a listing section comprehending two columns. The following attribute fields are available:

Toolbar and context menu of POI tool tips

The toolbar of the tool tip tab contains only one single sub menu button that is including the context menu of the selected tool tip. The context menu contains two options:

Geocoding List

The history of all ongoing and completed geocoding processes is listed here. The Toolbar contains one button invoking a refreshment of the list. The listing section of this tab contains four columns:

Tutorials

How to create a new collection

  1. Select the My collection tab
  2. Create a new collection by using the New collection button at the toolbar or by right clicking in the listing section
  3. Enter collection parameter
    1. Enter the name of your collection
    2. Enter a description of the collection
    3. Click Create
  4. After the successful creation of your new collection, a new line was added to your list of collections.

Note: The first attribute Public is set to false by default. This means that your collection is not public, only you can see it for the moment. Learn how to share your collection with friends or the public (here)

How to create manually new POI

  1. Select the desired collection at the My collection tab by the context menu (right mouse click) of the appropriate collection
  2. Change to the Collection data tab by double clicking the selected collection at the listing section of the My collection tab or by single clicking on the Collection data tab
  3. Open the context menu on the map at the location of the new POI and click the Create a POI here
  4. Enter additional Attribute fields like Name, Description, URL, etc. and click Create to save the new POI. Note: All geocoding related attribute fields are automatically generated by the geocoding process
  5. A new line is added at the listing section of the Collection data representing the new POI

Note: To change a attribute value of a POI you can access the attribute window by clicking Edit this line at the context menu of the appropriate POI at the listing section

How to visualize my collection on the map

  1. To set or change the visualization of POIs you need to selected the appropriate collection first
  2. Change to the Available styles tab
  3. Create a new style by clicking Styles actions at the toolbar and New Style at the sub menu or edit an existing style by clicking Modifiy symbol at the context menu of a style at the list
  4. Define a unique symbol or categorized symbols and labels for the POI of the selected collection and click Save the symbol definition Note: You can only use only style for each collection. If you want to visualize different symbols for each POI or groups of POI you need to create a categorized symbol. (Hint: If you want to define single symbols for each POI you can categorize the symbols by their unique names). For detailed information please check the symbol definition dialog documentation (here)
  5. Close the symbol definition dialog by clicking the X at the top right of the dialog (Don't forget to save your definition by clicking Save the symbol definition)
  6. After the successful definition of the visualization of a collection you need to verify if the style is selected at the On screen attribute field at the listing section of the Available styles tab
  7. The visualization of your POIs is now set or changed and should be visible at the map

How to add a tool tip to my collection on the map

  1. Create or select a collection at the My collection
  2. Change to the Available tooltips tab
  3. Open the tool tip formatting dialog by creating a new tool tip by using the Tooltips actions or the context menu of the listing section or edit an existing tool tip by using the Modify tooltip function of the context menu of the specific tool tip
  4. Enter a name and the title of the tool tip. The name will only used to identify the tool tip definition. The title represents the title of tool tip which will be visible when the window pops up
  5. Define the (static) content of the tool tip at the Text field. Note: You can only define one tool tip for each collection. If you want to show POI related values like names, address, URL, phone numbers, etc. you need to add placeholders
  6. Placeholders represent variables that are filled dynamically with the POI specific content (like names, addresses, user specific field values, etc). You can add those information by adding a placeholder represented by the name of the attribute field name. On the right of the text field toolbar you can find a combo box menu containing all attribute fields available at the current selected collection. By clicking on the desired attribute you add a ​${name_of_the_attribute} representation of the value in the text field, the specific POI value will be entered here dynamically at the moment when the user opens the POI. If you added images to your POIs you can add them here by using the image object at the list
  7. Click Create the tooltip when your finished and you want to save your settings
  8. Check if you have set the right check box at the Default column at the Available tooltips tab Note : You can only select one tool tip for each collection
  9. When you click now on one of your POIs the customized tool tip will pop up and show the additional information for your POI

How to import POI from my excel file

  1. To import POIs from a Excel file you need to create or select a collection to which the POI should be added
  2. Select the Collection data tab
  3. Open the import dialog by clicking on the Import data button
  4. By clicking on Select a File a File Upload dialog pops up, you can now browse to the folder with the Excel file and select it, by clicking on Open you set the path to the local file
  5. Click Next at the Import file dialog
  6. Now you have to indicate which column should be assigned to which attribute field. This can be done at the third column of the listing section by clicking on the empty field. Hint: You can change the size of the window by click & drag the edge of the window, then you can enlarge the column width by click & drag the separation line at the header of the columns
  7. Open the list with possible attribute assignments and select the appropriate value. At the address field you have to indicate the form how the address is structured and click Next. The following address structures are supported:
    1. All address attributes are stored in separated fields (assign the single values to appropriated fields)
    2. House number & street name are stored in one field
    3. Postal code & locality are stored in one field
    4. Entire Address is stored in one field
  8. Provide additional information by checking the boxes in matching cases
  9. If you checked the Geocode the address box you will get ask if you want to do this now. Click Yes if you want to launch geocoding now or No if want to start the process later manually. Successively you will get ask if you want to geocode the lines that have been manually move or verfied, click Yes
  10. Automatically the application will jump to the Geocoding list tab at which you can observe the process of your geocoding request. After the geocoding is completed you can verify your POIs at the Collection data tab
  11. The Status attribute at the listing section of the Collection data tab gives you information about the auto-evaluation of the geocoding result for each POI. The following status codes are possible:
    1. 10-9: Manually verification of the POI by the user (is considered as correct!!)
    2. 8: Good geocoding evaluation (Matching address identical to the geocode address)
    3. 7-6: Partial matching of addresses (strings of characters are identical)
    4. 5: Bad geocoding result
    5. 999: Error code. Geocoding was not possible (Hint: Maybe the needed address attributes weren't accessible)
  12. All POI are now visualized at the map, excepts the POI with the 999 status code. You can verified the POIs now manually and in case of mis-geocoding you can edit the POI manually by clicking Edit the position at the context menu of the appropriate POI at the listing section of the Collection data tab

Note: Only complete addresses can be geocoded successfully. A complete address contains house number, street name and name of locality and optionally the postal code

How to import POI from a (public) collection

  1. Select the desired collection at the My collection tab by the context menu (right mouse click) of the appropriate collection
  2. Change to the Public collections tab
  3. Select a entire collection or select a single POI in a collection and choose Import this collection into mine respectively Import the selected lines into a collection to open the Import wizard
  4. Choose the destination collection from the combo box list at Existing collection and click Importer
  5. You can check now the destination collection and you will see that the POI are imported

Note: You can import POIs not only by public collection but also from your own collection (copy from collection A to collection B) or from a collection shared with friends. The procedure is analogue

Note: Importing POIs means creating a copy, if you want to update your imported POIs later you have to hit the Synchronize collection button. Attention: This will override you current attribute values of the imported POIs

How to share my collection

  1. Select a collection at the My collection tab
  2. You can share your collection with the public or with your friend
    1. Share with the public
      1. Hit the Public collection button at the context menu of the collection you want to share Note: If you want to stop sharing your collection you can choose the Private collection option at the same context menu
    2. Share with friends
      1. Hit the Share collection button at the context menu of the collection you want to share, this will open the Rights for the collection dialog
      2. You can add or delete users with the toolbar located above the listing section of this dialog. To Add a new user hit the New user button, this leads to the attachment of a new line at the listing section
      3. Click the empty field in the Nom d'utilisateur to open the list of available users Note: You can search for users by typing the first letters of the username, the list will dynamically changing and showing only the corresponding users
      4. The red corners of at the listing section are showing that there are unsaved modifications, click Save to make those modifications persistent
      5. To close the window you can hit the X button in the upper right corner

How to include my collection on my web site

  1. Select the desired collection at the My collection tab
  2. The context menu of a collection or a single POI contains a Give me a link to this map respectively Give me a link to this point function
  3. A new browser window will open with a new map element showing the collection or the single POI
  4. If you want to include this map into your own website you can copy the source code of this new window into your own web site code
    1. At your <head> section, you need to include all <link> and <script> tags of the <head> section
    2. At your <body> section, you need to include the <div> and <script> tab of the <body> section

Testing of the poi Manager

Tab: My Collection

Create new collection

Share my collection with friends

Share my collection with public

General observations

Tab: Public collections

General observations

Tab: Collection data

Create POIs manually by address

Create POI manually by placing it on map

Import new POIs defined in a EXCEL file

Editing a existing POI by activating "Edit mode"

Editing a existing POI without activating the "Edit mode"

General observations

Tab: Available styles

Create new style

General observations

Tab: Available tooltips

Tab: Geocoding list

Application

Fiche "POI Manager"