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How to Use the General Purpose Viewer

The General Purpose Viewer (GPV) is a mapping web site that provides a consistent set of mapping functions across a variety of applications. This document describes these mapping functions. For specific information regarding the configuration, content and use of the GPV for a particular application, please contact the administrator of this web site.

Major Components of the General Purpose Viewer

The interface for the GPV is divided into several panels controlled by tabs. Depending on how your application has been configured, some of these panels may not be available.

Map Panel - A GPV application will always have a map panel. This contains the map itself and the basic controls needed to manage it. At the top left of this panel are one or more map tabs. Clicking on a map tab will change the map to show different thematic layers. If there are many tabs, you may see arrow buttons at the left and right ends of the tabs. Click and hold on either of these to slide the set of tabs to the left or right. At the top right of this panel are three buttons that control the size of the interface. Choose the size that best suits your screen size. When the viewer is busy retrieving a new map or other data, an animated clock icon will appear temporarily toward the upper-left of the map.

Selection Panels - Some applications provide two panels that let you select features (mapped objects) on the map and retrieve information about them. The top panel lets you choose one or two map layers from which you can select features and a filter for limiting the data shown. It also has a grid for displaying the data. The bottom panel has one or more tabs and shows detailed data for one of the objects highlighted on the map and in the grid.

Legend Panel - Some applications provide a panel which displays the legend for the current map. Depending on its configuration, you may be able to expand and collapse parts of the legend. You may also be able to click check boxes to turn thematic layers on and off. The changes to the layers do not happen immediately on the map when you click a check box -- you must click Refresh Map at the top of the legend to see those changes.

Location Panel - Some applications provide a panel with an overview map of your area of interest. The red box shows the current location of the main map. You can move and resize this box to change the extent of the main map. The empty space on this panel is reserved for future capabilities.

Markup Panel - Some applications provide a panel for creating and managing markups on the map. You can draw groups of points, lines, polygons and text which are saved in a database and can be retrieved for viewing by others.

The Selection Panels, Legend Panel, Location Panel and Markup Panel occupy the same space on the interface. When more than one are available in an application, you can use tabs at the top to switch between them.

Navigating Around the Map

Zoom In/Out - Slide the vertical bar left or right to quickly zoom in or out on the center of the map. You can click the minus button to zoom in one level and the plus button to zoom out one level. Every two divisions of the bar represent a zoom factor of two.

Scale 1" = [feet]' - Shows the current scale of the map. You can enter a different scale here to zoom the map in and out.

Pan North/East/South/West - Click on one of the arrow buttons around the edge of the map to pan the map in that direction.


		map

	Full View - Zooms out to the full extent of the map.
	Return to Previous Extent - Returns the map view to the last extent before the current one. Every extent from the beginning of the mapping session is remembered, so you can click this repeatly to undo multiple pan/zoom operations.
	Zoom In - When this is selected you can click on the main map, or on the overview map if the Location tab is available, to zoom in by a factor of two on that point. You can also click, hold down, and drag a box on either map to specify a new extent for the main map.
	Pan - When this is selected you can click and hold down on the main map to drag it in any direction. If the overview map is available, you can use this tool to drag the red box to a new location, which will recenter the main map.

External Map Viewers - The pulldown list to the lower left of the map lets you launch other web-based map viewers centered and zoomed to the same location as the current map. Select the map viewer and click Go to pop it up in a new browser window.

Save Map - The pulldown list to the lower right of the map lets you save the current map image to a file. Select "as Image" to save the map as a PNG or JPEG image file. Select "as KML" to save the map in a format that can be viewed in Google Earth. Click Save Map to download and save the image.

Getting Information

	Identify - When this is selected, pointing at an object on the map will display a small box of information about that object. Clicking on the object will popup a separate window with more detailed information. The popup will contain a link that lets you print the information. Depending on how the GPV has been set up, it is possible that some objects on the map cannot be identified.
	Display Coordinates - Displays the coordinates of the point you click on the map. These coordinates will continue to draw on the map until you click the Clear Selected Features button.
	Measure Area - When this is selected you can click on the map multiple times to measure the area of a shape. The area will be shown inside the shape. Double-click to end the measurement. Only available on Internet Explorer.
	Measure Distance - When this is selected you can click on the map multiple times to measure the accumulated length of a set of lines. The length will be shown where you first clicked. Double-click to end the measurement. Only available on Internet Explorer.

Help - Displays the help for the General Purpose Viewer in a pop-up window.

Communicating with Others

Printable Map - Pops up a utility for creating a PDF version of the current map suitable for printing or archiving. You can select which page layout you prefer and specify whether you wish to preserve either the scale or the width of the current map. Depending on the configuration, you may also be able to provide text, such as a title, that will appear at specific locations on the printable page.

Email This Page - Starts your email client with a message containing a link to your current map page. All the information about your page - the current map tab, zoom level, selected object, and markup - are encrypted in this link. You can add text to this message and mail it to anyone that also has access to this General Purpose Viewer. When they click on the link in the message, the General Purpose Viewer will appear exactly as you had set it.

Selecting Features on the Map

If the Selection Panels are available in your GPV application, you can pick features on the map from certain layers and display information about them. Depending on how your GPV is configured and linked to other web applications, you may be brought automatically to a set of selected features when the GPV comes up - the functions on the Selection Panels let you change this selected set.

The top Selection Panel lets you specify how you would like to pick features on the map. This is done by setting the five pulldown lists, shown below, so that together they form a readable sentence which describes how the Select Features tool to the left will function. See the picture under Selection Panels (above) for an example.

Action - Lets you specify what the Select Features tool to the left will do when you click on the map. Three types of action are supported:

Select - Pick features directly from the Target layer.
Find all [within a distance] - Pick features from the Selection layer and let the application find features on the Target layer within the distance specified by Proximity.
Find the one...five [nearest] - Pick features from the Selection layer and let the application find the nearest features on the Target layer, regardless of their distance.

Target - Lets you choose the target layer. Data for features picked from this layer will be shown in the data grid below. Target features will highlight with the same color as the background of this pulldown list (unless they have been filtered, in which case they will appear gray).

Proximity - When Action is set to "Find all", this lets you specify the distance around features in the selection layer to search for features in the target layer. If set to zero, target features will only be found inside or directly adjacent to the selection features.

Selection - Lets you choose the selection layer. Features picked from this layer will be used to search for features in the target layer. Selection features will highlight with the same color as the background of this pulldown list.

Filter - Applies a filter to the set of target features you picked on the map. Data for features that fulfill the criteria of the filter will be displayed in the grid below this control.

	Select Features - When this is selected you can pick features from the target or selection layers on the map. Either click features individually or drag a box to pick multiple features. Hold down on the Shift key while clicking or dragging to add features to the selected set. Hold down on the Control (Ctrl) key to remove features.
	Zoom To Selected Features - (on the Map Panel) Zoom to the combined extent of all target and selection features.
	Clear Selected Features - (on the Map Panel) Clear the selected sets of target and selection features.

Using Selected Features

If the Selection Panels are available in your GPV application and you have picked some target features on the map, you can use the capabilities below to show data about those features.

Data Grid - This displays data about the selected target features that have passed the filter criteria. The columns of data shown will vary with the target layer and the selected filter. Clicking on a row in this grid will highlight that row, highlight the corresponding feature on the map, and bring up detailed data in the bottom panel. The total number of rows in the grid is displayed at the lower left of the grid.

To Mailing Labels - When enabled, this lets you generate mailing labels for the selected target features. A window will popup which let's you select the label format, printing direction and font characteristics. The labels are delivered as a PDF file which can be printed or saved to disk. It is likely that only certain layers (such as parcels or buildings) will be enabled for mailing labels in your application.

To Spreadsheet - This exports the data for the selected target features currently shown in the data grid to a comma-separated value (CSV) file. Depending on your computer and browser configuration, this may launch a program, such as Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice Calc, for viewing the CSV file as a spreadsheet. Otherwise you will be prompted to save the file to disk.

Detailed Data - The bottom Selection Panel shows detailed data from the feature highlighted in the data grid. Depending on your application, one or more tabs will be provided for different types of data. If there are many tabs, you may see arrow buttons at the left and right ends of the tabs. Click and hold on either of these to slide the set of tabs to the left or right. Some of the data shown in the panel may be displayed as links to other pages which will popup in another window. It is also possible to have small images within the listed data. These may also act as links to other pages or documents. The panel will contain a link that lets you print the data.

Creating and Managing Map Markup

If the Markup Panel is available in your GPV application, you can draw shapes and text (markup) on the map for others to see. Every user has the ability to edit and delete the markup created by other users. Given the wide-open nature of this environment, your organization may set guidelines for the proper treatment of markup. Please contact your administrator for details.

Your Name - You must provide a name or identifier for yourself to create markup. This name will appear in the grid below for all markup that you create.

Category - Markup is placed in categories for ease of management. Select an appropriate category from this list before creating new markup. Upon selecting a category the grid will update to show all available markup groups in that category.

Markup Group - Shapes and text that you create are stored in named groups. The following functions let you manage these markup groups.

New - Creates a new, untitled markup group in the selected category assigned to your name. Once you click this you can use the various tools described below to create the markup graphics.
Zoom To - Zooms the map to the extent of all the shapes and text in the current markup group. Use this if you have panned away from the markup group and wish to return to it.
Delete - Deletes the current markup group. The markup will be removed from the map and grid.
To KML - Exports the current markup group to a file which can be displayed in Google Earth.
Title - The title of the current markup group. This defaults to [untitled] for new markup groups. Change this to a short phase which accurately describes the markup group.

	Draw Point - When this is selected, click on the map to draw a small, circular point symbol.
	Draw Line - When this is selected, click on the map multiple times to draw a line with multiple vertices. Double-click to end the line.
	Draw Polygon - When this is selected, click on the map multiple times to draw a semi-transparent polygon. Double-click to end the polygon.
	Draw Circle - When this is selected, press the mouse button on the map to define the center of a circle, drag to size the circle, and release to finish drawing the circle.
	Draw Measured Length - When this is selected, click on the map multiple times to draw a line with multiple vertices. Text showing the length of the line will display with the line. Double-click to end the line.
	Draw Measured Area - When this is selected, click on the map multiple times to draw a semi-transparent polygon. Text showing the area of the polygon will display inside the polygon. Double-click to end the polygon.
	Delete Markup - When this is selected, click on individual markup shapes and text to delete them.
	Pick Color - When this is selected, click on a markup shape to set its color as the current drawing color.
	Fill With Color - When this is selected, click on a markup shapes to change its color to the current drawing color.
	Markup Color - Click on this to set the current drawing color for any new markup you place on the map. A color selection panel will display the hue, saturation and value of the current color. Move the sliders to change any of these color properties then click OK to set this as the new color.
	Draw Text - When this is selected, click on the map to place the text you specified in the box to the right. To make the text glow with a background color, check the Glow box and click the color selector next to Glow to choose the color.

Markup Grid - This displays all of the available markup groups in the selected category. Clicking on one or more rows in this grid will zoom the map to the extent of those markup groups and draw their markup. Clicking on just one group will also open that group for editing.

Other Capabilities

Change the Size of the GPV - When you run the GPV for the first time, it will automatically set itself to one of three sizes depending on the resolution of your screen. You can change the size of the GPV by clicking on one of the Size buttons. The GPV will return to that size when you start it the next time.

v3.0 [beta 1]