How to add a new Active Layer

You might need to report on attributes of a table that hasn't already been set up as an Active Layer. 

** IN PROGRESS **

Step-by-step guide

1. If the layer you want to add as a new Active Layer is in the Table of Contents (TOC)/Map Layers, make a note of the name shown in the TOC.
   1. • Generally, an Active Layer is related to a Map Layer from the TOC but it doesn't have to be as the case. In the extreme, you can have only a raster base map in your TOC but you will still be able to do a graphical selection and have the selection appear over the raster map. In this case it will appear as though features on the raster map have been selected, while in fact it is the vector layer that is used in the graphical selection.
2. Open your toc.xml file for editing. Search for the name of the Map Layer you identified above (it will appear as the label tag). Note the value of the layer parameter.

3. While you're in the toc.xml, add a XML Attribute called entity.
   
   In the example below the entity attribute is added and is set to to add is called trees and is specified as:

   <entry id='l_mapengine.main_counciltrees' layer='counciltrees' label='Council Trees' checked='false' entity="trees"/>
   

4. Open your entity.xml file for editing. Add an XML Element for this entity. 

   <entity:entity id="counciltrees">
        <label>Council Trees</label>
   </entity:entity>

   
   The value of the (XML Attribute) id  for the entity (shown in the image above) should match the (XML Attribute) entity from the toc.xml file (shown in Step 3). ?????
   
   The label in the entity.xml doesn’t have to match the label in the toc.xml file but it’s recommended to keep them the same to avoid confusion for the user, unless there’s a good reason why these should be different.
   
   

5. If you refresh your browser you'll now see the Active Layer has been added to the Active Layer drop-down list. However it will have a different icon to the other Active Layers in the list as it hasn't been linked to a database. 
   
   
    

6. Stay in the entity.xml and add another mapping XML Entity that links the Active Layer to its relevant Spatial Engine.
   
   

   <mapping>
   	<entity>counciltrees</entity>
   	<spatialengine>postgis</spatialengine>
   	<table>counciltrees</table>
   	<key>ogc_fid</key>
   	<dynamic>true</dynamic>
   </mapping>

7. vv
8. You may need to refresh your browser to see this attribute appear in your Data Grid window. 
   
   
   
   
9. Done.

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