Basic Functions

Owned by Aaron van Herk
Last updated: 17 Jan, 2011Version comment

Show Active Map Tool

Weave currently displays the active tool as a depressed button. It follows the standard user interface conventions that most desktop applications adhere to.

Zoom (in/out X2, full, multiple previous, selected features)

Weave provides the ability to zoom in and out using the standard rubber banding method. Zooming in and out by a fixed amount is also supported. Zooming to the previous extent is supported and is designed to emulate the browser back button. When an extent is changed the previous extent is pushed onto a stack. If the user selects the Previous Extent button the extent at the top of the stack is read and rendered on the map. The extent prior to moving to the previous extent is pushed onto the Next Extent stack and is thus enabled to move to at any stage. Weave also provides the ability to navigate around the map using the arrow keys and the plus and minus keys to zoom in and out.

Zoom to scale (preset or free text)

Weave provides the functionality out of the box to allow the user to select from a list of predefined scales or allow the user to type in a given scale. Depending on the configuration of the client, the map interface may also be restricted to a series of predefined scales (i.e. Fixed Scales). This provides the user with a familiar interface which resembles Google Maps and Virtual Earth styled browser applications. In this mode the user can select from a list of predefined scales. When predefined scales are configured, the free text mode where the user can zoom to any scale is disabled. This type of setup works well for internet facing Weave clients which serve cached maps.

Zoom to Named Area/Bookmark (e.g. hardcoded list with extents or pre-configured spatial query)

Weave can be configured to have an entity which has a search containing a list of locations taken from a database. The administrator can create a data definition and the results of that would populate a combo box component on the client.

Pre-configured bookmarks for Users and or Groups are also available via the ‘Bookmark Tool’.

Pan (drag as well as map border arrows)

Weave provides the standard method of panning out of the box whereby the user selects the pan tool and then drags the map, moving it to the desired location. Another method of panning that is available is for the user to click on one of the 4 arrow button at the top of the zoom slider. This option is dependant on the user being given access to the map control.

Locality Map (includes navigation)

An overview window may be configured in the client. In the example shown here it is placed in the bottom right corner of the Map View. When hidden, a small arrow is used to indicate where to click and a panel containing the overview map then pops out. The map that is used for the overview map is configurable and can be either a map setup using the Weave mapengine or it may reference a WMS map service that bypasses Weave altogether. The Overview map adjusts its extent as the user changes extents so as to give a better context to the user when looking at datasets that cover a large area.

A red rectangle is rendered on top of the Map to indicate the current map window extent. The user may change the extent of the Map View by either a single click at a desired location on the overview map, or by dragging the rectangle to a new location, at which point the Map View and Locality Map will then update.

Set active layer for Identify

The active layer for an Identify is set using the Weave Active Entity combo box. All selections or operations also involve setting the active entity.

Identify with/without popups (active layer)

The standard identify is displayed within a ‘html div’ that avoids creating new browser windows. The corresponding internal window can then be dragged around the screen allowing the user to position the window in the desired location. It is also possible for the user to minimise the window, thus enabling the ability to view data or maps behind the window.

Weave does not popup the identify dialog in a new window. As all modern browsers now block popups it is desirable not to require the user to unblock specific urls

The Identify tool works on the active entity and will not work on other entities unless the active entity is changed. Changing the active entity does not require that the user re-execute the identify operation, the data is automatically requested for the new data definition using the current shape.

Drill Identify With/Without Popups (all Visible Layers)

Weave out of the box provides a spatial identify button that enables the user to identify and drill down through all entities visible to the user. This provides the user rapid access to aspatial data for a range of entities.

Scale Bar

To aid the user in interpreting distances and areas on the map display, a dynamic scalebar is provided that has the ability to have its display units adjusted interactively by the user if required (e.g. feet, metres, kilometres, miles)

Show Current Mouse Co-ordinates

Weave does not make use of the Browser status bar for mouse coordinates as it may either be hidden by the end user or not available in different browsers. Instead, Weave provides a Map Control that displays the current map coordinates (in the configured projection) directly on the map. The location of the Map Control is set during configuration of the client.

Show Current Mouse Co-ordinates (Projections)

Weave also has the ability to show the current mouse position in various configured Map Projections. The projected values update as the mouse is moved across the map display.

In the above example the client shows four coordinate systems simultaneously. Another example may be where the user is viewing an area on the edge of an MGA zone and requires the two adjacent MGA Zones to be displayed. The number of, and type of projections displayed for the current mouse location are set during configuration of the client.

Display Tabular Presentation of Data

By default, Weave displays aspatial data as a tabular report (Grid). Multiple database queries can be setup by the administrator and access given to different Users and Roles. The grid employs a paging interface where only a subset of information is ever retrieved from the server (e.g. 10 records at a time). Other features of the Grid are

  1. Filter elements in that grid
  2. Remote Sorting
  3. Zoom to selected feature(s)
  4. Pan to selected features(s)
  5. Refine the selection based on the selected feature(s) in the grid
  6. Remove the selected feature(s) in the grid from the selection set
  7. Reorder the columns
  8. Hide or show particular columns

Online Help

Weave has a fully customisable Help system that allows a site to completely change the content of the online help in order to suit the needs of that site. Using standard HTML and CSS (JavaScript can also be used if required) a site can add custom HTML to the help bundle. On the left side of the window is a tree which allows a site to group related help items. The help tool can also be configured to make use of images, and can link to other documents or systems such as voice or video recordings.

Spatial Bookmarks

Weave can save bookmarks for registered users. This enables bookmarks to be configured for particular users or groups and a user may also create and persist bookmarks of their own. In creating a new bookmark, the current Map View extent is used. An anonymous user may use pre-configured bookmarks and create bookmarks of their own however their custom bookmarks will not be persisted.

The user may use any name for the bookmark (e.g. ‘Wind Farm Boundary’). If the user defaults the name, then the system applies the name in the format Bookmark-‘n’

Measure distance and area

Weave provides the ability to measure areas and polylines. Weave supports interactive segment lengths, segment bearings and total areas.

Table Of Contents

The Weave client can be configured to display a table of contents. Some aspects of the Table of Contents are:

  1. {*}Turn layers on/off{*}:  The Table of Contents provides the ability to turn on and off layers
  2. {*}Turn labels on/off for layer{*} : The table of contents provides for a label entry in the Table of Contents under the required layer. That way it is a child and directly related to the layer and may be turned on or off, independent of the parent layer.
  3. {*}Group multiple physical layers{*}: The Table of Contents View within Weave provides the ability to group multiple layers into a single virtual layer. (e.g. Roads: Major Roads, Minor Roads)
  4. Create folders for layers: Layers can be grouped into folders as well as having the Group used as a checkbox to control the children beneath it. The table of contents supports the cascading of layers and may have multiple levels of folders within folders.

View Metadata (based on URL with ID)

The Weave client has support for metadata via a right click menu option it the Table of Contents.

Ability to resize the map and browser

The map will automatically resize itself if the browser window changes size or a View is hidden or shown that changes the size of the Map View.

Timeouts for process > x seconds

By default, on the client side, all Post requests to the server have a timeout of 60 seconds and various other timeouts are available on other configuration entries.

Ability to configure the number of returned features.

The map engine has the ability to limit the number of selected features. As Weave renders its own selections, this process is across all map engine implementations.

Legends

There a great many map engines that Weave can use. Each map engine may have its own implementation to generate a legend and not all of these map engines support generating legends in which case a static legend is created and configured for the client.