Spectrum Spatial (SSA/LIM)

Introducing?—?Template designer in Spectrum Spatial Analyst 

 

We understand that GIS administrators want to curate and publish best in class web-mapping experience for their users. To empower SSA administrators we bring to you a new utility which would enable you to create visually enriching map information panels. 

See Attachment

 

See Attachment

 

With the template designer you can now

• Choose columns to show (and lot more)
• Add Bar and Pie charts
• Add Google street view
• Add free text?—?but you can also insert column value in it

 

Getting started with template designer

• Choose a table

See Attachment

 

Choose columns you want in your template

 

See Attachment

 

You can set following properties for a column

• Hide section when value is null (when a column doesn’t have a value the empty section won’t appear)
• You can choose to show or hide lables
• You can add a friendly label if needed
• Decide if label should appear inline or label should appear above the value
• You can add an icon which would appear besides label (or instead of label)
• For integer values?—?you can add a prefix or a suffix 
• A string column could be containing different kind of elements such as?—?hyperlink, image, email or it could simply be a text. Template designer lets you pick what that column represents?—?based on your selection it would show info-panel accordingly

 

You can reorder content of information panel:

See Attachment

Once you have added all the content for your information panel- you can generate your template ?Name it

See Attachment

 

Assign your template to the table in desirable map-configuration

See Attachment

Finally, check out your template in SSA by launching the respective map-configuration

See Attachment

Terrific! very well done :-)

Loving this, looking forward to having a go.

@Abhiraj Satarate?  Looks Amazing! But, If in case if user have specific line graph requirement which is not available with the default template options. In that case ,can we give an option of downloading the code of created template and add whatever the user want to add and apply the template? If we can give such option it will be a killer :D

Is the option button in SSA viewer? As in per screenshot?

Hi Natalia, The image you shared is one of the menus within SSA and is out of the box. So yes that is in SSA.

Andy

Hi Andy,

I probably should explain better! Is this the option button where we access the template designer? If not, how do we access template designer? The 12.2 manual isn't totally clear, it just says "the option button".

Hi Natalia, Ok no problems, first I’ll ensure I pass this feedback to the document team, the second part, yes the template designer is listed in that menu when you are logged in as an administrator. Named users and guest do not have access to the template designer. Regards Andy d'Andilly Spectrum Spatial and Spatial Analyst – Global Product Manager Location Intelligence Applications M: + 44 7860912181<tel:+44%207860%20912181> Andy.dandilly@pb.com<mailto:Andy.dandilly@pb.com> Pitneybowes.com Watch This!<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U_EmIa2Gfc> Spectrum Spatial Analyst – The Future of Web Mapping<http://www.pitneybowes.com/us/location-intelligence/geographic-information-systems/spectrum-spatial-analyst-gis-application.html>

Thanks Andy,

I'm looking forward to getting stuck in, it looks good and simple to use.

Further to Krishna's questions above, are we able to further customise the templates outside of the template designer tool? Will these templates still be stored in the same location as previously (customer configuration/templates)? Or will this be part of the extensibility?

Also, is this going to be applied to editing templates in the future to make setting up editing easier?

@Krishna Bejawada?, as I have understood it you can modify the template afterwards if you want to and so add additional elements that isn't supported by the Template Designer.

Hi @Krishna Bejawada? , at the moment it would not be possible to edit templates that have been created through the designer. But you can edit the code that gets generated through it- meaning you'd have access to the files that get generated which you can further enhance with functionalities that you need in the template.

So you can modify a template to include elements that aren't supported with the Template Designer, @Abhiraj Satarate? ? Maybe worth writing an article about this unless it is documented already.

@Peter Horsbøll Møller? @Abhiraj Satarate?  Understood! Where do we store the template files which has been created in template designer? Is it the same location as other infotemplates?

Really needs a way to string together multiple fields. Some of our information is spread across a couple of columns that would need to be strung back together again to be used (i.e. addresses)

Ability to add hyperlinks in the text blocks would also be useful - then I wouldn't need to add them as a column if it is the same hyperlink for every item in the map

Also unless I'm not looking in the right place? I can't go back and edit an existing template to save changes or use it as a basis for a new template. That's a lot of extra set up when I could use an existing one

And it doesn't appear you can overwrite existing files, so if you do update a template you have to save it with a new name.

 

Otherwise looks pretty good!

 

 

All good points, @Rebecca Marks? 

You can use the Text type to combine static text with values from columns. Type "{" to be able to select a specific column from your table.

The other comments are certainly worth considering. I would also like to use numbers for the names of the templates.

Thanks Peter! I found that one yesterday but didn't think about using it for addresses.

I found the ability to add prefixes and suffixes to number fields quite useful too

Re hyperlinks, the ability to use a friendly name with the hyperlink would be a lot neater (i.e. CLICK HERE)

And on the topic of neater, the words in the test boxes splitting over the line instead of moving to the next line is annoying and makes it difficult to read. Expanding the window just splits different words. And I'm pretty sure I went to a new paragraph for that second sentence but it's thrown it all onto one line

 

Example;

See Attachment

Hyperlinks with a friendly name, yes please. I tried using a HTML tag like <a> but that was treating like a normal text so that's not support unfortunately.

Ouch, that text splitting really doesn't look nice 😖

Thanks @Rebecca Marks? for making the suggestion regarding hyperlink in text blocks. We had not accounted for that scenario. I'll raise it with the team and get this added in the backlog. Also have noted the text formatting and have raised with team as bug.

Thankyou! I look forward to updates

Is there any way to ensure that the information in the template is printed when we print a map?

At the moment when I print with an item selected I get all of the fields and with their not-so-friendly field names. It would be great if the template information printed instead

@Rebecca - at the moment - sadly No, you cannot print the map information as it appears in panel. I have communicated this request with the team, it would be added to the backlog. Thanks for sharing.

In regards to 'Hide section when value is null (when a column doesn't have a value the empty section won't appear)', is this for V2018.2 or V12.2.
I am currently on V12.2, the empty section appears as a blank row. Thanks!

------------------------------
Shaw Shang
Tablelands Regional Council
Atherton
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 04-19-2018 06:01
From: Abhiraj Satarate
Subject: Introducing?

Introducing?-?Template designer in Spectrum Spatial Analyst 

 

We understand that GIS administrators want to curate and publish best in class web-mapping experience for their users. To empower SSA administrators we bring to you a new utility which would enable you to create visually enriching map information panels. 

See Attachment

 

See Attachment

 

With the template designer you can now

• Choose columns to show (and lot more)
• Add Bar and Pie charts
• Add Google street view
• Add free text?-?but you can also insert column value in it

 

Getting started with template designer

• Choose a table

See Attachment

 

Choose columns you want in your template

 

See Attachment

 

You can set following properties for a column

• Hide section when value is null (when a column doesn't have a value the empty section won't appear)
• You can choose to show or hide lables
• You can add a friendly label if needed
• Decide if label should appear inline or label should appear above the value
• You can add an icon which would appear besides label (or instead of label)
• For integer values?-?you can add a prefix or a suffix 
• A string column could be containing different kind of elements such as?-?hyperlink, image, email or it could simply be a text. Template designer lets you pick what that column represents?-?based on your selection it would show info-panel accordingly

 

You can reorder content of information panel:

See Attachment

Once you have added all the content for your information panel- you can generate your template ?Name it

See Attachment

 

Assign your template to the table in desirable map-configuration

See Attachment

Finally, check out your template in SSA by launching the respective map-configuration

See Attachment