Spectrum Spatial (SSA/LIM)

Hello all,

I wanted to provide some feedback on the latest SSA version 2018.2 (with latest patches).

For the users its's fine but I have serious concerns about the move or Project (config) management into the UI and the quality of it.

Maps of different projections within the same Project

The ability to add maps of different projections within the same Project is fantastic.

NamedMap moving

I like the ability for users to move NamedMaps up and down the order. I think that will be popular.

Labelling

The problems with labeling in SSAA 12.2.2 are fixed. This is good news.

However I'd still like the option to have labels not switched on by default if the layer has been uploaded with labels.

Thumbnails home page

1             

I'd like to see more characters of the Project name to show, or introduce two lines. At the moment it gets cut off with some unfortunate results. This one should be Southwark Licensing…

2             

I'd also like to see the browser's Back button to take you back to the config that was on before selecting 'Project Home'.

Lack of switch user button

Now that more administration is carried out in the UI there is more of a need for me to switch between users (admin to standard user, for example). This is currently a painful experience because of the lack of a switch user button in the Cog wheel / Options menu item.

So, if I was signed in as the standard user and I wanted to then log in as admin I would have to:

• Options> Sign out – which takes me to the default page.
• Then go to a different URL that requires a log in
• Log in as admin

Doing this once is annoying. But I'm going to have to do this multiple times in the course of my work (and what about those users who may have different roles?). Having a simple switch user button would avoid all that hassle.

Project (config layers) management being in UI instead of Admin Console

1

I'd like to see the ability to switch between Projects within the Projects settings page. The new set up means that you have to close Project Settings and switch config and then go to Project Settings again. The old Admin Console allowed switching within the Admin Console. So, PB has effectively introduced more steps to do a similar task. Annoying.

2

There is often a lag delay in the click action (e.g.: placing a tick in a tick box) and the action actually happening (e.g.: the tick appearing).

Try this for yourself. Try adding a friendly name. I'm finding that I click inside the friendly name box I have to wait several seconds before I can start typing. Again, very annoying.

3

There is a lot of waiting around for the black progress circle to complete…

It took 1 min 27 seconds from the moment I selected a new NamedMap (1) and clicked Save (2) to wait for the black circle to finish…

It also took 1 minute 40 seconds to save a friendly name change.

The time individual tasks take to complete needs to be sped up significantly.

4

This concept has been introduced…

• If logged in a Admin
• Make changes to the Project within the UI (e.g: switch on certain layers, zoomed to a certain location, certain base map)
• Select Save Project, that Project is then saved with those settings (e.g.: those layers switched on and at that zoom level, that base map).

But this is frustrating as I now have to remember to ensure that everything is back to how I want it (every time) before saving the project. I can see how this is going to get annoying.

5

I can see what PB is trying to do but having the Project management in the UI does not feel robust and responsive enough. Too many times I'm finding that I am sitting around waiting for lists to load up in the Project Settings window stopping me from making the swift changes that I need to make. I wonder if some of the delay or click lag problems in Project Settings is because it is slowly loading in all the NamedMaps in that Project.

Anyway, it's incredibly frustrating and not a problem I had when the layer management was in Admin Console.

Having layers / Project management in Admin Console (as it was with configs in SSA 12.2.2) seemed to work better. Would PB consider putting Project (config, as it was) management back into the Admin Console?

6

It can be quite a trawl go through all the NamedMaps in a Project (especially when it takes long time to load them all in). This is exacerbated by the fact that the NamedMaps are expanded to show the layers within them….

Whereas when configs where managed in the Admin Console the list of NamedMaps in the config was concise and collapsed, and therefore easy to review and pick out.

A suggestion would be to collapse the NamedMaps so that the layers are not shown by default. A +/- minus would allow the admin to show all layers with the group if they want. It could look like this mock up…

7

The old Admin Console had a function to move NamedMaps  up and down the order. The new Base Maps settings has this function, but the Business Maps settings does not.

It's a pain to have to come out and change the NamedMaps order in the UI and save. So, can I suggest a move row button is added to the Business Maps section...

8

When saves are complete (when the black circle disappears) the screen remains in the frosted-over state and I can't go to do other admin tasks. Instead I have to select the X. This takes me back to the home page where I have to select edit again in the project I want to edit. This is a pain. I need to be able to stay within a Project to do multiple edits and then save and close when I'm ready to do so.

Sorry to be blunt, but I think changes made on the admin side need immediate attention. They all represent a retrograde step for admins and will just end up annoying them.

Best regards,
Stuart

• Phase 1 enhancing the way map configurations are created (now called map projects) and moving that initially into SSA. This was released in 2018.2.

• Then phase 2 will see the remaining SSA Admin Console (functionality profiles and all other settings) migrated into Spectrum Spatial Manager. This will be released towards the end of 2019 as 2019.1 As part of phase 2 we will provide the home page (with improvements) in Spatial Manager and the ability to launch and create/edit SSA projects from Spatial Manager (launching SSA).

• Set the zoom and XY visually rather than typing in coordinates for a zoom and extent
• Turn individual layers on and off (which was not supported previously)
• Ability to create and save query and thematic layers as an admin
• Re-order business maps in SSA
• Set visibility for business maps in SSA
• Browse and add more layers in SSA
• Optionally add thematic and query layers which are also persisted in a project.
• End user can be given permissions to save their own map projects

• Map Information can be enabled on a per layer basis
• Querying and CSV export can be enabled on a per layer basis
• You can preview maps and layers before adding them to SSA

• 2018.2 added permission management and the concept of a sub-admin user (who can manage parts of the repository – rather like a devolved data owner).  This sub-admin concept will also apply to SSA project creation. For small customers where a single admin manages these things it may not needed, but for deployments where you have a large number of departments or for shared service scenarios between multi customers (like local councils sharing services) it will be useful.

• Style override of layers and the ability to create and manage maps and layers were added in 12.2 and 2018.2 and in 2019.1 we will include the ability create range and individual value thematic maps and also style override support for Mapinfo raster layers (so that grid cells can be styled differently in different layer, each using the same MRR file).

• Allow more characters (and 2 lines) on the thumbnail page for the project name. We will consider making the text longer and split it over two lines. Also, we will introduce an ability to toggle between the thumbnail view and a list view option.

• Allow the browser's back button to take you back to the config you were on before you selected 'Project Home'. This seems to work for us. If other customers experience this issue please let us know.

• Switch user button to switch between users without having to log off and login again. This was considered at the outset as we felt it would help admins to switch to a user and see how a project looked from a user perspective. But since admins would not normally have the password for individual users this may not be usable. Also from an end user perspective the project would look broadly the same (apart from certain functionality options being omitted) For users themselves they would not normally need to switch to a different user as role-based permissions would grant them access to all the map projects they need.

• Ability to switch between Projects within the Projects settings page (1). We will discuss with the UX team the introduction of a switch projects option on the project settings page.

• Delay in the click action (e.g. in a tick box) and the action actually happening (2) and waiting for the black progress circle to complete (3). This is due to the number of maps and layers added to map projects at Southwark. Please see general reply above

• ·Saving a project in SSA applies the current zoom and XY to the project (4). This works as designed and was considered to be one of the benefits of saving a project in SSA, as you can visually place the map location exactly as you need it. We can consider adding this but we would not wish to remove the benefit for those customers who want to use SSA to position their map. We can consider how this can be achieved to allow both scenarios (perhaps setting the zoom and XY as a default can be added which will then preserve the zoom and XY in a project?

• It takes around 1-2 minutes to add a new Named Map to a Project (5). This is an issue and needs to be addressed. Southwark have 5,433 named layers and about 600 named maps. When listing layers in the manage maps side panel it takes time for the list to populate (despite taking only a quarter of a second to return the names of all those layers from the server). This is a bug and needs to be fixed.

• Named Maps are expanded to show the layers within them (6) and under Business Maps cannot move Named Maps up and down (7). We will discuss with the UX team and introduce map re-ordering to the project settings page. This would need to be implemented in conjunction with collapsing the layers. In the meantime, however re-ordering of ma layers is available in SSA and admins can re-order the layers there (as well as set visibility and opacity) and then save the project

• When saves are complete (when the black circle disappears) the screen remains in the frosted-over state (8). This should not be happening and is a consequence of the large number of maps and layers in the project. We will review and fix this

• Phase 1 enhancing the way map configurations are created (now called map projects) and moving that initially into SSA. This was released in 2018.2.

• Then phase 2 will see the remaining SSA Admin Console (functionality profiles and all other settings) migrated into Spectrum Spatial Manager. This will be released towards the end of 2019 as 2019.1 As part of phase 2 we will provide the home page (with improvements) in Spatial Manager and the ability to launch and create/edit SSA projects from Spatial Manager (launching SSA).

• Set the zoom and XY visually rather than typing in coordinates for a zoom and extent
• Turn individual layers on and off (which was not supported previously)
• Ability to create and save query and thematic layers as an admin
• Re-order business maps in SSA
• Set visibility for business maps in SSA
• Browse and add more layers in SSA
• Optionally add thematic and query layers which are also persisted in a project.
• End user can be given permissions to save their own map projects

• Map Information can be enabled on a per layer basis
• Querying and CSV export can be enabled on a per layer basis
• You can preview maps and layers before adding them to SSA

• 2018.2 added permission management and the concept of a sub-admin user (who can manage parts of the repository – rather like a devolved data owner).  This sub-admin concept will also apply to SSA project creation. For small customers where a single admin manages these things it may not needed, but for deployments where you have a large number of departments or for shared service scenarios between multi customers (like local councils sharing services) it will be useful.

• Style override of layers and the ability to create and manage maps and layers were added in 12.2 and 2018.2 and in 2019.1 we will include the ability create range and individual value thematic maps and also style override support for Mapinfo raster layers (so that grid cells can be styled differently in different layer, each using the same MRR file).

• Allow more characters (and 2 lines) on the thumbnail page for the project name. We will consider making the text longer and split it over two lines. Also, we will introduce an ability to toggle between the thumbnail view and a list view option.

• Allow the browser's back button to take you back to the config you were on before you selected 'Project Home'. This seems to work for us. If other customers experience this issue please let us know.

• Switch user button to switch between users without having to log off and login again. This was considered at the outset as we felt it would help admins to switch to a user and see how a project looked from a user perspective. But since admins would not normally have the password for individual users this may not be usable. Also from an end user perspective the project would look broadly the same (apart from certain functionality options being omitted) For users themselves they would not normally need to switch to a different user as role-based permissions would grant them access to all the map projects they need.

• Ability to switch between Projects within the Projects settings page (1). We will discuss with the UX team the introduction of a switch projects option on the project settings page.

• Delay in the click action (e.g. in a tick box) and the action actually happening (2) and waiting for the black progress circle to complete (3). This is due to the number of maps and layers added to map projects at Southwark. Please see general reply above

• ·Saving a project in SSA applies the current zoom and XY to the project (4). This works as designed and was considered to be one of the benefits of saving a project in SSA, as you can visually place the map location exactly as you need it. We can consider adding this but we would not wish to remove the benefit for those customers who want to use SSA to position their map. We can consider how this can be achieved to allow both scenarios (perhaps setting the zoom and XY as a default can be added which will then preserve the zoom and XY in a project?

• It takes around 1-2 minutes to add a new Named Map to a Project (5). This is an issue and needs to be addressed. Southwark have 5,433 named layers and about 600 named maps. When listing layers in the manage maps side panel it takes time for the list to populate (despite taking only a quarter of a second to return the names of all those layers from the server). This is a bug and needs to be fixed.

• Named Maps are expanded to show the layers within them (6) and under Business Maps cannot move Named Maps up and down (7). We will discuss with the UX team and introduce map re-ordering to the project settings page. This would need to be implemented in conjunction with collapsing the layers. In the meantime, however re-ordering of ma layers is available in SSA and admins can re-order the layers there (as well as set visibility and opacity) and then save the project

• When saves are complete (when the black circle disappears) the screen remains in the frosted-over state (8). This should not be happening and is a consequence of the large number of maps and layers in the project. We will review and fix this