Configuring location maps

A location map in IBM® Intelligent Operations Center is a map, diagram, or plan with predefined areas for interaction, for example, seating areas in a major sports stadium. And you can configure data sources so that data items are displayed on relevant areas of location maps.

In the location maps configuration tool, you can create, view, update, and delete location maps, collections, and areas. You can create and delete categories, but you cannot update existing categories. Categories, collections, location maps, and areas are hierarchical as detailed in the following definitions.

Category: A category contains one or more collections of location maps. A category assists the user by organizing the menu so that location maps can be found easily. For example, a category that is called Police Stations contains collections of location maps that represent police stations in a city.
Collection: A collection contains one or more location maps. A collection usually consists of a set of maps and is represented by a marker at a position on a geospatial map. A collection must be assigned location coordinates and a category. For example, a collection that is called Fourth Precinct contains location maps that are associated with a police station in the fourth precinct of a city.
Location Map: A location map is any image that represents a location in the required detail. A location map must be assigned to a collection. For example, Floor 1 is a location map of the first floor of a building. This location map is assigned to a collection of maps for the Fourth Precinct police station within a category called Police Stations.
Area: An area is a user-defined shape, a polygon, that outlines a portion of a location map. An area must be assigned a name and description. The name is a unique identifier that represents that portion of the location map. Depending on the access levels defined for the location maps and the data sources, any data item with an area identifier that is received by the solution, is displayed on all location maps that have that area defined. For example, the Fourth Precinct map collection has an area that is called Hudson Bldg Staircase on the Hudson Bldg Floor 1 and Hudson Bldg Floor 2 location maps. Care must be taken to assign suitable names to areas to ensure that data items are displayed on the correct location maps only. For example, if a number of unrelated location maps have areas named Staircase, any data item with an area identifier of Staircase is displayed on all of these location maps. There is also an option to assign a parent identifier to an area.

Use the identifier on more than one location map to create a hierarchy of areas. For example, create areas to represent the seating stands on the first floor of a sports stadium. Each seating stand is defined on the detailed location map of the first floor of the stadium. Additionally, give each seating stand a parent identifier to indicate that it is on the first floor area on an overview location map of the stadium. A data item with an area identifier for one of the seating stands is displayed on the detailed seating map of the first floor. This data item is also displayed on the overview location map of the stadium. The first floor area on the overview map has the same area identifier as the parent identifier that is used for the seating stand areas.

To configure a data source to display data items on one or more location maps, set the name of the area on the location map as the value of the data source's Area name minimal property. For more information, see Data source minimal property settings. To restrict the display of these data items to location maps that are accessible to authorized users only, ensure that the correct access levels are set on the data source and on the location maps. For more information, see Securing your data source and Creating, updating, or deleting a location map.

Viewing and uploading map images
As an administrator, you can view or upload map images that are available to use when you are creating location maps in the solution. The accepted formats for location map images are PNG, JPG, GIF, and SVG.
Creating, updating, or deleting a location map
As an administrator, you can create location maps to display in the Operations view to authorized users. You can also create named areas for location maps, and each named area represents a portion of the location map. If a data item has an area name that matches a named area on a location map, the data item is displayed on the location map to users who are authorized to access both the data source and the location map. You can also update or delete location maps.
Creating, updating, or deleting areas on a location map
As an administrator you can create, update, or delete areas on a location map.
Configuring the number for the location map icon
As a system administrator, configure the appearance of the number that is displayed with the icon that represents a location map on the geospatial map.

Parent topic: Configuring the solution

Related concepts:

Location map