Customizing Tracking Viewer

Prerequisite:

Tracking Viewer can only be customized if it is deployed to a Web server.

If Tracking Viewer is deployed to a Web server, the following configuration can be done by modifying a configuration file stored with Tracking Viewer:

In addition, these same Tracking Viewer settings can be configured by setting these properties inside Tracking Viewer itself and then exporting the settings to a URL that stores the settings. The exported URL can then be distributed and used by others, who will see the configured settings when they open Tracking Viewer using the URL. Only the settings listed above can be configured in this way. Other settings, such as the symbols used to represent tracked features, can not be configured in this way.

Although you may only wish to utilize some of the configuration options, the following procedure will guide you through all the configuration options.

Steps:
  1. Identify the home folder for the Web server where your Tracking Viewer is deployed. For Apache this location is usually <Apache installation folder>\htdocs. For IIS this location is usually C:\InetPub.
  2. Locate the config.xml file inside the Viewer folder that contains the deployed Tracking Viewer. For example, if you are using Apache, this might be located at <Apache installation folder>\htdocs\TrackingServer\Viewer.
  3. Open the config.xml file with a text editing application, such as Notepad.
  4. Edit the config.xml file to achieve the desired configuration settings. Each configuration setting is stored within custom tags to make it clear what it is. The names of the custom tags are listed here, with a brief description of how they can be modified.
    1. <remoteHostname>: The value in this tag sets the default Server name to connect to in Tracking Viewer.
    2. <port>: The value in this tag sets the default Port number that Tracking Viewer will connect to.
    3. <basemap>: The value in this tag sets the URL to be used for the basemap in Tracking Viewer if you are using a Custom basemap (if the value in the <basemapType> tag is set to Custom). If the value in the <basemapType> tag is set to Satellite or Streets, then the value in this tag is not used.
      CautionCaution:

      If you choose to use a Custom basemap, it must use a geographic coordinate system. This means that the map units specifying latitude and longitude must be decimal degrees. Failure to use a basemap with a geographic coordinate system will result in features from your tracking services being mapped at incorrect locations.

    4. <basemapType>: The value in this tag sets the default basemap type that will be used by Tracking Viewer. The standard values are Satellite, Streets, and Custom. The Satellite and Streets options use standard ESRI basemaps accessed over the internet. If the Custom option is used, then a custom basemap URL should be specified in the <basemap> tag.
    5. <labelsLayerAlpha>: The value in this tag sets the transparency of labels appearing on the basemap, if the basemap is set to Satellite. For a Streets or Custom basemap, the value has no effect. A value of 0.0 will result in no labels on the basemap. A value of 1.0 will result in solid labels on the basemap. A value in between will result in semi-transparent labels.
    6. <extent>: The values in the subtags within this tag set the initial map extent used in Tracking Viewer. The subtags of <xmin>, <xmax>, <ymin>, and <ymax> respectively set the values that determine the extent. Because Tracking Viewer requires the use of a basemap with a geographic coordinate system, the values must be entered in decimal degrees.
    7. <services>: The values in this tag, which must be separated by commas if there are multiple values, determine the service or services that will automatically be subscribed to upon logging into Tracking Viewer.
  5. Save the changes made to the config.xml file.
  6. Open the deployed Tracking Viewer in a web browser. You should see that your configuration changes are reflected in the behavior of Tracking Viewer.

    Next, you will learn how to export a URL from within Tracking Viewer which saves the current configuration settings.

  7. Log into Tracking Viewer, and make any desired changes to the configuration of the settings listed above.
  8. Click on the Manager tab on the right side of Tracking Viewer.
  9. Click the Generate button to generate a URL.
  10. A message box appears containing the URL.
  11. Copy the URL from the message box. This can be done manually, or using the Copy URL... button.

    Click Close to close the message box when you are done.

  12. Paste the URL into a web browser. Tracking Viewer is initialized using the configuration settings stored in the URL.

    This URL can be used to share your configuration settings with others.


Published 7/8/2010