Managing Locations

How to manage locations

Locations are the basic building block for the Remnant PrairiesGIS-Lite” system. They specify a specific latitude and longitude of interest — whether that is a farm, a field, a park, or any other spot on the globe. Once a Location is created, then Georegions can be added — to mark and annotate Points or Lines of interest, or to define Regions within which to perform FQAs. Here are the details of the first step — managing Locations.

Who can manage Locations?

People who are members of a group can manage Locations for that group, while only people to whom we’ve granted the necessary superpowers can create manage the publicly-accessible Locations. This is because we expect a certain level of understanding and experience with the system from anyone doing things that might impact other users, while within the safe confines of a group, people can experiment and learn the techniques.

Thus, those who have the capabilities to do the following tasks will see links in various places that allow them to do them. If you don’t see such links, then you don’t have those powers. If don’t have those powers but think think that you should, email us and we’ll discuss it.

Whether within a group on in the public space, one can create, edit, and delete Locations. The following instructions tell you how, and the accompanying screen-shots will show you what you’ll see. You can click on any of the thumbnail images to get to larger versions with have additional descriptions and links to assist browsing through them.

Finding existing Locations

Publicly-accessible Locations are listed in the main Location database, where you’ll also see any group Locations from groups in which you’re a member. Group Locations are listed in the Locations box on the group’s main page.

Creating a Location

If you are a member of a group, you can create a new group Location. Follow these simple steps:

  1. Click the “Add location” link you’ll see (if you have permissions to do so) in the list of existing Locations. This will return a form you need to complete.
  2. Set the latitude and longitude of your location. There are two ways to do this; the first is by far the easiest:
    • Type an address into the form field and let Google find your spot. If your location is rural, simply type the nearest town and state and then navigate in the map (by zooming in/out and dragging the map) to where you want to go.
    • Zoom/drag the map directly. The map loads Topeka, KS, by default (since that is the closest main city to the principal initial users of Remnant Prairies).
  3. Type your new location’s name and a description. If you let Google find your address, that address will automatically fill in the description field; modify that as you like.
  4. Note that you cannot type a latitude or longitude directly into those fields; they are filled in when you click in the map.
  5. Click in the map to place the marker exactly where you want it. By zooming in, you can place it very precisely.
  6. Click the “Save” button to save your new Location back to the Remnant Prairies database.

Viewing a Location

When you click on an existing Location to view it’s main page, you will see lots of information. Take a look at this screen shot of a test location or better yet, the publicly-accessible Grant Bradbury Prairie. In addition to the description, you’ll see a Google map centered on the Location’s latitude and longitude and filled with whatever Georegions that have been set up for the Location. The Georegions are also listed to the right of the map along with some data (acreage for Regions; lengths for lines) that Google provides — plus links to each of the individual Georegions.

This is the first stop when you want to do an FQA. You start at your Location, from which you can click your way to the Region that you’re studying.

Editing a Location

Go to your location’s main page and you’ll see an “Edit” link right under the map (if you have the necessary superpowers) in an Admin Options section. Click that link and you’ll reach a form where you can edit the name, description, and center (by clicking the map again) of your location. This form is identical to the one used to create a new Location, except we skip the Google address search in the edit form — since presumably you’re already very close to where you want to be. (If you really want the Location to move so far that you think you need Google to find the address, you probably should be making a new Location instead.) Save your changes, and that’s it!

Deleting a Location

If you have the necessary superpowers, you’ll see a “Delete” link just under the map in the form where you edit your location. You will be asked to confirm your action if you click this link, so you can back out before the irrevocable deletion occurs.

Once you do delete a Location, any Georegions, FQAs, comments, or anything else associated with the location will also be deleted. Because this is fairly drastic, it requires higher superpowers to delete a Location than to create or edit one.

Created: February 02, 2010 22:13
Last updated: February 03, 2010 17:54


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