Describes the steps involved in creating a map with the Map Builder

The basic steps for creating a map with the Map Builder are:

You can import data in different formats to build up the map to use in your application. See Map data in Programming with JViews Maps for a list of websites where you can download data from.

The Map Builder has a Property Sheet for assigning values to layer style properties and thus styling the different layers of the map. The properties available depend on the format imported on a particular layer. The scope of properties covers the following types:

Layers can be organized in hierarchies, where parent layers contain sublayers. Sublayers can be set to inherit the properties of their parent or can be set to be independent and override the properties of their parent.

Layers can be set to be shown or hidden. The ability to hide layers from the user can be useful when you want to retain control of some construction layers.

Dynamic styling allows you to map property values to a specific scale level. The values change as you cross the scale threshold to another layer.

You can set your preferences for particular functions such as the preferred projection, or the preferred way to display distances, altitudes, or coordinates.

These functions, such as coordinates or projection, are used directly by various beans supplied in the product.

You can save the styling of the map by saving the map theme. In this case, the map is rebuilt at load time by reading the data source again.

If you want to save the map data as well as the look and feel, you can save the map theme and the data.

If you want to use the map outside the Map Builder, you can export map layers in Shape format, GeoTIFF format, or use the KML/ KMZ export bridge or an Oracle Spatial server. You can also use the JViews SDKs, since maps prepared using the Map Builder can be read by applications developed with JViews.