Typical actions

You import different data sources into a map to provide different views of the data contained in the map. Each data source is associated with a different map layer.

For example, you might start with a shape file, to provide an uncomplicated view of the world as a backdrop.

Then you could refine the esthetic representation of the map by importing a GeoTIFF format map of the world.

Street level views can be added from GeoTIFF format and ESRI/Shapefile format data sources.

An example of the series of typical data source types outlined here can be found in An example map in Using the Map Builder .

JViews Maps for Defense is supplied with the Map Data disk, which includes general map formats that can be distributed free.

For each map layer you can decide its look and feel in terms of its color, thickness transparency, and so on, and you can define settings for specific zoom levels so that the look and feel changes when users zoom in and out. The look and feel of each layer and its zoom triggers represent a map theme. This is used to visualize only meaningful information for each context.

You can then load the Designer project file that contains the background map developed with the Map Builder and the Symbols added with the Designer, and load it into your application. For more information about symbols, see the JViews Diagrammer document Developing with design tools>Using the Symbol Editor.

You can add symbol groups to contain symbols that represent items of different types of warfare unit or equipment. The symbols conform to the APP-6a Standard used by NATO.

Depending on the type of warfare selected and the type of unit or equipment, you are offered a set of properties to describe the object. JViews Maps for Defense places the APP-6a symbol corresponding to the property definition in the position on the map specified in Latitude and Longitude coordinates by the Location property.

Equipment and troop placement are extremely important. The Terrain Analysis features are designed to depict topographic data accurately. With a few mouse clicks, you can create a Line of Sight image to check whether troops and equipment are correctly positioned.

Rogue Wave® provides a sample application, the Map Builder , that includes the data reading and writing facilities and the layer styling facilities for building theme in a point-and-click editor. The sample code is accessible and you can easily customize it.

The product also includes the Designer for JViews Diagrammer. The Designer is a point-and-click editor used for writing style rules that control the styling of nodes on the map.

You can switch easily between these tools to hone your application. Typically, you use the Map Builder to speed up application development time by reading in the data sources in different formats and then creating the map theme by styling the layers. Then you would switch to the Designer to write style rules to change the appearance of nodes depending on certain conditions and to design symbols to represent nodes on the map.

If you need more than these easy-to-use GUIs have to offer, there is a full-featured SDK for refining and customizing your application. In addition to the general mapping API of JViews Maps for Defense, you have access to the Styling and Data Mapping (SDM) package of the JViews Diagrammer API for the styling of nodes to place on a background map, and the whole of the JViews Framework API with its powerful graphics framework. You have full control over what you do.

With today’s battlefield technology, you can use prepared maps updated in real time with live streamed data. The prepared maps can be streamed by satellite to a notebook in a military vehicle. Up-to-date photographic data can be transmitted from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). You can have real-time data feed from PDAs in the field. Data from the Global Positioning System (GPS) can also be streamed and displayed on the notebook.

One could even imagine a situation where every soldier has a life sensor for transmitting data to the notebook in the mobile command center and the symbols on the map could reflect the position of the troops moving in real time and their losses.

In the application, the up-to-date data can be displayed against the background map with the appropriate symbols correctly positioned.

The key strengths of JViews Maps for Defense make it ideal for asset-mapping applications.

Since the map data and the map theme can be saved separately, the map theme can be used to style maps for different regions so that they have the same color scheme and visual properties. The final user can then reuse this theme and apply it to the appropriate data source at run time.