This document explains the user and custom data management in our web-based Gazetteer Management System application. This guide will help people who are not familiar with our GIS system, how to utilise these features.

To access the user and data administration console please log into the GMS system with the provided gms_admin account.

Open

User Management

To manage users please click the Users tool. A window will be shown with the list of all users of the GMS system.

Open

The process of adding and managing users is very simple and straightforward. To add a user, please click Add and select the Add... from the drop-down.

At this point, another window will pop up asking you to provide details of the user account to be created. To add a user, you must provide at least their Login and Full name.

You will also want to set their initial password via the Change password.

When setting this password, you do not have to obey the password enforcement policy (see the section titled Security and Password Enforcement Policy). This is convenient if you intend to use the User must change password at next login option as it allows you to provide them with a simple to remember initial password which they will be forced to change when they log into the system for the first time and at that point, the new password will have to obey the aforementioned policy.

As for the user account maintenance, there are dedicated tools (highlighted green on the image below) that will allow you to perform the following actions.

• To remove a user from the system, please use Delete.
• To change user’s details (Full name, Telephone, or Email), please use Edit.
• To change the user's Login, please use Rename.
• To temporarily prevent a user from being able to access the system, please use Disable.
• To change the user’s password, please use Change password.

If you want to know more about the individual tools described here, please go to our online documentation. Please check the section Accessing Help to learn about the easiest way of accessing it.

Security and Password Enforcement Policy

This section shows what restrictions can be configured to strengthen the application and password security. A configuration is applied by the StatMap technician during the GMS application deployment and your input is required to determine what values should be entered in each box.

Inactivity period in minutes
Idle sessions will be disconnected after the specified number of minutes.

Maximum login tries count before cooldown
A number of failed log-in attempts before the cooldown is applied.

Cooldown period in minutes
The period during which the user won’t be able to log in after the maximum log-in tries value is exceeded.

Password validity in days
A number of days after which the user will have to change the password.

Password minimal length
Minimal length of characters that can be used in a password.

A section that determines what characters need to be used while creating new passwords:
• Upper-case and lower-case letters
• Numbers
• Special characters (eg: !@#$%^&*()_+)

Custom Data Management

In this section, we will explain how to manage the custom datasets and configure the map document which can be added to the default GMS map at will. If you want to know more about the individual tools described here, please go to our online documentation. Please check the section Accessing Help to learn about the easiest way of accessing it.

When you access the GMS administration console for the first time, you should see the following interface. In the previous section, we have covered the User management tool. Here we will focus on the remaining tools visible on the toolbar in Map and Data sections.

Let’s start with the tools in the Data section as you first need to import some data via the Import Layer tool before you can set it up as part of the Map.

Import Layer

This tool allows you to import spatial data stored in one of many widely recognised flat file formats:

• ESRI Shapefile (*.shp, *.shx, *.dbf, .prj)
• MapInfo Tab (.tab, *.dat, *.id, .map)
• MapInfo Mid/Mif (.mid, *.mif)

Because our GMS application is web-based and due to the sandboxing nature of web-browsers and their interactions with the computer file system, when importing a spatial dataset, please remember to either:

a) select all required files when you see the file browsing window, or
b) before attempting to import a spatial dataset, compress it with a zip compressor (a feature that is built-in all modern versions of Windows OS and usually can be found under Send to -> Compressed (zipped) folder) and then point the Import Layer tool at this zip file.

When you click the Import Layer tool, a window will pop up asking you to Select files to upload. When you click this button, you will see the standard Open file window, through which you can navigate to where the spatial datasets reside and select the files to be uploaded.

If the upload was successful, you should see the Import layer window with details of the dataset which will be imported.

Feel free to change the Layer name if the proposed name is unsuitable. Do not change the Table name and other details (highlighted in red). If this is the first time you are importing this particular dataset, the table will not yet exist in the database so you can leave the Overwrite if the table exists box unchecked. This box is there to:

a) prevent you from accidentally overwriting a table that exists in the database with a new data file due to identical names - Overwrite if table exists box unchecked.
b) allow you to intentionally overwrite an existing table if the imported dataset is supposed to refresh existing data - Overwrite if table exists box checked.

Export Layer

This tool allows you to export spatial data stored in the GMS database into one of many widely recognised flat file formats. The exported data will be saved on your local disk as a compressed (zipped) folder.
When you click the Export Layer tool, an Export layers window will pop up.

You will see the list of layers from your Map (1). We will cover the map configuration in a section titled Map Management. You can select one or more entries from this list. Once you have made your choice as to what data you wish to export, you should choose the Export format (2). You can also choose to export only those records which are currently visible on the map (3) and you can add additional columns to the exported file (4).

When you’re happy with the configuration of the Export Layers window, please click Export. After a while, you will be asked to open or save the exported resource.

Please select Save and confirm the location where the file should be saved.

Delete Layer

The last of the data management tools is the Delete Layer. This tool allows you to remove the data table from the database when the data is no longer required.
In order to delete the data, please click the Delete Layer tool, select the layer which you wish to delete, and confirm with OK.

A warning will be shown asking you to confirm again that you wish to delete the dataset.

Please check the Also drop the table from the database box and click Yes if you want to delete the dataset or No if you’ve changed your mind.

Map Management

Once you have your data imported, you can start organising the Map. The Map is a collection of individual datasets (called Layers) which are stacked on top of one another.

Add Layers

To add a layer to the map or remove a layer from the map please click Add Layers tool.

You’ll see the content of the map (1) and the available layers (2). To add a layer to the map, you can:

• grab and drag an entry from the Layers pane to the Map pane
• select one or more entries on the Layers pane and click Add Layers button

While working with this window, you can reorder the layers in the map by dragging and dropping them on the Map pane. When you grab and drag a layer you will see a hint as to where it will be dropped.

You can also use this window if you wish to remove a layer from the Map. The removal of a layer from the map will not delete the layer, to do that you have to use the Delete Layer tool. To remove one or more layers from the map, please select them on the Map pane and click the Remove button.

Being able to add and remove layers from the map will allow you to reorganise your map to fit your current requirements without having to re-import the data every time you want to use it in your map.
To finish map organisation please press Close.

Configuring layers in Map

Layers have a wide array of properties that can be configured on them. To see those properties please click a layer on the Map Key pane so that its entry is expanded and highlighted yellow and click Properties to show the Layer Properties window.

Layer Properties window consists of 3 tabs.

General

Here you can set the Title of the layer which will be shown in the Legend of the GMS app and the visibility thresholding which controls at what scales the layer should be visible on the map.

Display Query

Here you can configure the styling of the data as well as its Opacity. Correctly setting up opacity is very important as the map which you are configuring will be drawn on top of the default map so if your data consists of, for example, solid polygon geometries representing Listed Buildings, it may obstruct the points representing BLPU records.

Labels

On this tab you can set up the labelling of the records on the map. Please keep in mind that labels are immovable so they will be obstructing objects underneath.

Save map

When you’re finished with setting up the map, please click Save Map to preserve it.

When you see the Save Map window please click OK to save your map or Cancel if you don’t want to save the changes you’ve made. Do not press any of the buttons highlighted in red or change the name of the map.

If you made changes to the map and haven’t saved it you can restore the map to its previous state by reloading the management console. The state of the map will be read from the last save point so any unsaved changes will be discarded.

Add a map to GMS app

By default, the GMS app comes with a predefined map with all necessary layers configured to allow you to manage gazetteer data. In order to expand this map to include the layers which you have set up earlier, the URL which is used to open the StatMap GMS application must be extended with an additional parameter called custommap.

This means that any user of the StatMap GMS application can include the additional data in their work session at will. Please compare the examples of the default GMS URL and the parametrised URL with custommap parameter.

URL to open the GMS app with just the default map
http://lab-cloud/map/map.html
URL to open the GMS app with the default map extended to include the custom data
http://lab-cloud/map/map.html?custommap

Changing gms_admin password

If at any point you want or need to change the password please click the StatMap logo and select Change password from the drop-down.

You will then have to enter the current password and the new password. The new password will have to adhere to the password enforcement policy.

Accessing Help

You can learn more about the various tools described in this guide by reading our online documentation. The quickest and simplest way of accessing this documentation is via the Help icon in the top-right corner of the window. When you click it, the window will dim and you will see amber outlines around each tool. When you click within an outline, the documentation about this tool will open in a new web browser tab. When you click outside any of the outlines you will be able to use the interface again.