DisasterAWARE: What s New? Rel

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1 Introduction What s New? is intended to provide an overview of significant new features for a particular software release of DisasterAWARE and is made available coincident with the software delivery. This document is intended for users who are already familiar with DisasterAWARE, but should not require a deep technical understanding of the platform. Additional information regarding the release, such as defect resolution or known issues, is available in the Release Notes. The comprehensive Reference Guide provides instructions for all the software features and descriptions of the various types of content; the update of this document generally follows the release by about two weeks. All documentation for the current release is available at the following link: Release 4.5: November 2012 Release 4.5 has a few stabilization enhancements to 3D, Social Media, Live TV and 1 new major feature. User Preferences New Features Default Language: Enhanced translation elements for the Layers Palette User Preferences: An earlier version DisasterAWARE introduced the Default Language enhancement that allows the user to select from a dropdown list of language configurations. Previously, those translated elements were limited to the application buttons and H&P palette. New to DisasterAWARE version 4.5, data within the Layers palette and layer descriptions will now translate with the selected language. To change the language of your viewer, select one of the available languages (currently English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Thai) under User Preferences and click save. The Layers palette will automatically update. Translation of all elements may take a few seconds. The tranlation is taken from various API s such as Goolge and Bing. Some translations may not be entirely accurate. 1 PDC Proprietary Rev. November, 2012; Release 4.5

2 Release 4.4: September 2012 DisasterAWARE: What s New? Rel Release 4.4 has a multitude of new functionality and data services; TV news channels, social media, and publicly available live cameras throughout select locations around the world. User Preferences New Features H&P Notification: Use maptips: User Preferences will have 2 new features; H&P Sound Notifications and the ability to turn off Maptips within the map frame. The first is using sound notifications when a hazard is updated in the H&P (Hazards & Products) palette. When a new hazard is generated, or new products are added to an existing hazard, a window will display on the bottom right corner of the map frame. The new feature allows the user to toggle on/off a sound notification alerting a user of an update to H&P. The second feature allows the user to turn on/off maptips within the primary map frame. Maptips provide quick access to attributes and links to additional PDC hazard content by placing your cursor on individual data features. Occasionaly, when the map frame displays a significant amount of data, maptips can interfere with other DisasterAWARE functionality. A user now has the choice to toggle on/off these maptips. Both features can be accessed through the User Preferences palette, checking or unchecking the box and clicking save. 2 PDC Proprietary Rev. November, 2012; Release 4.5

3 3-Dimensional (3D) *Beta Functionality Live TV Palette *Beta Functionality Live Cameras Available as a layer called Live Cameras in the Layers Palette *Beta Functionality Within DisasterAWARE, a user can now switch between the traditional 2-dimensional view and a 3- dimensional globe. The 3D globe is being release as beta functionality. There are known scale and re-fresh errors, data shifting, and other issues that will be addressed in future releases. Initial release of the new Live TV palette will include 2 major international news outlets. Live streaming feeds of CNN and MSNBC will be available to users by clicking on the TV icon. Channels can by switched by clicking on the name of the channel located in the bottom right corner of the palette. New channels will be added on a case by case basis. Miscellaneous live cameras are now available within the United States and some locations internationally. A user needs to be zoomed in at a certain scale to see the various cameras. When zoomed out, turn on cluster view to see camera availability globally. Multiple camera feeds can be viewed by clicking on the map icons and adjusting the popup windows to fit your browser. Please note, specific cameras refresh at different intervals. Some cameras could be seconds, others could be minutes. Various feeds may become unavailable due to host provider issues. 3 PDC Proprietary Rev. November, 2012; Release 4.5

4 Social Map Available as a layer called Social Map in the Layers Palette *Beta Functionality The Social Map feature interfaces with real-time data from Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and visualizes the information in an interactive density map (aka heat map ) that clusters social communications by their geographic location. The feature allows the user to narrow in on geographic clusters and expose the social information in a popup. A search feature is provided that allows a user to specify a topic or choose from one of the default topics to narrow the query and focus only to that social information on the map. Social information is derived directly from Twitter, YouTube, Flickr in real-time and to maintain relevance, displays only the last 12 elapsed hours of postings through these systems. Keyword searches are by their nature literal and often produce results that may be interpreted as out-of-context. PDC does filter the content of social media feeds and expressly does not warrant the accuracy or applicability of the information derived from social media sources for a particular use or purpose. Release 4.3: May 2012 Release 4.3 included minor functionality enhancements. The most notable enhancement was the ability to include drawings within bookmarks to share with other users of DisasterAWARE. When a user creates a drawing, annotation, or measurement within the map; the user can then use the bookmark function to share those drawings within the DisasterAWARE community. This functionality is not compatible with bookmarks prior to 4.3. Please note; users may experience a loss of previously created bookmarks. Simply recreate the previous bookmark and default extents. We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause. To learn more about the enhanced draw functionality, and other features released in 4.2, see below. Release 4.2: April 2012 Release 4.2 includes the addition of new tools accessible via the Draw toolbar. Extending these capabilities allows the user community to inject information into the system in the form of annotated maps. These sketches can be exported to KML or saved as a JPEG to share with other users. These KML files can be reloaded to DisasterAWARE or into other applications that accept KML (i.e., Google Earth). (As of 4.3 the Bookmark function is enabled to include drawings.) Additional analytical capabilities include the ability to measure geographic distances and areas. At this time these capabilities are being released in prototype form, 4 PDC Proprietary Rev. November, 2012; Release 4.5

5 which means that the functions may require further refinement before they are considered ready for mission-critical use. New features also include an enhanced Print function, support for the Military Grid Reference System (MGRS) and the ability to create shareable/savable links to specific hazards. The presentation of images (i.e., tiles, raster files) has been configured to match standard scales used by commercial imagery providers to improve the quality of the presentation. In the future, this capability will be further leveraged to improve system performance. Minor enhancements include the ability to sort Bookmarks in the bookmark palette; the persistence during a browser session of the size and position of the metadata palette; and the ability for the user to center the map on entered coordinates. The support of multiple languages has been extended to include the Thai language. Both the enhanced draw and print functions are being released as prototype functions. For a list of potential bugs and fixes with each release, please review details located in the Release Notes. The enhanced Draw functions allow the user community to inject information into the system in the form of annotated maps. This example shows an area in Haiti near an airport and two Hospitals that has been established with a Staging Area and a Primary Supply Route. The screen shot is saved as a JPEG and posted as a product to the Hazards and Products collaboration tool in DisasterAWARE to enable sharing with the response community. As of release 4.3, these drawings can be used with the bookmark function to share with other users of DisasterAWARE. Enhanced Draw General Functions *Beta Functionality The first tool on the tool bar, Select Draw Object, is generally the default tool. Click on a tool to activate. After drawing an object with that tool, the Select Draw Object tool is re-activated so the object can be repositioned, resized, or reshaped if desired. To reposition an object, hover over the object with the cursor and observe a line segment that is solid (no editting controls are present). Click and hold on this segment (or over the fill area in the case of a polygon) then drag and release to 5 PDC Proprietary Rev. November, 2012; Release 4.5

6 reposition. Each draw object has square controls at the ends of vertices which can be used to resize or reshape the object. In the case of lines, the controls at the ends are circles. Using a click-hold-drag-release technique, these controls can be used to add line segments. A double-click generally ends editting. Each tool functions slightly differently, as detailed below. For the Free-form Line and Free-form Polygon tools, some practice and a steady hand is required for optimal results as the tool is sensitive to minute movements. This, of course, allows for very detailed line drawings. All objects can be labeled and formatted for transparency, size, line and fill color after they are created. These funtions are detailed in the section entitled Edit Palette. Use the Figure List palette (details below) to control the draw order and visability of individual objects and to access the Object Edit and Object Delete funtions. Re-scaling the map is supported although some distortion will occur with extreme changes in scale from the original drawing. Moving objects which have a linear or area measurement from one area of the map to another will change the measurement calulation based on the projection and the new coordinates. Select Draw Object Point Rectangle Straight Line Free Form Line Straight Edge Polygon Free Form Polygon Use the Select Draw Object tool to make a particular drawing object active for modifications which include repositioning, resizing, or reshaping. This is the default tool for the function. Use this tool to place point symbols on the map. After activating the tool a single mouse click results in a point. Use a click-drag-release technique to draw rectangles. The function supports dragging in any direction. Click and release to begin a line. Click to end a segment, change direction and continue drawing. Double click to end the line. A single click-hold begins the drawing and a release ends the drawing. The technique is to click-hold-drag-release. The free-form line object is populated with controls to allow for reshaping the object. At the original drawing scale, these controls are difficult to isolate as they tend to stack. A suggested technique is to zoom in a bit to reshape the line. To reposition the line, hover over the object and identify a line segment between controls. Click-hold-drag to reposition. A single click-release begins the drawing. Each subsequent single click-release ends a line segment and creates a vertex control. Double-click to end the drawing. Similar to the free-form line, begin a free-form polygon with a single click-hold and then drag the cursor over the area to be encompassed by the polygon. Release ends 6 PDC Proprietary Rev. November, 2012; Release 4.5

7 the drawing. Reshaping, repositioning and other techniques are the same as those detailed for free-form lines. Annotation Buffer Tool Measure Tool Polygon Area Circle Area To add annotations to the map, click on the Annotation button and then click again on the location where you want the Annotation to appear. Upon the second click, the dialog box opens. Type desired text and Submit. This tool supports line breaks and there is currently no length limit imposed. The annotation is added to the map as a separate object which can be repositioned. This object type does not scale it will remain the same size no matter the scale. The purpose of this tool is to be able to define a circular area based on a point and radius. Click-hold-drag-release to define the buffer. The function supports dragging in any direction. A control at the end of the radius segment allows for the buffer to be resized after it is drawn. The default measurement system is metric, but the imperial system can be chosen for display as an edit function. In a future release, the choice of default measurement system will be stored as a User Preference. A single click-release-drag-click defines each line segment. As the line is drawn, the distance is displayed in a text box that remains proximate to the line segment. Each click will generate a new line segment until a double-click is issued to end the drawing. The end point of each vertex is populated with a square control which can be grabbed with a click-hold-release technique to resize the line segment and reposition the vertex. Each end of the total line drawing is populated with a circular control which can be grabbed with a click-hold-release technique to add additional line segments. Only straight lines are supported. Use the Edit Palette to change between the metric and imperial measurement systems, and to display the accumulated total distance from all measured line segments as an additional text box associated with the object. Use a click-release-drag-click to define each line segment. As the polygon is drawn, the area measurement is calculated and displayed in a text box located in the approximate center of the polygon. Double click to end the drawing. As with other objects, the end of each line segment is populated with a control that allows for the object to be reshaped and resized. Once a polygon is drawn, no additional line segments can be added. Use the Edit Palette to change between the metric and imperial measurement systems. Use a click-hold-drag-release technique to define a circular area. The area measurement is dynamically calculated and displayed. Once the drawing is complete, a control is located at the release point which can be grabbed and used to resize the object. Use the Edit Palette to change between the metric and imperial measurement systems. 7 PDC Proprietary Rev. November, 2012; Release 4.5

8 Deleting/Hiding Draw Objects Click on Drawing to Delete It Delete All Drawings Figure List Activate the Click on Drawing to Delete It button on the Draw Toolbar, then click on the object to be deleted. Remember that tools are single use. To delete a second object, it is necessary to re-activate the tool. This function is also available from the Edit Panel where it is also represented by a trash can. All drawn objects can be deleted with a single click to the Delete All Drawings button. Objects can also be temporarily hidden by clicking on the eyeball icon in the Figure List palette (detailed below). Each drawn object has a corresponding entry in the Figure List palette. The entry includes a visual representation of the drawn object, the Name of the object (which can be modified using Edit functions), and three icons: 1. Clicking on the eyeball icon hides the object. (When panning in the map frame this toggle in the Figure List can get out of synch with the map frame. This is easily corrected by clicking off/on again.) 2. Clicking on the trash can icon deletes the object. 3. The middle icon, represented by a pencil on paper, opens the Edit palette (details follow). There is also a checkbox to indicate whether or not to include the object in an Export to KML. To create a KML file with the draw objects, click on the button at the top of the Figure List that looks like a blue and white sphere with a green arrow. The function uses standard browser software to assist with saving the file. Be sure the saved file has the.kml extension. If objects in the map frame overlap, the draw order can be controlled by moving the entries in the Figure List. Dragging an item to the top of the list has the effect of sending it to the back of the drawing. An item dragged to the bottom of the list will be on the top of the drawing. 8 PDC Proprietary Rev. November, 2012; Release 4.5

9 Edit Palette Multiple Language Support (a.k.a. Internationalization, or i18n) Activated through the Figure List, there is an Edit Palette associated with each drawn object. Multiple palettes can be open simultaneously. Not all options are available for all object types. The palette includes (in order of location, top-to-bottom, left-to-right): a visual representation of the object and controls to change the color and transparency of the object border and fill; a control to change the line size; and controls to change the color of text and borders for object types that have auto-generated labels and whether to show the border; radio buttons to switch between metric and imperial measurement systems for relevant object types; a free-form field that allows for the Figure Name to be changed; a free-form field that allows for a map tip to be defined (note the map tip field supports line breaks). Preferred language is chosen via the User Preferences palette. The button that activates the palette is located on the Menu Bar at the top of the application window. With Release 4.2, support for the Thai language is added. Earlier releases have added Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Spanish. Military Grid Reference System (MGRS) Re-center on userdefined coordinates Click on the Grid button to turn on a layer that visualizes this reference system. The boxes are editable and if valid coordinates are entered the map will center on the indicated location. When clicking in any box, controls to Reset or Accept the entry appear. Click on the circular control to Reset or the arrow shaped control to Accept the entry. 9 PDC Proprietary Rev. November, 2012; Release 4.5

10 Enhanced Print *Prototype Functionality Link directly to a hazard The Print button appears at the top right-most corner of the application window. When this button is clicked, the Print palette opens reflecting the layers, extent, and drawn objects in the visible map frame. The Layer List box visible in the Print palette will reflect changes to the displayed layers as defined in the Layers palette. The Description box is editable, allowing for the map to be given a title, and includes a date stamp which reflects when the Print function was initially engaged. This feature supports line breaks. The function relies on standard browser interaction with installed/available printers. Best results are obtained by setting print preferences to landscape mode, and this must be done for each printed map. The printed results -- aspect ratio and area of the map -- are affected by the video resolution of the monitor being used, and the printout is affected by printer settings, so some experimentation will be required for each client to achieve optimal results. Click on the Link to Hazard button to copy an URL specific to a particular hazard to the system clipboard. The button is located in the Hazard list on the far right of the entry. When this link is engaged, it will cause a window in the default browser for the PC to open and load DisasterAWARE with the map centered on the Hazard and the Product list for that Hazard displayed. If the user is not already signed in to DisasterAWARE, an authentication challenge will be offered before the application is loaded. When a browser session is initiated with such a link, the details remain in the address bar of the browser and will be refreshed whenever the browser is refreshed. To remove this persistence, delete the details from the address bar. See example: Delete the?h=##### to remove the hazard specific link. 10 PDC Proprietary Rev. November, 2012; Release 4.5

11 Fixed scales to match Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! Bookmark Sort This enhancement is transparent to most end users of the system. It allows for higher quality presentation of labels, in particular. Bookmarks listed in the Bookmark palette can be sorted by the name of the bookmark. Position and size of metadata palette persists for browser session Active links in map tips Once a user establishes the size and position of the metadata palette, it will remain fixed for the browser session. (Previously it would return to the default size and position each time a new metadata record was requested, which is not productive if the user wants to examine multiple metadata records in succession). When configured for the PDC Integrated Hazards Layer, the URL will open a new browser window displaying the Hazard page available to the social network sites. The feature can also be configured to work with attribute data that contains a URL. Import KML enhancements As KML is an evolving standard, it is not possible to support every variation with every release. In general, the less complex a KML file, the more likely DisasterAWARE will be able to display it. In the event the KML cannot be read by DisasterAWARE, the user will see the illustrated error message. 11 PDC Proprietary Rev. November, 2012; Release 4.5