DB_map - Database Map Tool FAQ

(Edited and severely cutdown version, to protect the innocent)


November, 1995

The DB_map FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions

  1. Overview
  2. Usage
  3. Details
  4. Really Specific Details
  5. Developers' Notes On Installing and Supporting
  6. A TODO List for future work...
  7. A DB_map man page converted to HTML.

Overview

This is a document explaining the use of Burlington Northern Railroad's DB_map application. This document assumes you have an account on BN's network of Sun Unix machines, and have experience using software in the CNCC. As we live in a world of acronyms, so is the name DB_map. Expanded, it stands for:

D ata B ase map

The purpose of DB_map is to provide a graphical user interface to an on-line map of Burlington Northern right-of-ways and sites, and to provide database storage of personnel and equipment. With DB_map, you can create a relationship from any geographical site to any person or equipment entity . This feature allows on-line, graphical territory assignment for maintenance and support. For example, when a Manager is linked to a headquarters site or group of sites, colored circles will highlight the specific sites on DB_map's graphical window for which the Manager possesses some kind of responsibility or association. DB_map also provides graphical windows with textfields and buttons to help maintain the database more easily.

The database's capacity is not limited to just personnel; the application is also capable of keeping detailed descriptions of hardware(Microwave, radio, or electronic equipment), geographic regions, etc., and making the same type of associations with sites as with personnel. Within the application, these categorizations are called entity-types, while the people and equipment that it tracks are called entities.

Usage

DB_map can be started from the main OpenLook menu, which pops up in response to pressing the right mouse button(the MENU button). DB_map is under "CNCC Applications." Find DB_map in the CNCC Applications menu and press the left mouse button(the SELECT button).

DB_map may take a few seconds to start and appear on the display, as it is a rather large application. If after a minute or two you still don't see anything displayed resembling the map on the top of this page, then check your console window for error messages. If you spot error messages that look related to DB_map, call or email your friendly System Administrator for help.

When DB_map first starts up, you'll see messages similar to the following, in the console(or parent shell):

If there is a problem connecting with the Ingres database for some reason, it will retry the connection a few times, display messages that it is trying to do this, and if still unsuccessful, DB_map will exit with an error status code. If this happens, talk to your system administrator. Otherwise, you'll see a large window start, with eleven large buttons across the top and a map of the U.S. below the buttons. On the lower left hand corner of the window you'll notice a footer message area that displays what's happening.

Details

a. The Basic Idea

The basic premise of DB_map is that

DB_map accomplishes this association by keeping records in a database which denote what sites are linked to whom, in a database table called the "glue". Everything else beyond this simple idea falls into the category, "bells and whistles". The first thing to do is familiarize yourself with the GUI(graphical user interface), pronounced "gooey". The big buttons on top of the map are for navigating the display, except for the three menubuttons on the right side. Let's begin with the first six buttons on the left.

The Zoom buttons, Left, Right, Up, and Down, all work as you would expect them to. "Reset" will always Zoom Out back to the original Zoom factor(the original perspective when DB_map starts) and Pan center. Note that the Zoom factor of the view on initial start-up(called Zoom factor 1) will not allow you to see the names of specific sites. You'll have to (Zoom In) a couple times to see them.

b. Going Further

The control key(hereafter referred to as "CTRL") works with the Left, Right, Up, Down, Zoom In, and Zoom Out buttons as a fine-tune mechanism for Panning and Zooming, so if the view is ever slightly off from where you want it, hold the CTRL key down and press the appropriate Pan button(Left, Right, Up, or Down) or Zoom button. Try this a couple times to get the feel for it.

The (Reset) and (Quit) buttons also do what they imply: pressing the (Reset) button will reset the graphical display of the map. It Zooms Out to the original zoom factor and pans center. The (Quit) button causes DB_map to quit or exit.

c. Going Further Yet

The right-most three buttons, Action, View, and Edit, are the guts of the application. They let you do things like query the database for a site(and then graphically display it), View a Manager's or Tech's area of responsibility, or Edit a person's CNCC personnel record. These three buttons are menubuttons, which means you should press the MENU button(right-most button) on the mouse to get the menus to pull-down. If you press SELECT(left-most) button on any of these menubuttons, it will default to the first item under that menubutton, and this may or may not be what you want.

d. Going Way Further

Default Zoom-To Mode

With respect to mouse input, DB_map's default mode treats the SELECT(left-most) button as a Zoom-In event. In order to use it constructively:

  1. Place the mouse cursor just a little to the northwest of the area you wish to Zoom-In to.
  2. Press the SELECT button on the mouse to drop the first anchor.
  3. Drag the mouse slowly to the southeast, so as to enclose the site(s) you're after with the rectangular selection box.
  4. Try to center the site that you're after inside the box.
  5. Drop the second anchor by pressing the SELECT button again.

The map display will subsequently Zoom In to the area you've indicated, and it will also Pan to the mathematical center of the selection box you drew. You should try and experiment with this to get the feel for it. See how close you can get a site to the center of the yellow box in the middle of the map display area. You can use this feature to find out who's responsible for any site.

The rest of this document describes in detail the inner workings of DB_map.

Really Specific Details

  1. The Action Menubutton
  2. The View Menubutton
  3. The Edit Menubutton

Developers' Notes On Installing and Supporting

Stream Software Home Page Revised August 9, 1996
Revised again for Stream usage October 31, 1997
URL: http://www.streamsoftware.com/bnsf/dbmap/dbmap.html
Last modified: Tue Nov 25 17:47:20 CST 1997
Prepared by
email Scott Berkholz <scottb@streamsoftware.com>