Working with Geofences

The Geofence feature in Maps has the ability to define virtual boundaries around specific geographic locations associated with your assets, vehicles, or other managed entities. These virtual perimeters, or geofences, allow you to closely monitor movement in and out of designated areas in real time. By linking geofences with configurable alarm rules, you can automate the generation of alerts whenever an entity enters or exits a defined zone.

Note: Geofences are widely used to raise alarms when entering and exiting designated areas.

This feature empowers you with smarter, location-aware monitoring capabilities, enabling quicker responses to movement patterns, improved operational control, and better security compliance. Whether you're tracking fleet vehicles, mobile equipment, or field personnel, geofencing brings a new layer of intelligence and automation to your monitoring workflows.

Creating Geofences

To create a geofence,

Access the End Application.
Select Geofence in the application's main menu on the left pane in the user application.
Note: The Geofence (which is a system defined custom module) menu option will be displayed only when configured in the Navigation Menu as a Navigation Menu item.
The available maps are displayed in the right pane.
Click on the Add Geofence button on the top right corner of the page.
In the Add Geofence form, provide the name for the geofence.
Select Type of the geofence whether Circle or Polygon.
Select color to mark the geofence.

Circular Geofence

Click on a point on the map, press and drag the mouse to draw the circle. The Coordinates textbox will be filled with the geofence coordinates.
Click on any white dot on the border and drag the mouse pointer to adjust the radius of the circle.

Note: Currently, editing the radius of the geofence using drag option is not available in Zoho Maps. The geofence must be deleted and created again with the new values.
Radius values will be updated in the textbox. This can be modified if required using the up/down arrows.
Select the unit as required.

Polygonal Geofence

Click on the first point on the map, then click the second, third, and so on points on the map.
Click on the fist point on the map again to complete the polygonal geofence.

Note: In the case of Zoho Maps. you need to double-click on the first point of the polygon on the map to complete the polygonal geofence.
Click on any white dot on the border and drag the mouse pointer to adjust the polygon.

7. Click Add.

Configuring Alarms for Geofences

The main purpose of geofences in Zoho IoT maps is to enable location-based monitoring, automation, and alerts for vehicles, personnel, or assets.

For example, consider a scenario where you want to be alerted when a monitored truck leaves a designated zone say Pune Distribution area. To achieve this, you need to perform the following steps:

1. Create a geofence including the area Pune Distribution.

2. Create a map and associate this geofence (optional). This is required only for monitoring assets along with geofences on maps. Alternatively, you can edit an existing map and associate geofence.

3. Create an alarm rule

(i) datapoint: location datapoint (the truck being monitored must have a location datapoint configured, and the Default Location Preference must be set as Location Datapoint)

(ii) condition: as enters or exits

(iii) criteria: geofence name e.g. Pune Distribution

1. Create a Geofence

Follow the procedure to create the geofence for the restricted Pune Distribution area.

2. Create a map and associate this geofence.

Follow the procedure to create a map, or edit and associate the geofence.

Note: The map feature Geofence must be enabled in the map. This is required only for monitoring assets along with geofences on maps.

3. Create an Alarm Rule for alerting when trucks are exiting the geofence.

Follow the steps to create an alarm rule Pune Geofence Alert.
Click Next, and proceed to create a state with Critical severity.
Provide the condition to check when the truck exits the Pune Distribution area. This will help to raise a Critical alarm when the truck leaves the area.
Create a state with Clear severity to clear the alarm when the truck returns back to the Pune Distribution area.
Save the alarm rule.
On saving the alarm rule, the rule will get activated and the alarm will be raised when the truck exists the Pune Distribution area as shown below.
The exact point where the alarm was generated is highlighted and provided below. You can click on the exact point to view the corresponding alarm raised at that instance.

By configuring the alarm rule with geofence will help you to track your assets efficiently.

Configuring Dynamic Location-Based Alarm Rule Condition Using "Within Radius" or "Outside Radius"

This feature allows users to configure location-based alarm rules using dynamic location datapoints rather than static geofences. Instead of defining a fixed circular geofence around a specific location, the rule dynamically compares consecutive location datapoints to detect movement or the lack thereof. This is particularly valuable in scenarios involving moving assets like vehicles, equipment, or personnel. For example, an MSP managing a fleet of delivery vehicles can configure an alarm rule to trigger when a vehicle remains within or outside a warehouse area for longer than expected.

For example, an MSP managing a fleet of delivery vehicles wants to ensure trucks are not idling too long. With dynamic location-based rules, an alarm can be triggered if a vehicle’s current location remains within 100 meters of its previous location over a certain time interval indicating the vehicle might be stationary or stuck.

Unlike traditional static geofencing, this approach does not rely on predefined geographic boundaries. Instead, it evaluates real-time movement based on the distance between two consecutive GPS datapoints.

Managing Geofences

The geofences associated and displayed on a map can be hidden/displayed based on requirement.

To hide a geofence in a map,

Select the map in which the geofence must be hidden/shown.
Click Actions > Manage Geofences option. The geofences associated to the map are displayed.
Click on the Hide All Geofences/Show All Geofences button on top to remove/display all associated geofences on the map.
Set the Show toggle to OFF/ON to hide/show individual geofences.

Editing Geofences

The details of a geofence such as its name, type, color, and area can be modified after creation if required.

To edit a geofence,

Select Geofence from the application's main menu on the left pane in the user application. The available geofences are displayed in the right pane.
Click on Actions > Edit Details on the top right corner of the page.
In the Edit Geofence page, modify the desired values.

4. Click Update to save the changes.

Deleting Geofences

Any geofence in the application can be deleted using the Delete Geofence option. On deletion, the geofence will be permanently deleted.

To delete a geofence,

Select Geofence from the application's main menu on the left pane in the user application. The available geofences are displayed in the right pane.
Click on Actions > Delete Geofence on the top right corner of the page. The Delete Confirmation popup is displayed.
Ensure you want to delete the geofence, and click on the Delete Geofence button.

The geofence will be deleted and removed from the Geofences page.

Viewing Geofences

Geofences can be viewed using the Geofence option from the left pane and by choosing the relevant geofence in the right pane.

To view a geofence,

Access the End Application
Click Geofence, the available geofences are displayed.
Click on the desired geofence from the right pane.

Note: If the geofence is out of focus, click on the Focus icon at the bottom right corner of the geofence to bring it to focus.

4. Click on the Details tab to view the complete details.