Working with Maps in Zoho IoT: A Practical Guide

Working with Maps


The Maps feature helps to position managed entities at specific locations using their configured
geolocation property with latitude and longitude values. And also the location type of datapoint allows to configure live tracking and location history in maps. This document provides a step-by-step guide for creating static maps, live tracking maps, and maps for tracking location history of devices and assets.

Notes
Refer to the Understanding Maps document for more details on Maps.

Notes
Refer to the Working with Geofences document for creating geofences and associating them with maps.


Prerequisites  

The prerequisites for working with the Maps feature are provided below.
  1. Configuring geolocations - Required for plotting managed entities on specific locations on the map.

  2. Configuring Location datapoints - Required for live tracking of managed entities. The movement of the managed entity is updated in the map whenever the Location datapoint value is received for the managed entity. The Live Tracking feature must also be enabled for the map.

  3. Integrating Google Maps API with Zoho IOT - Required for using Google Maps API on maps. By default, Zoho Maps is used.

Availability

Info
All Map operations require necessary permissions. Refer to Users and Profiles document for more details.

Check Feature Availability and Limits


Configuring Geolocations   

 As a first step, configure the geolocation property for the managed entities such as assets, devices, and locations that must be placed on the map. 
 
Idea
Geolocation can be configured even after map creation from the Unmapped Devices/Assets/Locations link. 

To configure geolocation, 
  1. Access the End Application.
  2. Select Devices/Assets/Locations from the application's main menu on the left pane. The available entities are displayed in the right pane.
  3. Click on the entity for which you want to configure the geolocation.
  4. Click on the Details tab.



  5. Click on the Edit icon next to the Geolocation input textbox.
  6. Click inside the input textbox. The Geolocation page is displayed for entering/selecting the location.
  7. Enter the coordinates if you are aware, or traverse to the map and double click on the exact location of the device/asset/location. Alternatively, you can provide the location name in the search textbox inside the map to obtain the coordinates.



  8. Click on Set Geolocation to configure the coordinates.
  9. Click on the Tick icon to save the coordinates.


 
Next step is to create and integrate Google Maps API with the Zoho IOT Application. This is necessary if you want to use Google Maps for the map. If you want to continue with Zoho Maps, you can skip this step. 

Configuring Location Datapoints (For Live Tracking and Location History)

In the case of live tracking or location history tracking of a managed entity, you need to configure a Location Datapoint for the entity.
 
To configure location datapoints and properties,
  1. Select Location data type when creating a datapoint.

    NotesRefer to the Working with Datapoints document for more details on creating a datapoint.
    Notes
    The Location datapoint is available for Realtime datapoints only.

  2. Configure GPS (Location) type.
    Single Key: Latitude, Longitude are sent as a single key in the telemetry
    Separate Key: Latitude, Longitude are sent as separate keys in the telemetry. 

  3. Configure Parsing Keys Latitude, Longitude, and Altitude.



  4. Click Add to create the datapoint for the particular managed entity.
Notes
The movement of the managed entity on the map is constructed and updated live whenever the GPS Location datapoint value is received.

Integrating Google Maps API

This integration is required if you want to view your maps on a Google Map.

 To generate and integrate google maps key,
  1. Generate key in Google Maps platform.
  2. Integrate the Google Map Key in the application.
To integrate the key,
    1. Access the End Application.
    2. Click on the Setup icon to view the setup page.
    3. Click Map Settings under the GENERAL section.
    4. Enable the Integrate Google Maps option using the toggle button. The integration can be disabled by disabling this option.
    5. Provide the Google Maps API Key in the textbox provided.



    6. Click Save.


Creating Static Maps  

After configuring the prerequisites, you can proceed to map creation. Consider the scenario where you have numerous diesel generators located at different blocks of your organization premises. And, you want to view the exact location of the DGs along with its current status, and summary on the map.
 
Info
Note: You can select multiple instances of assets from difference modules/models and monitor their location on a single map.

To achieve this, you can create a map with the relevant filter conditions to fetch all DGs.
 
To create a map view,
  1. Access the End Application.
  2. Select Maps from the application's main menu on the left pane in the user application. The available maps are displayed in the right pane.
  3. Click on the Add Map button on the top right corner of the page.
  4. Provide the Map Name, Group, Profile for the map.
  5. Select Static Entities (default option) from the Map Type drop down list. 



  6. Select Module. Ensure that the selected module's managed entities have the geolocation property updated. The location will be marked on the map.
  7. Select All Device/Asset/Location Models option from the drop down list to include all the instances of the model in the map.
  8. Select the Map Marker icon if you selected a particular device/asset/location model as the module.



  9. To include Criteria or filter conditions, click on Use Criteria, and then Add Criteria.
  10.  In Condition Builder, provide the condition based on which you want to filter and display device/asset/location on the map.



  11. Select Field, Select Operator, Set Value.
  12. Click Apply.
  13. Click Add Module to add more model instances to the map.



    Notes
    Note: You can choose upto a total of 200 instances from multiple modules to be rendered on the map. 

  14. Click Create. The map is created and displayed in the right frame as shown below.


Creating Live Tracking & Location History Maps  


The Location datapoint must be configured for the assist that is to be lived tracked or history to be tracked. The values fetched in the location datapoints helps is drawing the paths in both live and historical tracking.
  1. Live tracking is used extensively in fleet management, such as logistics tracking, cold chain monitoring, school van tracking, and any live tracking services, where you want to track your assets.
  2. Location history tracking is used to study paths taken by assets and also view any alarms raised along the path for a specific duration.

To create live tracking or location history maps,
  1. Follow the steps provided in Creating Static Maps section of this document. 
  2. In Step 5 select Live Tracking or Location History from the Map Type drop down list.




  3. Click Save to create and save the map.
  4. Select the asset which you want to track from the list on the left.
Notes
Note: Live tracking, when enabled, will be effective only if a particular managed entity (Device/Asset/Location) is selected as a module. And also the selected managed entity must have the GPS Location datapoint configured. In addition, the Default Location Preference must be updated in the model settings screen to set the geolocation field or location datapoint. 

Locations Datapoint for continuous values plotting for GPS tracking.
Geolocation Field for fixed values at specific locations.




Image: Live Tracking and Location History map with the summary details of the managed entity displayed on click.

Notes
Note: In Location History maps, you can view the alarms raised within the period for the asset being tracked. 
Refer Location History viewing for more details.

Editing Maps 

Any map can be modified after creation if required. Apart from the Module, all basic details of the map such as name, group, associated profiles, and filter condition can be modified using the Edit option.

To edit a map,
  1. Select Maps from the application's main menu on the left pane in the user application. The available maps are displayed in the right pane.
  2. Click on Actions > Edit Map on the top right corner of the page.
  3. In the Edit Map page, modify the desired values.



4. Click Update to save the changes.

 
Deleting Maps

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

 To delete a map,
  1. Select Maps from the application's main menu on the left pane in the user application. The available maps are displayed in the right pane.
  2. Click on Actions > Delete Map on the top right corner of the page. The Delete Confirmation popup is displayed.



    3. Ensure you want to delete the map, and click on the Delete Map button.
 The map will be deleted and removed from the Maps page.

Viewing Maps

Maps can be viewed using the Maps option from the left pane and by choosing the relevant map from the drop down list.

Viewing Static Maps

To view a map in the maps tab,
  1. Access the End Application
  2. Click Maps, the available maps are displayed.
  3. Select the desired map from the drop down list.



     4. You can view the Map Card view of the managed entity by clicking on the marker.
 


Image : Map Card view 
Notes
Note: The details displayed here are the same as those configured for the Summary Panel.

Viewing Location History Maps

To view a location history map,
  1. Access the End Application
  2. Click Maps, the available maps are displayed.
  3. Select the desired map from the drop down list.
    (All assets displayed in this map have location datapoint configured.)



 Image : Location History map view

Viewing Live Tracking Maps

To view a map in the maps tab,
  1. Access the End Application
  2. Click Maps, the available maps are displayed.
  3. Select the desired map from the drop down list.
    (The asset displayed in this map has location datapoint configured.)
Note: The color of the icon is displayed based on the alarm severity configured for the asset.

Image : Live Tracking map view

Viewing Maps in Dashboard

To view a map in the dashboard,
  1. Access the End Application.
  2. Click Dashboard; the map widget configured is shown displaying the map as shown below.
Notes
Note: Refer to the Understanding Map Widgets document for more details on Map Widget.


 
The new map widget is displayed on the dashboard in which the widget is added.


Google Maps API Error Messages 

What happens when the Google Key Expires in the application?

The below message is displayed in the map when the Google Maps API Key expires.


 
Solution: Generate a new API key and integrate with the application.
 
What happens when the API usage exceeds limit?
 
The below message is displayed in the map when the Google Map API limit is exceeded.
 

 

Solution: This can be solved by increasing the limit of the API usage count.

The complete list of error messages in Google Maps API can be accessed from the official web site.
 
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