How do I enable the Geographical Map in Entuity?

Permissions for the Geographical Map

To set up and enable the Geographical Map in Entuity

To set daily limits on page loads

What functionality is added by enabling Geographical Map?

Entuity's map dashlet allows you to view maps in either Topological or Geographical Map mode. The geographical mode is based on Entuity's integration with the Google Maps API. This allows you to see the geographical distribution of the Subviews within a selected View against a geographical map provided by Google Maps.

Geographical Map is not enabled by default in Entuity. You will need to set up a Google Maps Platform account, gain a Google Maps API key, and then save it in Entuity. Please see below for instructions on how to execute these steps:

Permissions for the Geographical Map

Only Administrators can set up and enable the Geographical Map in Entuity. This means that the Geographical Map option on the Administration page is only visible and accessible to Administrators.

The Geographical Map functionality is accessible to other users if they belong to a user group with the Geographical Maps tool permission. To enable this permission:

1. As an administrator, click Menu and then Administration. This will open the Administration page.
2. Click Account Management to open the Account Management page.
3. Under the Groups section, select the user group that you want to edit and click Tool Permissions.
4. Tick the Geographical Maps box.  Click OK to save your changes, otherwise click Cancel.
   
   

Without the Geographical Map permission, the Geographical Map functionality will not be visible or accessible to users.

To set up and enable the Geographical Map in Entuity: 

1. Navigate to the Google Maps Platform page.
2. Click Get started. You will be asked to sign or create a new account.
3. Once you have signed in, you will be asked to set up billing details for your account.  Note, Google provide free credit each month that allows up to 28,000 page loads per month. After this threshold, the approximate cost will be $7.00 for every 1,000 page loads. Please see the daily limit section below for help on setting page load limits.
   
   
   In Entuity, dashboards automatically refresh every 5 minutes. This will not result in a new page load. However, if you manually refresh the page, or navigate away and back to it again, then this will cause a new page load.
4. Next, you will need to complete some questions before you can enable your Google Maps Platform.
   
   
   
   
5. You will then be provided with your API Key. Copy this key, because you will need this to enable the Geographical Map feature in Entuity. You can also copy the API Key again at a later stage via the Credentials option in the sidebar menu.
   
   
   
   
6. Next you will be asked if you want to Protect your API Key. This is useful for security purposes, enabling you to restrict the API key to a specific website URL so that it can only be used with a particular server.
   
   
   
   
   1. Ensure the Select restriction type field is set to HTTP referrers (web sites).
   2. In the Referrer field, enter the server URL and ensure that you add /* after the URL.
   3. Click Restrict Key to save. If you click Maybe Later, you can restrict the API key at another time via the Credentials option in the sidebar menu, where you can select the API key that you want to restrict from the list, and then click the Edit API key icon .
7. You will then be taken to the API page for your project.
   
   
   
   Click the APIs option in the sidebar menu on the right to check the enabled APIs. The APIs that must be enabled are as follows:
   • Geocoding API
   • Maps JavaScript API
   • Places API
8. Your Google Maps Platform project is now set up to enable the Entuity Geographical Map feature. Navigate to Entuity, click Main Menu and then Administration.
   
   Note, the Entuity server does not require internet access when defining the API key (as documented in the below steps 9 to 12. Browser internet access is required, however, when using the Geographical Map, defining the location of Views, etc.
   
   
9. On the Administration page, click Geographical Map. This will open the Geographical Maps page.
10. Click API Key Settings in the top right of the page.
    
    
    
    
11. This will open the API Key Settings form. Turn on the Enable Geographical Maps switch, and then paste the API key into the API Key field.
    
    
    
    
12. Click Done in the top right of the form, otherwise click Cancel.

To set daily limits on page loads:

Google provide free credit each month that allows up to 28,000 page loads per month. After this threshold, the approximate cost will be $7.00 for every 1,000 page loads.

In Entuity, dashboards automatically refresh every 5 minutes. This will not result in a new page load. However, if you manually refresh the page, or navigate away and back to it again, then this will cause a new page load.

You can set daily limits on page loads to prevent you from ever going abovoe the free credit page loads, and therefore prevent you from being billed:

1. Click the Quotas option from the sidebar menu and then Maps JavaScript API from the dropdown field at the top of the page.
   
   
   
   
2. Under the Map loads section, scroll down to the table at the bottom of the page. On the Map loads per day entry, click the Edit icon.
   
   
   
   Enter a quota of 1,000 and click Save. This will mean that you do not exceed the 28,000 page loads permitted per month with the free Google credit, based on a 5-day working week and excluding weekends.
   
   

What functionality is provided by enabling geographical maps?

Enabling the Geographical Map mode provides new types of functionality to Entuity:

• add a location to every View.
• addition of a dropdown toggle on every Map dashlet (at a View/Subview level), so that you can switch between topological mode and geographical mode.
• addition of a new set of geographical map options in the Create/Edit Map dashlet form that would otherwise not be visible.
• addition of a new View Location column to the View Contents dashlet table.

Please see the Geographical Map user guide and best practices article for further help and information on this functionality.