Infrastructure Modeling DevBlog

Autodesk Infrastructure Map Server(AIMS) API Training content : Part-3

By Daniel Du

In this post, we discuss site service and resource service. As we talked in part 2, there are 7 services in MapGuide Web Extension API. Before a page can use a service, it must open a site connection and create an instance of the necessary service type. All other 6 services are created by site service from a site connection. You have to initialize web tier in every page with following code snippet:

MapGuideApi.MgInitializeWebTier(“webconfig.ini”)

webconfig.ini file is text file used to perform basic initialization when a session starts, it is read by MgInitializeWebTier(). It contains parameters required to connect to the site server: IP address, port numbers, map agent requests customization, e.g. pause time between successive request, passwords for OGC (WMS & WFS) requests and etc. The values set in this file affect the performance of map server. In most cases, no need to change. If you have to, please check out this document. 

An Infrastructure Map Server repository is a database that stores and manages the data for the site. The repository stores all data except data that is stored in external databases. Data stored in a repository is a resource.  A resource can be persistent resource or temporary resource. Persistent resource that is available to all users is stored in the Library repository.In addition, each session has its own repository, which stores the run-time map state. It can also be used to store other data, like temporary layers that apply only to an individual session. For example, a temporary layer might be used to overlay map symbols indicating places of interest.

Resource service is used to manipulate these resources with API. To use a resource service, web page must open a site connection and create an instance of a resource service:

MgUserInformation userInfo = new MgUserInformation(sessionID); 
siteConnection = new MgSiteConnection(); siteConnection.Open(userInfo); 
MgResourceService resourceService = (MgResourceService)siteConnection
    .CreateService(MgServiceType.ResourceService); 

Here are some commonly used methods of resource service, please find the complete method list from the AIMS API Reference.

MgResourceService::EnumerateResources
MgResourceService::GetResourceContent
MgResourceService::SetResource

With these simple APIs, you can create very useful/powerful applications as long as you have deep understanding of the resource content, in most case they are xml. If you are not familiar with resource and resource service, please view the chapter 3 of AIMS API training materials first. The exercise code sample solution 3 can be downloaded here. After that, you may want to check out this intelligence landing page, it is a good example of usage of resource service. Please look at the source code, I believe you will find it very interesting. 

Download EN_AIMS_API_Chapter_3

Autodesk Infrastructure Map Server(AIMS) API Training content : Part-1

By Daniel Du

Autodesk^® Infrastructure Map Server is a software platform for distributing spatial data over the Internet or on an intranet. In this chapter, you will know the features of AMIS, understand the architecture and different components of Map Server.

Infrastructure Map Server consists of numerous separate components, including:
       Autodesk^® Infrastructure Map Server
       Autodesk^® Infrastructure Web Server Extension (for application development)
      Autodesk^® Infrastructure Studio (for map authoring)
      Autodesk^® Infrastructure Application Extension (works with Oracle/SQL Server)
      Autodesk^® Infrastructure Administrator 
      Autodesk^® Infrastructure Mobile Viewer Extension
      Autodesk^® Infrastructure GeoREST Extension

Infrastructure Studio and the Infrastructure Map Server viewers are client applications of Infrastructure Map Server. Requests coming from these clients, and from the other client applications that you develop using the API, go to the Web Server Extension by means of HTTP protocol. The WebAgent component of the Web Server Extension processes the requests and forwards them on to Infrastructure Map Server. When it receives a request, Infrastructure Map Server accesses the resources stored in the resource repository, builds and renders the map as a static image for the viewer, and returns it to the Web Extensions, which in turn send it back to the client.

Autodesk^® Infrastructure Studio is an authoring environment that handles all aspects of collecting and preparing geospatial data for distribution on the Internet (except custom coding). You need to organize your data first before development.

Autodesk Infrastructure Map Server Wikihelp contains very useful document, please do check it out. In a series of blog posts in the coming days / months you will see most of the Infrastructure Map Server API training content (PDF) will be published here . This is chapter1, hope it helpful for you. All of our sample code has be posted here.

Failed to load the resource file "Resources/mapguide_en.res" for locale "en"

By Daniel Du

I noticed that quite a few customers run into this problem on Autodesk Infrastructure Map Server. The error message on yellow page is something like below:

Server Error in '/MgViewerExtention_2012' Application.

Failed to load the resource file "Resources/mapguide_en.res" for locale "en".

Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: OSGeo.MapGuide.MgResourcesLoadFailedException: Failed to load the resource file "Resources/mapguide_en.res" for locale "en".

Source Error:

Line 22:         string realPath = Request.ServerVariables["APPL_PHYSICAL_PATH"];
Line 23:         String configPath = realPath + "../webconfig.ini";
Line 24:         MapGuideApi.MgInitializeWebTier(configPath);
Line 25:     }
Line 26:

Source File: C:\Work\CodeSamples\MgViewerExtention_2012\MgViewerExtention\Utility.cs    Line: 24

Stack Trace:

[MgResourcesLoadFailedException: Failed to load the resource file "Resources/mapguide_en.res" for locale "en".]
   OSGeo.MapGuide.SWIGExceptionHelper.ThrowCustomException(String className, IntPtr cptr) +648
   OSGeo.MapGuide.MapGuideApiPINVOKE.MgInitializeWebTier(String jarg1) +0
   Utility.InitializeWebTier(HttpRequest Request) in C:\Work\CodeSamples\MgViewerExtention_2012\MgViewerExtention\Utility.cs:24
   MgViewerExtention.Default.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\Work\CodeSamples\MgViewerExtention_2012\MgViewerExtention\Default.aspx.cs:35
   System.Web.Util.CalliHelper.EventArgFunctionCaller(IntPtr fp, Object o, Object t, EventArgs e) +25
   System.Web.Util.CalliEventHandlerDelegateProxy.Callback(Object sender, EventArgs e) +42
   System.Web.UI.Control.OnLoad(EventArgs e) +132
   System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +66
   System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +2428

Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.4971; ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.4971

I myself came across this problem as well, how did I fix it? Simple, just repair MapGuide WebExtension from Control Panel, the original installation media is needed.

I know it is not like a way of technical geek, but it works and it is easy. 

 

[Updated : 2012/11/13]

Someone is saying that repair does not work for him, so I Google with this error message and seems this link is related: one of the reasons may be permission problem. And this one, another reason may be install order of mapguide and .net. I also hear from others that they get this error if they happened to miss up the 32bit/64bit, that means they are trying to install 32bit of AIMS on a 64bit OS or verse visa. 

Anyway, it depends, you may need to check more if you do not want to reinstall or it does not work for you.

Intelligent landing page for AIMS/MapGuide Ajax viewer

By Daniel Du

You may come across the InitialMapView sample page in php, It expects the values to be passed to the script as query string parameters, and zoom to specified view port when loading the map. Here is an intelligent landing page MapGuide Viewer in .NET, and with more extended functionalities.

 

What is the function of this sample application?

1. Zoom to specified view port by initial x, y and scale, the URL is expected as below: http://serverName/MgViewerExtention/Default.aspx?X=-87.723233&Y=43.754561&scale=5000
It works by taking a copy of the WebLayout stored in the Library repository and changing the <CenterX/>, <CenterY/> and <Scale/> elements. The updated XML is written into the Session and is used as the target when the page is ultimately loaded.

 

2. Query, zoom to and highlight by filter string. It accepts layer name, keyFieldID and id value, for following URL, map viewer zooms to the objects corresponding to “Autogenerated_SDF_ID in (1812,1813)” in the layer Parcels, highlighted if “highlight=1”.

http://localhost/MgViewerExtention/Default.aspx?Layer=Parcels&KeyField=Autogenerated_SDF_ID&ListId=1812,1813&highlight=1

 

3. Filter features shown on map. You may have thousands even millions of features in a data source, but sometime you do not need to show all of them on map. With a filter string in URL, you can filter the features in MapGuide viewer when the viewer shows up. With following URL, I only show the parcels which Autogenerated_SDF_ID great than 1000:

http://localhost/MgViewerExtention/Default.aspx?Layer=Parcels&layerfilter=Autogenerated_SDF_ID > 10000

 

The sample project can be downloaded here, it is based on AIMS 2013, but it could be easy to apply it to other version of AIMS/MapGuide. If you are interested in how it is implemented in detail, please download and read the code. Hope it helps.

Download MgViewerExtention

 

[Updated: October, 26, 2012]

How to install this sample application?

I am often asked how to install/use this sample application, here is the detailed steps:

1. unzip the sample application to a folder of your web server where Map Server Extension is installed. Let’s say: C:\Work\CodeSamples\MgViewerExtention

2. Copy all dlls from “C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk Infrastructure Web Server Extension 2013\www\mapviewernet\bin” to “C:\Work\CodeSamples\MgViewerExtention\MgViewerExtention\bin”

3. Copy “WebConfig.ini” from “C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk Infrastructure Web Server Extension 2013\www” to “C:\Work\CodeSamples\MgViewerExtention\MgViewerExtention”

4. Since I am using web application as visual studio project, you need to rebuild the project. Open the “MgViewerExtention.sln” file in Visual Studio 2010, add references to OSGeo.MapGuide.* from MgViewerExtention\bin folder and set “CopyLocal” to FALSE. Then Build and fix any outstanding problems.

5. Open Internet Information Services(IIS) Manager by typing “inetmgr” in Start –> Run

6. Add a application in IIS. Right click “Default Web Site” and select “Add Application”, input alias as “MgViewerExtension”, please note that the URL to access this web application will be http://localhost/<yourAliasName>, for me it is http://localhost/MgViewer/Extension.  It is recommend to select "MapServer2013App” as application pool. You will notice that it is using .net Framework 4.0 for AIMS2013.  The physical path refers to the folder which contains the ASPX web page, for me, it is C:\Work\CodeSamples\MgViewerExtention\MgViewerExtention.

7. Give it a run and test, refer to the top of this post for test URLs.

 

How to Debug and Extend this further?

1. Open the “MgViewerExtention.sln” solution is Visual Studio 2010, set an break points at somewhere.

2. Launch the browser to the MgViewerExtension.

3. Attach to process from Debug menu, attach to “w3wp”, please note the username should be “MapServer2013App” as it may have more than one “w3wp” process.

4. Refresh the webpage, your break point will be hit.

Please refer to this video at MapServer Developer Center, it is for AIMS 2012 x64, but it still applies to AIMS 2013 as well.

Video : Autodesk® Infrastructure Map Server 2012 API Webcast
Recorded version of the Autodesk® Infrastructure Map Server 2012 API webcast
View Online | Download

 

It should be easy to use it for AIMS 2012 as well, Here are some critical point to be noticed:

1. Using the correct Dlls/References of AIMS2012

2. Change Target Framework to .NET Framework 3.5 in Visual Studio.

3. Change the url of viewer path:

     string viewerPathSchema = @"/mapserver2012/mapviewerajax/
       ajaxviewer.aspx?Weblayout={1}&SESSION={0}";

4.  Rebuild and fix any outstanding problems.

5.  Select an application pool with .NET Framework 2.0(ASP.NET 2.0) when creating Applications in IIS:

 

Hope this helps.

How to extract all of the coordinate system names from the coordinate system dictionary and check their types?

By Partha Sarkar

The OSGeo.MapGuide namespace contains a set of classes which provide access to the CS-Map coordinate system functionality in both the AutoCAD Map 3D and AIMS environments.

MgCoordinateSystemFactory is used to get the coordinate system categories and the coordinate system catalog. MgCoordinateSystemCatalog is used to get the various dictionaries. MgCoordinateSystemDictionary contains definitions for earth-based and Euclidean coordinate systems.

 

The following code extracts all of the coordinate system names from the coordinate system dictionary, uses those names to get all of the coordinate system definitions from the dictionary and determines the type (projected, geographic, or arbitrary) of the coordinate system from its definition, and stores the name of the coordinate system in a list according to its type. 

//MgCoordinateSystemFactory coordSysFactory = new MgCoordinateSystemFactory();

//MgCoordinateSystemCatalog csCatalog = coordSysFactory.GetCatalog();

//MgCoordinateSystemDictionary csDict = csCatalog.GetCoordinateSystemDictionary();

 

List<string> arbitraryCs = new List<string>();

List<string> geographicCs = new List<string>();

List<string> projectedCs = new List<string>();

 

MgCoordinateSystemEnum csDictEnum = csDict.GetEnum();

 

// the following line gets all of the names in the dictionary

// uses those names to get the coordinate

 

int csCount = csDict.GetSize();

ed.WriteMessage("\nCoordinate System Count : " + csCount.ToString());

ed.WriteMessage("\n-------------------------------------------------");

MgStringCollection csNames = csDictEnum.NextName(csCount);

string csName = null;

MgCoordinateSystem cs = null;

int csType = 0;

for (int i = 0; i < csCount; i++)

{

 csName = csNames.GetItem(i);

 cs = csDict.GetCoordinateSystem(csName);

 csType = cs.GetType();

 if (csType == MgCoordinateSystemType.Arbitrary)

 {

  arbitraryCs.Add(csName);

 }

 else if (csType == MgCoordinateSystemType.Geographic)

 {

  geographicCs.Add(csName);

 }

 else if (csType == MgCoordinateSystemType.Projected)

 {

  projectedCs.Add(csName);

 }         

  ed.WriteMessage("\nCoordinate System Name : " + csName.ToString());

}

Hope this is useful to you !

Changing size and feature of new window in Fusion viewer “invoke URL”

By Daniel Du

If you use “invoke URL” command of fusion viewer and select “New Window” as target to open a new browser window, you may find this window is fixed, not resizable, no memubar, no status bar, and no location bar.

If you want to change the features of this window, please keep reading.

Actually it is hard-coded in fusion viewer, you can edit the source code, please open C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk Infrastructure Web Server Extension 2013\www\fusion\widgets\InvokeURL.js in your favorite text editor, refer to around line 40:

…

Fusion.Widget.InvokeURL = OpenLayers.Class(Fusion.Widget, {

    uiClass: Jx.Button,

   sFeatures: 'menubar=no,location=no,resizable=no,status=no',

…

and also refer to line 124 for the usage of it:

…

var pageElement = $(this.sTarget);

if ( pageElement ) {

    pageElement.src = url;

} else {

   window.open(url, this.sTarget, this.sFeatures);

  }

It is a parameter passed to JavaScript function window.open, please refer to this link for detailed information to set suitable value you need.

Finally, to apply your changes, you need to switch to debug mode by editing the script reference in template html page. As I said in previous post, for Fusion Viewer, let’s say you are using the “slate” template, please open C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk Infrastructure Web Server Extension 2013\www\fusion\templates\mapguide\slate\index.html with your favorite text editor, I am using notepad++, change following code:

<script type="text/javascript" 
src="../../../lib/fusionSF-compressed.js"></script>

to

<script type="text/javascript" 
src="../../../lib/fusion.js"></script>

Of cause you can also re-compress all JavaScript files with your changes using tools like YUI compressor to improve performance, I will not cover how to use YUI compressor in this blog, please search yourself, I bet you can get many resources about that topic, and this post may be helpful as well.

Hope this helps.

Counting the active session number and tune up concurrent performance of MapGuide/AIMS

By Daniel Du

I was asked how to count the number of active sessions in AIMS, unfortunately there is no public API to do that. But I came across Jackie’s blog post (Jackie is an active contributor of MapGuide Open Source), in which he exposed a method, it is pretty interesting, I would like to share with you:

"You can actually count the number of sessions that are active by looking at the Repositories/Session folder of your MapGuide Server install directory. Each session takes 2 files (a .db file and a .dbxml file), so the math is not rocket science.”

In this blog post, Jackie also demonstrate the performance capability of MapGuide and provide suggestions how to tune it up. If you have performance problem with MapGuide, especially when you have many concurrent user, this blog will definitely help you.

Customize Fusion Viewer with JxLib

By Daniel Du

Flexible web layout(aka Fusion Viewer) provides 5 templates with different styles. You can choose your favorite when embedding fusion viewer into your web application. And you may also customize the existing template or even create your own flexible web layout template yourself, here is a hint for your reference.

Fusion Viewer is based on OpenLayers and JxLib, so you can use JxLib to create your layout. I will not cover all details of JxLib in this post, you can find more examples and documents in JixLib website. I will make very quick sample, to add a panel into Slate template to show you how to get started.

Before we start, this is a screen-shot what I have done:

Now, let’s do it. Open the slate template in text editor firstly, it locates at C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk Infrastructure Web Server Extension 2013\www\fusion\templates\mapguide\slate\index.html by default.

…

    panel3 = new Jx.Panel({

        label: OpenLayers.i18n('taskPaneTitle'),

        collapse: true,

        maximize: true,

        contentId: 'TaskPane'

    });

 

    panel4 = new Jx.Panel({

        label: 'mytest',

        collapse : true,

        maximize : true,

        contentId : 'mytest',

        content : 'your content here'

    });

 

    panelman = new Jx.PanelSet({

        parent: splitter.elements[0],

        panels: [panel1, panel2, panel3,panel4]

    });

…

Please note the code in bold, which is added to create a new panel and add it to the template. Hope this helps and please refer to JxLib website if you want to know more. You may also want to check out this DevTV:

DevTV: MapGuide Fusion Technology Introduction
A self-paced video tutorial on how to build a web-based mapping application using the Fusion Viewer Technology and MapGuide Enterprise.
View Online | Download

To Implement ZoomToSelection in Fusion Viewer of AIMS or MapGuide Enterprise

By Daniel Du

I blogged about this topic on my personal blog in English, so I just leave a link here, if you are interested in this topic, please refer to this post. It was written based on MapGuide Enterprise 2011, but it applies to AIMS 2012/2013 as well with minor changes.

Hope this helps.

Digitizing with Fusion Viewer API in AIMS or MapGuide

By Daniel Du

I have published a blog about digitizing with Fusion Viewer API of MapGuide on my Chinese personal blog, but this post is in English. So I will just leave a link here, if you are interested in this topic, please refer to this post.

It is based on MapGuide Enterprise 2011, but it still applies to AIMS 2012/2013 with minor changes.

hope this helps.