Monday, May 02, 2005

Session Links

A new feature has been added to GTViewer called a Session Link. A Session Link will “link” a note, an external file, or web page to a redline symbol placed by the user.

This functionality is not new to GTViewer. Links (or hyperlinks) have been supported since version 2.0.x.34 providing the ability to associate external files with features. Links are primary used to associate detail drawings to features in the geographic view. For example, a Manhole feature may have one or more schematic drawings associated with it or a pole may have a photograph associated with it. So when a user reviews the manhole or pole, a tab in the Attribute Info dialog indicates that Link files are available and can be viewed by double-clicking on them. The Link functionality was also able to interpret link information embedded into redline elements, so it was (and still is) possible to create an external application in VB to associate redlines with external files via the existing Link functionality.

The Session Link is now a standard redline drawing command (starting with GTViewer 4.0.x.16+) that captures information for a note, or the location of an external file, or a web page and embeds the appropriate information on a symbol and initiates the symbol placement. This streamlined process provides the common functionality needed to link notes, external files, or web pages to redline elements; however, external application can still be written to provide more complex implementation.

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