Adding locations to the location catalog

REQUIREMENTS
Permission	Operation Administrator or higher
Connectivity	Online only

This document describes how to add locations to the location catalog of your operation.

NOTE	If you are experiencing issues with the Google Earth plugin, please see Known issues with the Google Earth plugin for a list of known issues and suggestions for possible solutions.

Step-by-step description

1.	Fig. 1: Administration menu for operation administrator Select 'Location Catalog' from the administration menu (cog wheel) in the top left corner of the screen (Fig. 1).
2.	Fig. 2: Location catalog screen This will get you to the location catalog screen of the application (Fig. 2). Please note that depending on your connectivity and the size of your location catalog, it might take a while to start Google Earth, load your entire catalog and display all of the locations. A progress bar at the top of the catalog provides information on the status of the loading and drawing process. The location catalog screen shows your location hierarchy tree on the right and a Google Earth map on the right.
3.	Expand the location hierarchy tree on the right as required by clicking on the little plus (+) signs left of locations that contain other locations. The locations in the location tree are sorted by location type first and within each type, they are sorted alphabetically. The location types are sorted as follows: Forecast area Operating zone Permanent closure Road Rail Route Ski run Avalanche path Weather site Shot placement
4.	Fig. 3: Location catalog with highlighted location and administrative buttons Navigate to the intended parent of the new location and click on it. The parent location is now highlighted in blue (Fig. 3) and the map will automatically zoom to the location of the parent location. To add a location either click on the above the top left corner of the location catalog (Fig. 3) or right click on the parent location itself and select 'New'. In both cases, a list of location types supported under the current parent location appears. Choose the appropriate type for your new location.
5.	Fig. 4: Location catalog page when adding a new avalanche path location. You will now be presented with a blank Google Earth map and a dialog box for information about the new location on the left (Fig. 4). Enter the following information for the new location into the fields provided: Name (required): Full name of the location Abbreviation (required): Abbreviation to be used for the location in the tabular InfoEx reports. Description (optional): Detailed description of the location External ID (only accessible to super users): The external ID of a location is required if your operation submits their observations from an external database system via the API (see How to submit observation to the InfoEx via the CAAML 3.0.3 API for more information). The external ID is also required for locations that already existed in the legacy CAAML driven InfoEx and have historic observation associated with them. Elevation (weather site only): Elevation of weather site in meters. When you create a new weather site, its elevation will automatically be extracted from the digital elevation model (DEM) of Google Earth. You can, however, overwrite the automatically created value. NOTE Since locations are primarily referred to by name in the InfoEx system, it is not advisable to create multiple location of the same type with the same name. However, the system currently does not explicitly check for it.
6.	Add an appropriate geometry to the location. See Location types and symbology for details on the supported geometries for the different location types. There are two options for adding geometries to a location: Entering the geometry directly using the available drawing tools. See Creating the geometry of a new location using the available drawing tools for more details on this method. Importing the geometry from a Google Earth KML file. See Importing the geometry of a location from a KML file for more details on this method.
7.	Click on Add to add the new location to the location tree of the operation. This will add the new location to the location tree and return you to the regular location catalog screen (Fig. 2).

Related documents

• Location catalog overview
• Location types and symbology
• Location hierarchy
• Adding locations to the location catalog
  • Creating the geometry of a new location using the available drawing tools
  • Importing the geometry of a location from a KML file
• Editing locations in the location catalog
  • Editing the geometry of an existing location using the available drawing tools
  • Importing the geometry of a location from a KML file
• Deleting locations from the location catalog
• Changing the hierarchy among your locations
• Searching for a location in the location catalog
• Viewing photos
• Downloading your location catalog as a KML file

Functionality tested by

• Dec. 22: Pascal Haegeli