Spreadsheet used to import routes. To learn more, see the MapsAlive User Guide for Drawing Routes.
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Drawing Routes
Routes are lines drawn on an interactive map or floor plan to show a path between two points. MapsAlive routes are drawn in a connect-the-dots fashion. For simple routes, you can provide a list of Ids for the hotspots that the
route travels through, but when you have dozens or hundreds of routes, importing from a file is the way to go.
Importing Routes from a Spreadsheet
You import routes from an Excel spreadsheet (or CSV file) containing rows that define routes and segments. The spreadsheet specifies which markers belong to which routes. You identify markers using their Hotspot Id. The Routes spreadsheet contains one row for each route you want to draw.
Defining Segments
Routes that travel over part of the same path as other routes can make use of segments to avoid duplication of data and make maintenance easier. You can define a segment and then include its Id as part of another route. In a large building there are often primary and secondary corridors that almost everyone walks through to get from point A to point B. These corridors can be defined as segments so that each unique route does not have to specify the corridor markers over and over again.
Gaps
You can draw a route that has non-contiguous sections by separating the hotspot Ids with semi-colons. This tells MapsAlive to pick up the "pen" and move it to the next coordinate before continuing to draw. For example, if you want to draw a route that stops at the edge of a river and then starts again on the other side, you can define the points for each section of the route and put a gap between the two sections.
Drawing Routes
You draw a route by calling the drawRoute function of the JavaScript API and passing the route's Id from the spreadsheet. You can test your routes right from the Tour Builder by selecting them from a dropdown list. You can fine tune a route by dragging its markers and seeing the route change at the same time.
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How do I specify the path of a route?
You specify a route's path by listing which hotspots it travels through. You can do this either by passing a list of hotspot Ids to the drawRoute JavaScript API function, or you can import routes from an Excel spreadsheet. Both of these techniques and a lot more are covered in the MapsAlive User Guide for Drawing Routes.
How do I draw a route?
You draw a route by calling the drawRoute JavaScript API function. To learn more, see the MapsAlive User Guide for the JavaScript API and also the MapsAlive User Guide for Drawing Routes.
How do I draw more than one route?
You can draw multiple routes by creating multiple route hotspots and calling the drawRoute function on each. You can see how this works in the first route drawing example in the MapsAlive User Guide for the Drawing Routes.
How do I change the appearance of a route?
You can control the appearance of a route using functions provided in the MapsAlive JavaScript API. The drawRoute function lets you pass parameters to control the thickness of a route, its color, opacity, and effects like shadow or glow. You can also make a route visible or invisible by using the setMarkerHidden function, or even make a route blink by using the setMarkerBlink function. To learn more, see the MapsAlive User Guide for the JavaScript API.
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