0.1 Introduction

Welcome to the Landscape Portal Users manual! This document is a brief introduction to the Landscape Portal, its various features and how best to make the most of it. In order to get started, let’s look at the Landscape Portal interface and get a feel for how to navigate around it. The web interface is the primary method for interacting with the Landscape Portal as a user. From this interface, one can view and modify existing spatial layers and maps, as well as find information on other Landscape Portal users.

The Landscape Portal Homepage

The Landscape Portal Homepage

0.2 Accounts and users

Before you can save or edit any layers on the Landscape Portal, you need to create an account and without being logged in, you are limited to read-only access of public layers.

0.2.1 User Sign In or Registration

While on the home page of the portal, scroll down to the registration section which looks similar to the figure below, to login, click on the login button that is on your left hand-side and to register click on the register button to your right.

You will find the user login and registration section at the bottom of the Landscape Portal Homepage.

You will find the user login and registration section at the bottom of the Landscape Portal Homepage.

If you are already on any other page other than the home/landing page, click the “Register” button in the top right-hand corner as shown in the figure below:

Login and Registration section, other pages. Fill out the form that opens up when you click the SIGN IN link (red circle) and enter a user name and password in the fields. Also, enter your email address for verification. An email will be sent confirming that you have signed up. You will need to confirm your account by clicking the link that was sent in the email. Once you confirm, you will be returned to the homepage.

Login and Registration section, other pages. Fill out the form that opens up when you click the SIGN IN link (red circle) and enter a user name and password in the fields. Also, enter your email address for verification. An email will be sent confirming that you have signed up. You will need to confirm your account by clicking the link that was sent in the email. Once you confirm, you will be returned to the homepage.

0.3 Landscape Portal Quickstart

The Landscape Portal home page shows a variety of information about the current Landscape Portal version, quick links to view layers, maps, documents, blogs, tools, projects and a search field shown at the top of the page. The various sections of the Landscape Portal include:

0.3.1 Searching the Landscape Portal

Click the Search Box on the home page and type keywords/search string and press “Search”, see the image below. Note, while a simple search box is available at the top of home page, the individual search option from different modules like Layers allows for much more fine-tuned searches.

The Search Box at the top of the Landsacape Portal Homepage

The Search Box at the top of the Landsacape Portal Homepage

0.3.2 Layers

Click the Layers link on the home page to go to the Explore Layers page. This page shows all layers known to the Landscape Portal, available in either List or Grid viewing. Layers can be sorted by Most Recent, Most Popular, or Most Shared. Also available is a list of categories that the various layers are stored under. Users can also find a layer by using the search box on the left hand side. If you want to see the details of a layer, click on its name and a layer viewing page will open where the layer itself is superimposed on a hosted base layer (in this case OpenStreetMap, Google Maps etc.). If you are registered, you can upload a layer by following the instructions in “Upload Layer” section below.

0.3.2.1 Uploading layers

In order for one to upload a layer to a project, one has to upload it to the portal using the upload button in the layers module.

Click the Upload Layers button in the upper-right corner to upload layers to the Landscape Portal.

Click the Upload Layers button in the upper-right corner to upload layers to the Landscape Portal.

The layer upload page. Select files to upload, or simply drag and drop them onto the the drop field.

The layer upload page. Select files to upload, or simply drag and drop them onto the the drop field.

Layer files can be in the form of compressed zip files or individual files like .shp, .dbf, etc.

Dropping individual layer files.

Dropping individual layer files.

Zip file upload.

Zip file upload.

To upload using the file explorer feature, just click on the ___Choose Files___ button as in the figure below, and navigate to where either your files i.e (.shp, .dbf, .prj, .shx) or zipfile are and click ___open___ for them to be captured.

To upload using the file explorer feature, just click on the Choose Files button as in the figure below, and navigate to where either your files i.e (.shp, .dbf, .prj, .shx) or zipfile are and click open for them to be captured.

After this, Click on the ___Upload files___ button.

After this, Click on the Upload files button.

Window showing the progress of the layer upload process.

Window showing the progress of the layer upload process.

After the upload is complete you will get to see three new buttons: “Layer Info”, “Edit Metadata”, “Manage Styles” as shown below.

Window showing the progress of the layer upload process.

Window showing the progress of the layer upload process.

Select the “Edit Metadata” button to add metadata information to the layer that you just uploaded. This is a critical step as adding metdadata allows other users to find you layers easily, while it also provides critical information about the layer for later reference. If you are uploading a layer that you have generated and would like users to cite in a specific way, you can also add this information here.

The Edit Metadata page on the Landscape Portal.

The Edit Metadata page on the Landscape Portal.

0.3.3 Maps

Maps on the Landscape Portal combine one or more layers with base maps and can be published under the Maps section to allow other users to interact with them. To explore the maps that are already available, click the Maps link in the tool bar. This page shows all the maps on the Landscape Portal that you have access to as a registered user, available with similar viewing options as the layers.

You can create a map for a specific layer or by combining more layers in the same map, enriching it with more data. To create a map for a specific layer, follow there steps:

  1. Go to the Layers module and find the layer that you would like to include in a map by using the search tool or simply scrolling through the various layers that are available. Click on the layer name as described above.
  2. Press “Create map” and the mapping window will open with the layer added to this map. The map creation will take some time depending on the size of layer and your internet speed.

Note: Please use the Firefox internet browser, especially for map creation. If a map is created using other web browsers, an error will occor due to a known issue with GeoExplorer.

Once the map creation process is compelete, you should see a web page similar to this. This web page is called GeoExplorer and is a web based visualizaiton tool for geospatial data. The GeoExplorer contains menu, tool bar, table of content (TOC), attribute viewer and a map viewer.

Once the map creation process is compelete, you should see a web page similar to this. This web page is called GeoExplorer and is a web based visualizaiton tool for geospatial data. The GeoExplorer contains menu, tool bar, table of content (TOC), attribute viewer and a map viewer.

The elements of the Landscape Portal web mapping application.

The elements of the Landscape Portal web mapping application.

0.3.3.1 Maps menu

Menu has many options, but the most importatn is “Map” option (see the image below) that helps users save and publish a map (for example to a blog post or another website).

The second most important option in the menu is the “Identify” tool, which lets you select it and then click on any spatial feature to see details for this feature as shows in the image below.

Map with Feature Info shown after first selecting the __Identify__ button in the menu and then clicking on the layer or feature in the map window.

Map with Feature Info shown after first selecting the Identify button in the menu and then clicking on the layer or feature in the map window.

0.3.3.2 Maps toolbar

The tool bar contains buttons like zoom in/out, zoom to full etc. as explained in the image below.

The tools in the toolbar.

The tools in the toolbar.

0.3.3.3 Manage map layers

The window to the left of the map is called the “Table of content (TOC)”. It shows all the layers that you have added into the map. The layers are divided into “Overlays” (user created layers) and “Base Maps” (pre compiled maps by third party services like Google etc.). For example, in the image above, we have added ten overlays and selected “Google terrain” as base map layer.

TOC also has a tool bar that contains options like Add/Delete Layer, Layer properties and Styles. To add a layer, press the __Plus__ button in the tool bar. A submenu will appear with options like __Add Layers__, __Find Layers__ and __Add Feeds__.

TOC also has a tool bar that contains options like Add/Delete Layer, Layer properties and Styles. To add a layer, press the Plus button in the tool bar. A submenu will appear with options like Add Layers, Find Layers and Add Feeds.

The most important option in this submenu is “Find Layer”, which will open a search window. Type a search word and press the Search to find matching layers.

Example search window when the __Find Layers__ button is selected. Click the plus sign next to any of the layers to add it to the map.

Example search window when the Find Layers button is selected. Click the plus sign next to any of the layers to add it to the map.

To delete a layer, first select it from TOC by clicking on it and then pressing the “minus” sign in the TOC tool bar.

0.3.3.4 Layer properties

This is the third option in the TOC tool bar. It displays basic information about a layer, display options and available styles.

The __Display options__ window. By using this option you can change the opacity of the layer to make it look more/less transparent. By default, each layer has zero percent opacity. To change opacity, use the slider bar to change the percentage level. In this window you can also filter by using scale or attribute values.

The Display options window. By using this option you can change the opacity of the layer to make it look more/less transparent. By default, each layer has zero percent opacity. To change opacity, use the slider bar to change the percentage level. In this window you can also filter by using scale or attribute values.

Note: In some browsers, the opacity bar is not visible thus it is highly recomended to use Firefox internet browsers.

0.3.3.5 Layer Styles

The last option in TOC tool bar is “Layer Style”. Each uploaded layer is given a default style based on its feature geometry. A user can change styles of a layer, provided he/she is the owner of the layer or has proper permissions. Layer styles will be covered in a separate tutorial.

0.3.3.6 Attribute viewer

Vector data hosted on the Landscape Portal contain attribute tables, which you can explore within the Map window by pressing the Query button in the toolbar. This opens a table below the GeoExplorer map viewer with the attributes for the active vector layer.

Attribute table shown below the map viewer on the Landscape Portal

Attribute table shown below the map viewer on the Landscape Portal

If you would like to zoom the map window to a specific feature or layer, right click on the required layer in the TOC and press “Zoom to feature” from the menu that comes up.

0.3.3.7 Share your map

To share your map with other users, follow these steps:

  1. Click the Map button, and then select Publish Map.
  2. The title and abstract as previously created should still be there. Make any adjustments as necessary, and click Save.
  3. A new dialog will appear with instructions on how to embed this map in a web page, including a code snippet. You can use this code snippet within another web page or blog, for example, to display the map there. You can adjust the parameters as necessary.

0.3.4 Documents

From the home page, click “Document”" button. A new page will appear with all the document accessable to a user based on his/her access levels. The document module does not have a preview section, thus, documents have to be downloaded to view them.

0.3.5 Tools

Tool section contains custom tools developed by ICRAF Geo Science Lab. The toold contain dashboards, data explorere etc. At the moment, seven tools are hosted however this number will change in future based on the future developments.

0.3.6 Blogs

Blogs are easy to write and an excellent tool to keep users up to date with latest developments. The Landscape portal allows and encourages users to write blogs about their work. Users can incorporate interactive maps and videos in their blogs. The Landscape portal’s site visitor traffic analysis (below) shows that people are interested in reading blogs. Thus, why not tell your map story. Click on the “Blog” button on the home page to read some of the blogs.

Note: Blog writing/publishing rights are assigned by administrator.

0.3.7 Projects

The Project module contains a selection of ongoing or past projects with their spatial outputs displayed in one place. This module simplifies the detection of maps and layers that are related to specific projects.

The Projects module landing page, showing a list of projects. By clicking on a project name, a page is shown with a list of spatial layers and maps for the selected project.

The Projects module landing page, showing a list of projects. By clicking on a project name, a page is shown with a list of spatial layers and maps for the selected project.

In order to read the details, users can click name of any project. Once clicked, project detailed page will appear with informatoin like Principle scientist name, donor name, grant details and project memebers. The details page also include the spatial outputs delonging to this project like layers, maps and documents.

Note: Only administator can create a project and assign layers/maps/documents to a project.