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Secure Personal Location Manager
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Location Pages

A location page is a single page with a map showing the last known location of one or more users. While it doesn't show a user's history, it's an easy way for event coordinators and user groups to know where their participants and members were last located as opposed to viewing each user's trip page individually.
 
Creating a Location Page

If you're interested in creating a location page for your event or group or whatever, email us at support@spotwalla.com and provide the following information:

  • Name - A short name for the location page.
  • Description - A brief description of the page.
  • Start Date - The date the page should activate.
  • End Date - The date the page should deactivate.
  • View Password - If you want a private location page, a view password must be supplied by anyone trying to view the page.
  • Join Password - If you want to restrict the users that can join the page, a join-password should be used.
  • Show Coordinates? - Each location's popup window contains the coordinates of the location. You can choose to not display the coordinates.
  • Show Time? - Each location's popup window contains the date and time of the location. You can choose to not display the time component for each location.
  • Show Username? - When hovering the mouse over a user's icon, the username is displayed. This option can be disabled in order to help protect the user's anonymity.
  • Show Speed? - SpotWalla calculates the speed for each location. This data is merely an approximation and and is not accurate. It's a good indicator of movement. If this option is enabled, the user's speed (MPH, KPH and Knots) will be displayed in the popup window when clicking on an icon.
  • Map Type - Your choices are Normal (default), Satellite, Hybrid (satellite with map overlay) or Terrain.

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Viewing Location Pages

Follow these steps to view the list of currently active location pages:

  1. From the home page, ensure you're in Simple Search mode. If you don't see the Show me the listbox toward the top of the page, then click the Simple Search button.
  2. Select "Location Pages - Active/Future" from the Show me the listbox and click the Go button. This will display a list of all active and future location pages.
  3. To view any location page, simply click its name.

While viewing a location page you can show and hide the traffic layer by toggling the Show/Hide Traffic checkbox located on the left side of the viewer. Traffic information is not available in all areas or at all zoom levels. The traffic information displayed is current as of when the page was loaded. For more information on coverage areas see: Google Maps Traffic Coverage Area

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Joining a Location Page

Users must explicitly join a location page. Because a user's location is regarded as personal/private information, SpotWalla will never auto-join a user to a location page. The prerequisites for joining a page are:

  • You must have a SpotWalla account. For more information see Creating an Account.
  • You must configure a supported device and activate its message interface. For more information see Message Interfaces.

Once the prerequisites are satisfied, follow these steps to join a page:

  1. Login to your SpotWalla account.
  2. In the upper right menu click the Preferences link.
  3. Set your default location ID to your initials or some other identifier like a rally number. This ID will be used to mark your icon on each location page you choose to join. This is merely the default ID. You will have the opportunity to use different IDs for each page you join.
  4. Click the Update button.
  5. From the home page, ensure you're in Simple Search mode. If you don't see the Show me the listbox toward the top of the page, then click the Simple Search button.
  6. Select "Location Pages" from the Show me the listbox and click the Go button. This will display a list of all active location pages.
  7. Find the page you wish to join.
  8. To the right of that page in the Action column, click the Add Me link.
  9. If the location page requires a join password, you must supply it here. If it doesn't have a join password, this field will not be shown on the screen.
  10. Choose the device you want to use for this location page. Only messages from this device will update your location on this page.
  11. Choose the location ID you want to use on this page. The default is the value from your Preferences, but you can change it here, if desired or required.
  12. Select the types of messages that will update your location on this location page. For security reasons you may want to control this behavior. For instance, if you use the OK message to mark where you're spending the evening, you may not want to advertise that location on a public location page. This option only applies to SPOT devices since it's the only supported device that is capable of sending multiple message types.
  13. Click the Join button.
  14. Depending upon how you've set the above options, SpotWalla may find a suitable location automatically. If it doesn't, your location won't appear on the page until you send a location that meets the above options.

To remove yourself from a page, follow the steps above and in step 8 a Remove Me link appears rather than the Add Me link. Click the Remove Me link. You may add/remove yourself from a page at will. To change your location ID or the device used, you will need to remove and then add yourself again to the page. Your current ID and device will appear in parentheses.

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Embedding Location Pages
Embedding allows you to include a fully-functional map of your location page in a webpage or blog post. The only requirement is that the HTML IFRAME element must be supported by your browser as well as the system where your page or blog is hosted.

The basic syntax of the IFRAME element used to embed a location page is:

<iframe
        src='location viewer link goes here'
        width='800'
        height='600'
        scrolling='false'
        frameborder='0'>
  Embedding failed because inline frames are not supported by your browser or the web server.
</iframe>

If the viewer's browser doesn't support IFRAMEs, the Embedding failed... message will appear instead of the location page. The width and height parameters determine the width and height of the IFRAME respectively. The other parameters affect the IFRAME's characteristics. For more information on the IFRAME element, refer to your favorite HTML documentation.

The location viewer link goes here text will be replaced by the link to the location page that you received in the email sent to you after creation. Simply replace the location viewer link goes here text with it. For example:

<iframe
        src='http://spotwalla.com/locationViewer.php?id=1'
        width='800'
        height='600'
        scrolling='false'
        frameborder='0'>
  Embedding failed because inline frames are not supported by your browser or the web server.
</iframe>

If your location page is configured with a view password, consider adding the password to the link using the p parameter. Otherwise, the viewer will be prompted for the password. Here's an example of how to add the view password to the link:

<iframe
        src='http://spotwalla.com/locationViewer.php?id=1&p=aPassword'
        width='800'
        height='600'
        scrolling='false'
        frameborder='0'>
  Embedding failed because inline frames are not supported by your browser or the web server.
</iframe>

One issue with embedding a location page like the one above is that a link to the SpotWalla Home page is present at the top of the left pane. If the viewer clicks the link, they will navigate to the home page within the IFRAME. Not really a good option. To remove this link, add the showHome parameter to the link like this:

<iframe
        src='http://spotwalla.com/locationViewer.php?id=1&showHome=no'
        width='800'
        height='600'
        scrolling='false'
        frameborder='0'>
  Embedding failed because inline frames are not supported by your browser or the web server.
</iframe>

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Location Page Parameters

Whether you're embedding a location or simply viewing a location, the following parameters allow you to customize how the location page is displayed...

Parameter Acceptable Values Default Description
lat >= -90, <= 90 Determined automatically based upon the locations on the map. The latitude of the center of the map.
lon >= -180, <= 180 Determined automatically based upon the locations on the map. The longitude of the center of the map.
zoom >= 1, <= 20 Determined automatically based upon the locations on the map. Determines the initial zoom level of the map.

All parameter names are case-sensitive.

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