Step 5 - Publication Setup

Click on the Setup Virtual Publication tab to display a number of important setup parameters for the Virtual Publication.

Virtual Publication Directory

A directory must be selected as the Virtual Publication Directory. The installation files and published database are placed within this directory. All of the files within this directory may be written to a CD or similar media and then distributed to clients or associates.

WARNING - The Virtual Publication Directory should be empty. Any existing files will be overwritten.

Publication Name

Each publication must have a name. This is used to name a several installation files, such as the published database, and is also displayed as the name of the project during the installation process.

Selecting files

You may wish to include project specific documentation with the published database. This may describe, for instance, the data and/or the project details. If the file is included in the installation, FreeView will recognize it and include an extra item in the Help menu, so that users can view the documentation while viewing the map and attribute data from the database.

The documentation file must be in PDF format which can be created using Adobe Acrobat. The free Acrobat Reader is included in the STEMgis Publisher installation. When your publication is installed the installation script will check for the existence of Acrobat Reader. If it doesn't exist, the user will be asked if they wish to install it.

Similarly, you may add a PowerPoint presentation to the publication. This will be recognized by the installation script and will be added as an icon under the Start>Programs menu.

Project Document File

To select an Acrobat PDF file, click on the browse button. You can then select an appropriate file using the standard Windows File Browser.

Project Presentation File

To select an PowerPoint file, click on the browse button. You can then select an appropriate file using the standard Windows File Browser.

Default Map File

To select a map file, which defines the default map that appears in the STEMgis Viewer's Map Window, click on the browse button and select an appropriate file using the standard Windows File Browser. The map file must be in the standard STEMgis map format. You may wish to choose from the standard map files in the 'data\maps' directory (relative to the directory where STEMgis is installed) or create your own in the same format by importing from SHAPE, DXF, MIF format into STEMgis Viewer and saving in .MAP format.

Note: .map files are stand alone, i.e. they are not included in STEMgis databases and hence the STEMgis Manager is not used to load them.

STEMgis Default Workspace File

You may want your published STEMgis database to always open with the same default layers every time a user executes their copy of STEMgis FreeView. If this is the case you should save a STEMgis Workspace File from STEMgis Viewer. Click on the browse button to select a workspace file using the Windows File Browser.

License File

The installation produced for the Virtual Publication includes a license which the user must accept before continuing with the installation. This license refers to the STEMgis FreeView software. You may also add a license of your own which may refer to any copyright details relating to the data your have loaded into the database. Click on the browse button to select a txt file containing this license. If you have selected a license, it will appear after the software license and, again, the user must accept it before continuing with the installation.

Note: Use the C (clear) button at any time to clear the selected fields.

Miscellaneous settings

There are a number of other settings that can be specified in Publicist.

By default the installation will not put an icon on the user's desktop. However, you can override this by selecting the Desktop icon check box. Also, by default, when a user right clicks on a polygon in the Viewer or FreeView a table appears including information about the area and perimeter of the polygon. This can be turned off be deselecting the Show Area/Perim on right click check box.

When a query is performed in the Viewer or FreeView, the maximum number of time slices available is set to 750. This helps restrict the amount of memory used by STEMgis. This default value can be overridden using the Maximum number of periods in a query text box.

Note: The minimum number allowable is 200 periods.

Go to Step 6 - Select a Projection.