Finding Data on a WeoGeo Library
WeoGeo empowers users to find data through web-based geographic search in real-time, anywhere in the world. This tutorial will walk you through the process of finding data on a WeoGeo Library.
Notes for this tutorial:
- If have not registered for a WeoGeo Library, please do so now by visiting our Library signup page and view our tutorial on How to Sign Up for a WeoGeo Library.
- For this tutorial, we should make a note that there are a few ways in which you may search for data on a WeoGeo Library. In this walk through, there will be an example of finding data from a Library users’ perspective (both Administrator and non admins) and an example of finding data from an Administrator only perspective.
- These examples were performed on a WeoGeo Library. However, the searching and filtering mechanics are the same regardless of which WeoGeo product you are using (i.e. same as finding data on Market).
- You do not need to login when finding data on WeoGeo Market.
Sign In
In order to search for and find data on your WeoGeo Library, you will first need to Sign In using your username and password. This username and password was created during library registration. However, if you are not the Administrator (owner) of the library you are accessing, you would use the username and password that you created during registration, once the administrator allowed you access.
To begin, type the URL address of the WeoGeo Library you would like to access in your internet browser’s address bar. Once you enter your Library Address, the sign in window appears.
Before I can start working with this library, I must enter my username and password and sign in.
Search and Navigate
Once signed in, we are taken to the MapView page of our Library. This is where our search begins. Here we can locate our target area of interest, geographically. The MapView will always be centered on your current location (based on your IP) unless the Customization Settings are changed by the Administrator.
I am in Portland, Oregon, therefore the MapView is centered on Oregon.
If you are not the administrator (owner) of the library you are logged into, you will not see the “Library” link in your Menu Bar located at the top right corner of your window. Your Menu Bar can be seen in the image below. The Library link will open the Administrator Console, which allows Library Administrators to manage the Library.
To find data, we need to navigate to our area of interest. There are two ways to do this. You can either use the mouse pointer to drag the map to your area of interest or you can use the Location Search Box (highlighted in the image below) in the Search and Results panel.
Using the Location Search, we can enter in a specific geographic location by typing in a city, state, zip code, place name (as much as you need) or map coordinates into our Location Search Box.
Let’s start by typing Eugene, Oregon in our Location Search Box.
Our Eugene search has returned a few listings (shown below). You will always see the number of results shown at the bottom of the Search & Results panel (highlighted in image above).
I want to refine our search results and look for “Parks” in Eugene. To do this, we will use the Text Search Box and enter the word “Parks”. The Text Search (marked with a red circle in the image below) searches keywords/ tags, dataset titles, and descriptions within your current, geographic search results.
Now only four results were returned. These are datasets within the geographic range shown in our MapView that contain the word “Parks” somewhere in the datasets’ name or description.
Please note, no matter which method you choose to navigate around the map interface, you can refine your area of interest down to street-level by zooming in or out with the zoom toggle option on the right side of the map, or by using your mouse wheel.
Also, note that our search results will automatically update, reflecting the data listings available for the chosen geographic area in our MapView.
View Results
So let’s do another search and then take a closer look at our results. Type in Florida in our Location Search, and leave the the Text Search Box empty this time.
Our results now show the data listings for Florida found on our Library. Every result displayed in the Search & Results panel is represented by a shaded orange box in the MapView (shown above).
However, in order to see where each of the listings fall on our MapView panel, we would simply hover over each individual listing. The area that the data covers will be highlighted and shaded over using a white outline (as seen below).
In the image above, I am hovering my mouse over the Tampa, Florida listing found in our Search & Results panel. To find out more detailed information on our listings, you can simply click on the individual listing to see the Data Description Box. This Data Description Box is the pop up window containing the detailed description of the listing as well as a thumbnail view of the data.
The Data Description Box contains the name of the dataset, the provider, and full data description. Most importantly, this is where you have the option to customize and order that individual data set. We will cover customizing and ordering in the tutorial on Ordering Data on a WeoGeo Library.
For now, lets focus further on the tools to help us find data.
Advanced Filtering
In determining which data results to present to you, WeoGeo performs its primary data filtering geographically. However, there are occasions in which this type of filtering alone is not sufficient and the number of results may be overwhelming.
To help you find exactly what you are looking for, WeoGeo supports further filtering of the returned results in its Filter tab, found at the top of the Search & Results panel. So because our search results are plentiful for our last search (the state of Florida), we will use our Filter to narrow down our results.
Once you click on the Filter Tab, a new panel will open up called the Filter panel, which contains multiple parameters to refine our results with.
Note: There are minor differences of what an Administrator (Owner) of the library and a User would see on the Filter panel. Administrators have a Price Filter (which includes if a dataset is found on Market) as well as a Group(s) Filter. The figure above is what an Administrator would see and the figure below is what a User would see.
We are going to use the Filter to help us narrow our search results and find a Vector dataset in the WGS84 Datum that a date occurring after January 1, 2010.
We will first use the Filter to limit our search results to Vector data. To do this, click on Data Type in the Filter Panel.
When we click on Data Type, we will be shown the types of data that exist in our results, and how many of each data type there are. To Filter the results so they only display Vector datasets, click the radio button next to the word “Vector”.
Once I select the Vector data type, my results will immediately be filtered to show only Vector datasets.
Next, let’s limit our search by Datum. This in done the same way we Filtered our results by Data Type. Click on the word “Datum” in the Filter panel.
Under “Datum” we see a list of available Datums (see above figure). There are five results that have a WGS84 Datum. Let’s click the radio button next to WGS84 to filter our search to only include datasets in the WGS84 Datum.
Lastly, we will filter the datasets by date. We are interested in a recent dataset, so we will set the “After” portion of the Date Range to January 1, 2010.
Our results have now been narrowed down to two datasets that are both Vectors, both WGS84 Datum and both originated after January 1, 2010.
Hide the Filter by clicking on the red ”X” button in the right corner the Filter panel. Once you have set filters, any further searching will be constrained by the filter selections. Individual filters can be removed by clicking the red X’s next to each filter value that appear when filter constraints are set.
Let’s find out more about our results by clicking on the individual listing and reading the detailed descriptions.
Once we have found a dataset we would like to order, we can click the Customize and Order button found at the bottom of the Data Description Box (see figure above). Please see the detailed examples of Customizing and Ordering Data in the tutorial Ordering Data on a WeoGeo Library
Additional Features Helpful Tools
Before moving forward, I would like to review two very useful tools that should not be overlooked when Finding Data.
Permalink
The first tool is the Permalink tool. This tool allows you to share your data search and results with others by sending them a link to your exact Search and Results.
The Permalink contains all the parameters of your search. To create a Permalink, simply click the Permalink icon at the bottom of the Search & Results panel (shown in the image above). This will open a new tab in your internet browser, containing a URL unique to your specific search (circled in the image below).
This link can by copied and sent to others, allowing them to view your search.
Note: In order for the Permalink to work on Libraries, recipients of the link must be members of your library. To learn about adding users to your Library see our support page on inviting users. The Permalink tool is also available on WeoGeo Market and does not require link recipients to have an account.
RSS Feed
The RSS feed allows users to stay up to date with new data added to your WeoGeo Library.
Like Permalink, the RSS feed link contains the search parameters of your most recent search. Opening this link in an RSS Feed Reader will give you updates to your search criteria (anything you’ve set in the Search & Results or Filter panels) within the geographic area shown in MapView. Your Feed Reader will be updated to any dataset additions in the WeoGeo Market listings (or Library you were accessing) that match your search criteria. To learn more about subscribing and receiving RSS feeds, see our support article on Using RSS.
Finding Data using Reports (Administrators Only)
For Library Administrators, there is another way to search and find data on your Library. The Library Administrator Reports and Tools are only available to Library Administrators. Of course, Administrators may use the method that we just reviewed above by using the MapView and Search Filter, or they may use the Admin. Reports found in the Administrator Console.
To find data using your Administrator Reports and Tools, we would simply login to our library, the same as we did at the beginning of this tutorial, however, then we would immediately click on the Library Tab at the top right of your Library.
This will take you to your Library Administration Console. For more information on all the tools and options found inside the Administrator Console, please see Managing your WeoGeo Library. For this tutorial, we will focus on the Datasets Report.
Once we click on the Datasets tab found in our Administrator Console, we are taken to the Datasets Report. This report displays information on all of the listings that are currently on my library.
This is a very convenient way to find and manage data on our library. Instead of using the MapView panel to search for data, we can use the reports method instead. When using the reports, we can see the Name of the dataset, the File Size, the File Format, the List Date, the Market_ status and price.
This Dataset Report makes it simple to see all of our listings at one time, in one place and in a list format. This report may also be used for managing, editing and deleting listings from your library.
When clicking on the individual listing name in the report, you will be taken to the listings Data Description Box where you can review and edit the current description and thumbnail for the listing. Here you are also given the opportunity to customize and order the data as well.
We hope you enjoyed this tutorial on the various ways to find data on a WeoGeo Libary, and will further explore the tools that will help you during your search and discovery. Be sure to check out the How to order data on WeoGeo Library which will walk you through the steps of customizing and ordering data.