Geofence, or geographical zone, is an area on the map that is important for user’s tracking purposes and requires special attention. Geofences can be used to control units’ activity in these areas or, on the contrary, outside them.
You can attach to a geofence any image or photo or add a comment. And, a geofence can have a shape
of a line (for example, an avenue or any road), polygon (a city or park or plant), or circle with any radius.
Geofences are widely used in G4L. Besides the map’s visual enrichment, they can be used in reports, notifications, and units’ tooltips. Geofences can also be used as check points while configuring routes, and in their tooltips you can get dynamically updated images from external sources.
To open the Geofences panel, choose the corresponding name in the top panel or click on the necessary
item in the main menu customizer. Afterwards, choose a mode which allows you to work either with
geofences or groups of geofences. Note that geofence creating is available in the 'Geofences' mode
only, while the other options can be used in the 'Groups' mode as well.
Creating a Geofence
There are three steps to creating a geofence:
1. Map Geofence
Start working with geofences by choosing the corresponding mode.
Press the New button, and help window will provide you with the instructions on geofences' creation. Choose a geofence type on the left: line, polygon or circle.
Then map a geofence. Here are the basic rules for mapping a geofence:
Hint. A quick way to map a geofence is by using the Routing tool (create lines) or the Address tool
(create circles).
2. Set Geofence Properties
Name: Geofence's name is used while tracking units as well as in reports and notifications. It is a
required parameter. It can consist of one or more symbols. Besides, you can specify caption
color and size. It has sense if in User Settings the option 'Display names of geofences on map' is
enabled.
Description: This field is optional. Description is displayed in geofence's tooltip. It can be also
added to geofence's name if the geofence is used as address source in reports. When you create
a geofence, the description is filled in automatically with the address information taken from the
first point you map. However, you can edit it or simply delete. Its length is not limited. You can
use html (including iframe) tags in descriptions to format text or get images from other sites. For
example, you can embed video from web cameras, get photos from crossroads, load weather or
currency exchange, etc.
Type: Geofence can be of the shape of the line, polygon, or circle. For line, you also can indicate
its thickness, for circle — radius (in meters or feet, depending on resource settings).
Resource: This option is shown if the current user has access to more than one resource. The
resource chosen while creating a geofence defines the measurement system used to calculate
its area, length, radius, thickness, etc. (metric, U.S. or imperial system).
Image: You can attach any image to a geofence. An image can be chosen from the standard
icons (Icon Library button) or loaded from your computer by pressing the corresponding area
and choosing the file you need. Supported formats are PNG, JPG, GIF, and SVG. Moreover, you can use the Icon Library application (for top accounts only) which enables uploading individual
icons for geofences. The icons uploaded to the system using this application will be available for
you in the standard Icon Library. To facilitate the work with the library, the uploaded icons are
placed in the same list, but separately from the standard ones (at the top). All loaded images are
automatically resized by 64×64 pixels to display the geofences on the map and on the list.
However, in the tooltip for a geofence you can see an enlarged image (up to 256х256 px). In the
geofence’s editing dialog you can delete the image used. To do so, point a cursor on it, and click
the appeared delete button. Click OK to save changes, or Cancel to dismiss them.
Area & Perimeter: These fields are not editable; they are calculated automatically. Note. Area and perimeter values also depend on resource settings, and can be given in
hectares and kilometers or square miles, square feet and miles (feet), respectively.
Color: This color will be used to render a geofence on the map and to display it in a unit's tooltip
and in extended unit information as well as some other places where next to the geofence's
name where a unit is located, is shown a square of the same color. The color is chosen using the
palette or manually (by entering its RGB code). You can also choose if geofence's shape should
be shown on the map. For this purpose, the corresponding flag to the left of the color palette is
used.
Visibility: Here you specify map zooms at which geofences will be displayed or not. For example,
if a geofence is a city, it has sense to see it on remote scales, whereas if it is a building it is more
logical to see it on more detailed scales. Different map types can have different graduation of
map scales. However, all possible values fall into the range from 1 to 19, where 1 is the most
detailed scale (small streets and houses are displayed) and 19 is an overview (the whole world).
3. Save Geofence
When finished, press Save. In case of a mistake, press Clear and try again. To close the create mode
without saving results, press Cancel.
Note. Geofences can be saved to a file and easily transferred from one resource to another.
Geofences Management
In the work area, there is a list of all available geofences. To move to the necessary geofence on the
map, click on its name in the list.
Put check marks in the left column of the table to choose the geofences you want to be displayed on the map. Deselect these boxes to remove geofences from the map. A check mark at the header of the list selects/deselects all the geofences if their visibility corresponds to the current map scale and the appropriate layer is enabled.
If you have ticked too many geofences or they are very big, it can slow down browser performance. In this case, the setting of rendering geofences on server may help.
A geofence can be presented on the map by its name (if the flag 'Display names of geofences on map' is enabled in User Settings), by the image or shape assigned (if that option is activated in geofence properties), as well as any combination of these three elements. The geofences that overlap each other can be replaced by one conditional item.
Placing a cursor over a geofence name (in the list or on the map), you will get the following information
about it in the popup tooltip: name, type, description (if specified), enlarged image, the name of the
resource (if you have access to several), as well as the list of units located inside the geofence currently.
Depending on geofence type, there will be also area, perimeter, length, and/or radius. The measuring
units for these parameters depend on the measurement system chosen for a resource to which the
geofence belongs. If a description contains links to other images, they will be shown as well. For
instance, a tooltip of a geofence can look like this:
The following code has been used to add weather forecast to the tooltip:
<iframe src="https://www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/widget/daily/city-of-london_united-kingdom_2643741?geoloc=fixed&days=4&tempunit=CELSIUS&windunit=KILOMETER_PER_HOUR&coloured=coloured&pictoicon=1&maxtemperature=1&mintemperature=1&windspeed=1&layout=light" frameborder="0" scrolling="NO" allowtransparency="true" sandbox="allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups" style="width: 216px;height: 245px"></iframe><div><!-- DO NOT REMOVE THIS LINK --><a href="https://www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/forecast/week/city-of-london_united-kingdom_2643741?utm_source=weather_widget&utm_medium=linkus&utm_content=daily&utm_campaign=Weather%2BWidget" target="_blank">meteoblue</a></div>
To find or to sort geofences there is a filter and a fast search provided. The filter is a dropdown list with several predefined criteria:
By property:
By resource:
To find a needed geofence quickly, you can use the dynamic filter above the list. Type the name of the
geofence or some part of the name and observe the search results.
The following icons and buttons are used in the panel 'Geofences;':
Groups of Geofences
Created geofences can be formed into groups. Groups are used to unite geofences based on any criteria,
and serve as filtration parameters in several report templates. Moreover, groups of geofences are used
in the notifications of the corresponding type.
A group may contain only geofences belonging to the
same resource as the group itself.
To work with groups, choose the corresponding mode in the 'Geofences' panel.
To create a new group of geofences, click the 'New' button. Enter a name and description, and choose
geofences to be included in a group. Click OK.
A list of created groups of geofences is displayed in the work area. Groups are arranged alphabetically.
The same as for geofences, a filter or a dynamic search can be used for groups. Moreover, groups can be
edited, copied, or deleted. Note that upon deleting a group you can not delete its contents.
Geofences not included in any group can be found in the 'Geofences outside groups'.
Series of standard actions are available for geofences in a group (unfold a group in order the
corresponding buttons to appear).
Usage
While Tracking Online
Geofences can be displayed on the map (the ones that have flags in the panel 'Geofences' are shown).
That simplifies the visual perception of the map and enriches it. Different regions can be selected by
different colors and you can estimate the units' presence in definite areas. If a geofence is displayed on
the map, you can press
Note that in order Geofences to be displayed on the map you should check if the corresponding layer
icon in the main menu is active.
In Notifications
You can be notified by e-mail, SMS, online or by other means when your unit leaves or enters a
geofence. It is also possible to set speed limitations and sensor range for a unit during its presence in a
geofence. Besides, entering a geofence or leaving it can be automatically accompanied by an action:
send a message to the driver, block the engine, change users' access to this unit, and many others. See
Notifications.
In Reports
Geofences can be used in reports as addresses (in the 'Location' column), if the 'Use geofences for
addresses' flag is enabled in the 'Advanced settings' block of the reports' template.
Many tables are generated based on geofences. Among them there are the following:
When a report is generated, geofences can be rendered on the map.
Geofences can be also used to
filter intervals in reports.
In Routes
Geofences can be used as check points while configuring routes.