User Manual

How to start

• Go to ​http://chinagis.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/chinagis the ChinaGIS-Portal.
• Select a "Main Function" within the left frame.
• Select a "Sub-Function".

Main-Function "Data Entry"

• Sub-Function "Table Administration"
  • Generate empty user tables.
  • Delete complete user tables.
  • Add/Drop? attributes to/from user tables (selectable datatypes: date, integer, location, text and numeric).
    • Choose a name for the attribute.
    • Choose one of the five data types.
    • Press "Refresh" to list the existing attributes.
• Sub-Function "Data Upload"
  • Select an empty table from the list in the lower left frame. (If there is no table available yet, choose "Table Administration" and create a new empty table first.)
  • Browse through your files and choose the datafile.
    • The datafile should have the following format:
      • only one dataset per row
      • all attributes are separated by a simikolon: ';'
      • the number of data per row must correspond exactly to the number of columns (attributes) of the specific databasetable (defined in "Table Administration")
      • the type of data must correspond to the datatype chosen for the databasetable defined under "Table Administration" (if in doubt choose "text", as it excepts all strings)
  • Upload the datafile.
    • You may check it in the text-window.
    • Send the file to the database by clicking the "Load File" button.
    • If the content of your datafile is not shown (you may only see "{}"), please go back to the previous step und upload the datafile again.
  • The number of successfully loaded datasets will be shown. (If the number is "0.0", press the "Refresh"-button.)
  • To check the success of the upload, please go to Sub-Function "Edit Datasets"
• Sub-Function "Add Datasets"
  • Select a specific user table in the lower left frame and press "Add dataset".
  • Specify a new dataset by entering attributes in the main frame.
  • Press "Add new dataset" to save and continue specifing the next dataset.
  • To see or edit the datasets, go to sub-function "Edit Datasets".
• Sub-Function "Edit Datasets"
  • Select a specific user table from the list in the lower left frame and press "Show to alter".
  • Specify a dataset-range to show within the table and press "List sub-selected datasets".
  • Select a specific dataset and press "Show dataset" to edit.
  • Edit the values of the dataset and press "Save dataset" to save the the alterations.
  • Select the next dataset to edit.

Main-Function "Search and Mapping" - Table Query

This function allows the user to select datasets from an user-table, to show the related locations in a map and to add further spatial objects.

• Select a database-schema from the list in the middle left frame. Each database-schema represents a folder, which may contain a number of tables. The ChinaGIS database consists of two schemas:
  • "User Tables" => user specified tables, which can be related to the "sys_id"-attribute of the geodata-layers in chgis
  • "China Historical GIS" (chgis) => original geodata-layers from ​the China Historical GIS
• Select a table/layer from the lower left frame
• Specify:
  • the attributes to be shown in the dataset-table
  • the query for at least one selected attribute and
  • the attribute, which will be used to relate to the "sys_id"-attribute of the geodata-layers in chgis.
• "Run Query" presents the number of so far selected datasets. The range of datasets to show can be specified in the upper right part of the central frame.
• The table shows the specified datasets.
  • Select the datasets you want to display and press the "Selected" button to generate the map.
  • Alternatively press the "All" button to display all datasets.
• The map will be generated. If the central screen remains empty, press the "Refresh"-button (the server is often slower than the browser).
  • The map area should now show a map with one or more red "markers". These markers are clickable and provide additional information about the location. If there are multiple datasets for one location, the marker-dot will increase and after clicking on it, the datas will be shown in "tabs".
  • The right "legend"-frame presents some additionally available geodata-layers, wich
    • can be included by specifying a reasonable time-range and hitting the "Load Layer"-button
    • can be excluded by specifying an "unreasonable" time-range (like from -9999/12/31 to -9999/12/31)

Main-Function "Spatial Query"

• still empty

Main-Function "Mapping"

• Sub-Function "SQL-query":
  • Early test function to show the results of a SQL-query on geometry-layers in the map.
  • May be used, if regular SQL-queries are known.
  • !!!Errors are not caught!!!
• Sub-Function "Coordinates"
  • Early test function to show a marker at specified coordinates on the map.