Custom Feature Layers

Characteristic

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Detailed Consideration

Creating and using custom Feature Layers

The operation to create a custom Feature Layer is createFeatureLayer provided by the PTV xData service.

The resulting custom Feature Layer can be used by several PTV services: by xRoute to calculate routes, by xDima to create a distance matrix, and by xData to create a high-performance routing network or a content snapshot. It can be also rendered on the map by xMap when the layer is persisted on the server.

Retrieving the relevant segmentIds is a step that must be performed beforehand. The operation is explained in the Accessing Data technical concept. For each created Feature, it is possible to define as key/value, via a Feature Description, the attributes values. The list of attributes that can be used are documented in the PTV_RoadAttributes theme.

Several kinds of uses can be made and some integration samples are given.

• Users can block some road segments or open them (ex: open one-ways). Note that, opening a road resets bonus or malus that is possibly inherited from the profile A profile is a collection of parameters used to configure the request. Full profiles consist of a number of specialized sub-profiles like the VehicleProfile which describes the properties of a vehicle. or from a Feature Layer of the map.
• Users can create custom road classes (CUSTOM_ROAD_CLASS_1 to CUSTOM_ROAD_CLASS_5) and use them to prefer or avoid some roads. The users can choose:
  • preferredRouteTypes: if the road class must be preferred by the routing algorithm.
  • unrestrictedRouteTypes: if the road class should be unrestricted despite of the presence of others Feature Layers. For the corresponding segments, the Feature Layers from the map (e.g. TruckAttributes) will be ignored.
  • restrictedRouteTypes: if the road class should be avoided as far as possible, e.g. for convenience reasons.
  • highlyRestrictedRouteTypes: if the road class must be avoided, e.g. due to legal limitations.
• Users can prohibit segments of roads depending on dimensions of vehicles.
• Users can add extra driving time on segments.
• Users can set the absolute speed on segments.
• Users can add a note on segments.
• Users can set a relative speed on segments.

For all kinds of uses Time Domains could be used for scheduled the custom Feature Layers. It is quite possible to build a restriction for only certain hours of the day, or a few days of the week. For example, a route hosting a market is opened for shopkeeper according to a legally regulated schedule that the custom Feature Layers allow to consider.

createFeatureLayer offers the possibility to either return a binary object which can be used in subsequent requests, or to directly persist the custom Feature Layer on server-side.

• As binary object, the encoded representation of the Feature Layer is provided in FeatureLayerResponse. Thus, it is only available for the caller and nothing is saved on the server-side. The caller can provide this object in
  • an xRoute request with RouteOptions.binaryFeatureLayer, or
  • an xDima request with DistanceMatrixOptions.binaryFeatureLayer, or
  • an xData request with HighPerformanceRoutingNetworkOptions.binaryFeatureLayer.

  The size of a Feature Layer binary object cannot exceed 20 000 road segments with the default configuration in order to limit the size of the responses. However, it is possible to increase this value changing the server configuration file (see Server Configuration page) or to create several Feature Layers. Furthermore, it is not possible to use a binary object with createContentSnapshot . Also, it is not possible to render a custom Feature Layer as binary object with the PTV xMap service.

• As persistent layer, the Feature Layer is stored as a file under the path "data/flr". When creating a custom Feature Layer, users must specify a unique scenario name. The scenario name is the layer identifier; this is the name that will appear in the User Data Monitor when listing custom Feature Layers or that must be filled in the featureLayerProfile to be used by the other operations, if the PTV_RoadAttributes theme is activated. Note that the complete path folder of a scenario is “data/flr/tenant/scope”. Please note that it is possible to create Feature Layers with a same scenario name but located in different scopes.

  More details about the tenant and scope can be found on this technical concept.

  Contrary to binary object, there is no size limitation, and all operations can use the persistent layer.

Licenses and Managing custom Feature Layers

• CreateFeatureLayer requires an activated license key customFeatureLayer.
• Listing: It is possible to list all available custom Feature Layers with the operation listFeatureLayers. The user data monitor of the xServer dashboard uses this operation to show the available Feature Layers.
• Removal: A custom Feature Layer can be deleted using the operation deleteFeatureLayer. This delete operation for custom Feature Layers requires an activated license key customFeatureLayerManagement.
• Please note that it is not possible to edit an existing Feature Layer. If a modification has to be made, then the whole Feature Layer must be generated again.

Good to know

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