Pinpoint key locations with interactive map plotting

Imagine being able to generate an interactive Google map that shows locations for your branch offices, customers, product installations, or even vehicles with real-time GPS tracking coordinates. The map would allow you to click on a marked location to display information from your System i database within a pop-up balloon. Within the balloon, you could even click on a hyperlink to display a related Web page or run an interactive SEQUEL business intelligence request to retrieve relevant information for the selected site.

All these capabilities are available to you right now. SEQUEL has been integrated with the Google maps function to support interactive map plotting based on address, zip code, or latitude/longitude coordinates stored in System i database files. You can even map locations from data stored in ORACLE, SQL Server, and other databases with the assistance of SEQUEL’s multiplatform database support.

Real-time vehicle tracking
A number of SEQUEL users in the transport industry already use this function to pinpoint the location of trucks equipped with GPS tracking systems. Depending on the available database information, SEQUEL could show a dispatcher the type of cargo the truck carries, whether it has available space, or the overall status of the shipment. In addition, they could run a SEQUEL request to drill-down into detailed database information, such as a bill of lading.

Other industries
The possibilities with the SEQUEL mapping capabilities are endless. Companies in other industries could use this function to quickly identify product or equipment installations within a region or across the country.

Working example
To illustrate how the mapping function works, we’ve created an example using a public-domain database from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) that shows locations of stream flow monitoring stations across the nation. Among other information, the USGS database contains latitude and longitude coordinates for each station. This database was downloaded from a USGS Web site and saved as a physical file on the System i.

You can initiate run-time prompts within SEQUEL ViewPoint, a SEQUEL executive dashboard, or from a Web browser using the SEQUEL Web Interface. SEQUEL lets you define as many prompts as you need to filter the data according to your own unique requirements. Therefore, you can select data for different product lines, vehicle types, or any other category or segment.

After you click the OK button to submit the request, SEQUEL converts the zip code or city name location into latitude and longitude coordinates to define the centering location. Then, using this location, SEQUEL performs a distance calculation to identify all the stations within the specified range.

For each selected station, SEQUEL reformats the System i database information into an XML output file according to the requirements of the Google maps API. This XML file is served along with a predefined HTML page and the results display in a browser window.

When you click on a location, a pop-up balloon displays detailed information extracted from the System i database.

You can also define hyperlinks to run SEQUEL Web Interface requests or to direct you to documents on a local server.

If you’re already a SEQUEL customer and would like to implement a mapping solution, download the Help/FACTS with a technical how-to approach.