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Help Topics

  1. System and Software Requirements
  2. Home Page Options
  3. MapClient Display
  4. MapClient Tips
  5. Potential Problems and Recommended Solutions
  6. Contact Information

1. System and Software Requirements

The IMS Internet application works on virtually all computers, however, a 100MHz 486 computer with 32 Mb or more of system (RAM) memory and a monitor screen size of 800x600 or better. is recommended. The IMS application requires a "Java Enabled" Internet browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.01 or greater, or Netscape Navigator 3.0 or greater. We recommend downloading the most recent version of Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. A plugin is required for Macintosh users. When you initially select a map to display, a Java applet, called MapClient_31, will be downloaded to your system. Depending on the speed of your system and network connection, the Java applet may take a couple of minutes to load.

2. Home Page Options

The Mineral Resources On-Line Spatial Data Home Page presents the user with the following options:
(1) Map Viewing Options. The user can select a region of interest by clicking on a state or state name on the state map, the USA icon, or the world icon.
(2) Download data. The user can download each data file and it's associated metadata.
(3) About this Site. Displays a document describing the goals, structure, technology utilized and future of this application as it pertains to the USGS Spatial Data Delivery Project.
(4) Help. Pressing this is your current location, which contains information that will help the user utilize this site.
(5) Links. A list of mineral resource related sites.
(6) Feedback. An opportunity to give us your comments and suggestions.
(7) Software Bugs. Describes known software bugs and error messages.
(8) Privacy Statement, Disclaimer, and Data Availability Policy Statements.

3. MapClient Display

Once the MapClient application is downloaded to your system you will see an initial display with a map which depends on the Display View selected. The following is a description of the MapClient Interface icons and their functions.

Table of Contents [Window on left]

(1)To display a theme select the box to the left of the theme name.

(2)Display the legend for a theme by double clicking the theme name in the Table of contents.

(3)Select the order in which the themes are displayed (i.e. which themes are displayed on top of others) by selecting (highlighting) the theme name in the Table of Contents and while holding down the left hand mouse button, drag the theme's position either up or down. Note: if a active theme disappears while adjusting the theme order, it may be covered by a solid filled polygon and/or grid/image theme that is higher in the drawing order. Themes are drawn in order from the bottom of the Table of Contents list to the top.

(3)

Blue Box with white question markDetailed Legend [TOC]
Click on this icon to display a detailed theme legend (if it exists) in a separate display window.


MAP DISPLAY WINDOW

Gray Box containing white hand symbolPAN
Pressing this button allows you to manually navigate through the map by clicking at a location, holding down the left mouse button, dragging the cursor to a new location and releasing the left mouse button. If you pan beyond the edge of the current map display, a new map will be requested from the server.

Gray Box containing magnifier symbolZOOM IN
Pressing this button allows you to zoom in to a smaller area on the map by clicking at a location or by holding down the left mouse button and dragging a window. If you click on a location, the new map will be centered on that location.

Gray Box containing magnifier symbolZOOM OUT
Pressing this button allows you to zoom out to a larger area on the map by clicking at a location or by holding down the left mouse button and dragging a window. If you click on a location, the new map will be centered on that location.

Gray Box containing black box outline with upper left corner highlighted in red and yellowZOOM TO A FEATURE
Pressing this button allows you to zoom to a map extent defined by a set of selected features. One or more themes must be selected (highlighted) in the Table of Contents before using this tool. Clicking on a location or dragging a box with the left mouse button selects all features on the selected theme(s) at the selected location or within the box. A new map is drawn which includes all selected features. After the application zooms to the new extent the selected features will be highlighted in yellow. To remove the yellow highlight, press the Reload button.

Gray Box containing white letter I within black circleIDENTIFY
Pressing this button allows you to get attribute information about a feature on which you click. One or more themes must be selected (highlighted) in the Table of Contents before using this tool. The attribute information will be displayed in a separate browser display window.

Gray Box containing black lightening boltHYPERLINK
Pressing this button allows you to display related HTML file or image (if available) by clicking on a feature. A theme must be selected (highlighted) in the Table of Contents before using this tool

Gray Box containing blue character X and red character YLATITUDE/LONGITUDE
Pressing this button allows you to display the latitude and longitude coordinates(dms) for any location contained in the map display window. Click the mouse with the cursor at the desired location and the coordinates are displayed in a box at the lower right corner of the display.

Gray Box containing left pointing black arrowBACK
Pressing this button zooms back to the previous map extent you were viewing.

Gray Box containing right pointing black arrowFORWARD
Pressing this button zooms forward to the map extent you were viewing before pressing the Back button.

Gray Box containing black arrows pointing inwardZOOMIN FIXED
Pressing this button zooms in, by a fixed amount with the resulting map centered on the previous view center.

Gray Box containing black arrows pointing outwardZOOMOUT FIXED
Pressing this button zooms out, by a fixed amount with the resulting map centered on the previous view center.

Gray Box containing black outline of houseHOME
Pressing this button returns the display to the initial map extent you saw when you first accessed the map.

Gray Box containing globeZOOM TO FULL EXTENT
Pressing this button zooms to the extent of all the themes listed in the Table of Contents.

Gray Box containing black box with upper left corner highlighted with black and yellow plus signNEW MAP WINDOW
Pressing this button opens up a new resizable map in a separate browser window. This is particularly useful if your screen resolution is not 800 x 600. Opening a new window and clicking the maximum button on the new window allows the application to make full use of the available screen.

Gray Box containing black box with empty rows and columnsTHEME TABLE
Pressing this retrieves the attribute data for the theme(s) selected by the user in the Table of Contents. A theme must be highlighted in the Table of Contents before this tool is used.

Gray Box containing black binocularsSEARCH
Pressing this button brings up a dialog box where you can enter search criteria for locating specific map features. Look under (4) MapClient Tips for additional information on utilizing this tool.

Gray Box containing black outline of computer printerPRINT
Pressing this button downloads a graphic image (map layout) of the current map display. A separate Layout Options Window will appear allowing the user to enter a map title, select legend components, and select the graphic format for the layout. The map and possibly additional legend pages, will be downloaded as one or more new browser windows. Each window can be printed, using the browser's print function, as an 8.5" x 11" page. Be sure to select "Landscape" mode and "fit to page" for printer options. Each window can also be saved to disk for input into other applications.

Gray Box containing black arrows oriented in a circleRELOAD
Pressing this button reloads the current map.

Gray Box containing white character X within dark gray circleSTOP
Pressing this button stops retrieving the map.

Gray Box containing black question markABOUT
Pressing this button enables you to get more information about the map you are using. Pressing this button displays a dialog containing the comments about the map such as which themes will currently display only at set map scales.

Gray Box containing black arrow pointing left HIDE/SHOW TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pressing this button allows the map Table of Contents to be hidden to increase the map display area. Pressing this button a second time restores the Table of Contents.


Rectangular Black Box divided into 4 columns
Home:    Returns user to the Mineral Resources On-Line Spatial Data home page.
Metadata:    A link to metadata records for each of the themes.
Field Attribute Help:    This is a link to field attribute codes for several themes that have coded data.
Map Display Help:    The current map display help page.


4. MapClient Tips

(1)To draw either the Mine Claim Density or NURE Sediment Chemistry data sets do not select the check box left of the title. Underneath the title select the appropriate data set. For example, if you want to display the Arizona Mine Claim Density data [Make sure you are zoomed in sufficiently close (see #3 below)], select (click) the box next to AZ.

(2) To improve performance, limit the number of datasets drawn at once and if possible, zoom in to a smaller area. A good start is turning off the Elevated Shaded Relief image located at the bottom of the Table of Contents unless it is desired as a background.

(3) If you select a theme and nothing is drawn in the display window, the cause is most likely that the theme has a limited display scale. This means that the theme will draw only when you have zoomed in sufficiently close. To see which themes have display limits set, select the ? (About button) in the lower left hand corner.

(4) If only a portion of the graphic is drawn in the MapClient display window, select the reload button.

(5) Find Feature button:
(a) If you do not know the exact spelling of the attribute you want to find, then you can use standard wildcards (* and ?) in place of the letter(s) you do not know.
(b) If you are searching for a number that may be contained in a string field within the database, e.g., a FIPS code, you should place double quotes around that number, for example "435434".
(c) A list of features matching your search criteria will be displayed in a standard theme table format. The table can then be manipulated as if it were a complete theme table.
(d) The Find tool doesn't work on either GRID (raster) data or TIF images thus some of the themes won't be displayed in the Choose Layer scroll list.

(5) Retrieve Theme Tabular Data:
(a) Highlight only one theme in the Table of Contents before this tool is used.
(b) The attribute data for all features in the current map extent, for the selected theme, will be downloaded as a table.
(c) There is a limit to the size of the table downloaded to the client. All the attribute records will be downloaded until a maximum threshold is met. A message will appear at the bottom indicating the maximum number of rows displayed
(d) After the table has been downloaded, select view (on table) to display a list of options that can be performed on the table data.

(5) Download a map image for printing:
(a) A graphic image (map layout) of the current map display can be created.
(b) Enter a title for the layout of up to 3 lines of 40 characters.
(c) Select one of the following 3 image formats: JPEG, Placeable WMF (Windows Metafile), Postscript New (eps)
Note: JPEG format is recommended due to the small file size that is generated.
(d) Select one or more of the following options:
(1) Legend: A separate legend will be created corresponding to only those themes currently selected (in the Table of Contents) and those features in the current map display.
Note: The legend may consist of several files depending on the number of themes selected and the complexity of their legends.
(2) North Arrow: A north arrow is displayed in the lower left portion of the image.
(3) Scale Bar: A scale bar (mile units) is created.
(4) Maintain Aspect Ratio of Map:

5. Potential Problems and Recommended Solutions.

(1) The Java applet MapClient fails to load.

Your browser may not be 'Java enabled". If you are using Microsoft's Internet Explorer, go to the menu and click on View and under Options select Security and make sure the "Enable Java" programs box is checked. For Netscape users, go to the main menu and click on Edit and under Preferences select Advanced. Next, make sure that the "Enable Java" box is checked.

(2) Netscape 4.0 users:

Windows 95/98, NT systems running early versions of Netscape 4.0 may lock-up when starting Java. Users should upgrade to Netscape version 4.08 or higher. On Windows NT systems, running Netscape 4.04, users may experience problems when starting Java with the monitor set to display true color. Set the monitor to display 16.7 million colors or fewer to fix this problem or upgrade to a more recent version.

(3) Browser crashes or locks up when MapClient applet starts loading.

Cause: There is a conflict between Java and your browser's Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler. This behavior may occur with either Netscape Communicator 4.x or Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x. It does not happen to all machines running these browsers.
Solution: Disable your browser's JIT compiler. To disable Microsoft Internet Explorer's JIT compiler: From the View menu, choose Internet Options, select the Advanced tab, scroll down to the Java VM section and uncheck the Java JIT compiler. Restart Internet Explorer. To disable Netscape Communicator's JIT compiler: Look for the file jit3240. DLL in Netscape's install directory. The default path to this file is C:\Netscape\Communicator4.04\Program\Java\Bin. Shutdown Netscape and rename the file to jit3240.old. Restart Netscape.
Notes: Normally, when this happens with Netscape, the browser will freeze and you will have to shut it down with Task Manager on Windows NT and ctrl-alt-del on Windows 95. Typically Internet Explorer will just crash. In either case, you will need to disable the JIT compiler and restart the browser.

(4) A Separate Window is displayed stating: Map Server is Busy".

Cause: Many people are currently accessing the site at the same time.
Solution: If possible, revisit the site at a later time when demand is lower.

(5) Internet Explorer 3.02 hangs when MapClient is running on Windows NT 4.0 (with Service Pack 3)

Cause: Internet Explorer version 3.02 may hang when connecting to a Web link that contains a Java application (e.g. MapClient) after you have installed Windows NT version 4.0 Service Pack 3. The application will stop responding only if the Display Properties Color Palette is set to True Color.
Solution: Do not use the True Color palette in Display Properties.
Notes: Microsoft has confirmed this as a problem in Windows NT version 4.0. A supported fix is now available, but is not fully regression-tested and should be applied only to systems experiencing this specific problem. Unless you are severely impacted by this specific problem, Microsoft recommends that you wait for the next Service Pack that contains this fix. Contact Microsoft Product Support Services for more information. The fix is also available for download on the Internet at the following URL: ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-public/fixes/usa/nt40/hotfixes- postSP3/java-fix. This information was taken from Microsoft TechNet, document ID Q168748.

(6) Cannot view served maps with Internet Explorer 3.x on Windows.

Cause: There is a conflict with the Java program and Internet Explorer's internal Java JIT (Just-In-Time) compiler.
Solution: Download the update for the Microsoft Virtual Machine for Java from: http://www.microsoft.com/java
Notes: See Microsoft TechNet Document Q168806 for more information or upgrade to a more recent browser version.

(7) Netscape Communicator issues error: "The certificate issuer for this server isn't recognized by Netscape. The security certificate may or may not be valid." Or "java.lang.security.exception : system classes was not signed"

For Netscape Communicator 4.5 users, go to the main menu and click on Edit and under Preferences select Advanced. Next, make sure that the "Enable Java" and "Enable JavaScript" boxes are checked. If you still receive these errors you will have to reinstall Netscape Communicator 4.5. Make sure that you first completely uninstall your previous version of Netscape utilizing Microsoft's Add/Remove programs (under control panel). Next, delete any previous Netscape profiles that were created. (Remember to manually save your bookmarks before doing this). You are now ready to install a clean version of Netscape Communicator 4.5.

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Crustal Imaging & Characterization Other Mineral-Related Links


U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA, USA
URL http://minerals.usgs.gov/sddp/mrdata/avimshelpmc.shtml
Contact Person: Tom Kress
Last modification: 17-April-2002
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