Incident map
Wiki ▸ Documentation ▸ User Documentation ▸ Incident map
- Released in version: 0.1
- Also called: "Real-time map"
After sending an alert with Buoy or responding to Buoy alerts, you will be able to use Buoy's incident map to help coordinate an incident response. This page documents the features and capabilities of the Buoy incident map.
To show the incident map, press the Map button on the incident toolbar. To hide the incident map, press the Map button again.
The following screenshot annotates the interface of the incident toolbar's map buttons and map area:
The map area is a scrollable area immediately underneath the incident toolbar that loads map tiles of the incident area and displays the alert and responder locations as icons on the map. The map area updates itself in near real-time, moving the displayed icons across the map as their associated real-world object (e.g., a responder) moves in the physical world.
To scroll the map area, click and drag or tap and drag the map.
The zoom controls enable you to zoom the map area in or out, enlarging or shrinking the area shown by the map. When you have reached the maximum or minimum zoom level, the zoom in (+) or zoom out (-) buttons will be disabled and grayed out.
To zoom the map area, tap or click on one of the zoom buttons, or pinch the map area if you are using Buoy on a smartphone or tablet.
🚧 TK-TODO
The alert location icon is an unmoving pin on the map area representing the GPS coordinates of the alerter's location at the time they sent an alert.
ℹ️ If Buoy could not determine an alerter's location when they create an alert, such as if the alert is a timed alert, there will not be an alert location icon on the map.
The incident map area shows the locations of all responders as icons on the map. The icon for a given responder is a scaled-down version of the avatar they uploaded in their user profile. To get more information about a given responder, tap or click their icon on the map to open their responder info bubble.
ℹ️ The positions of the icons are the last known locations of the respective accounts. If someone goes to point A, closes Buoy, and then goes to point B, then as far as Buoy knows, that person is still at point A.
At the top of the responder info bubble is the display name of the responder. This makes it easy to confirm which responder the given icon represents, in case two responders have chosen similar avatars.
To ask for directions to a given location, such as a responder's location or the alert location, tap or click on the icon in the map area to reveal the icon's info bubble. Then tap or click the Directions to here link.
If Buoy knows the phone number for a given responder, you can tap or click the Call link in their responder info bubble to make a standard telephone call to that responder using your device's default dialer. On a smartphone, this is usually the phone's calling app. On a laptop, this is usually Skype, Google Voice, or whatever VoIP application you have installed.
The incident map menu is the drop-down menu next to the incident map button. It offers one-touch access to convenience functions that manipulate the map area view. To access the incident map menu's items, tap or click the drop-down arrow icon next to the incident map button.
The zoom to fit menu item resets the map area's zoom level and re-centers the map so that every responder is visible.
The go to my location menu item re-centers the map area on your current location at the same zoom level.
🚧 TK-TODO