Geofences

Geofences are user-defined, geographic zones that are stored in the RealTime application. Geofences are an important aspect of vehicle, asset, and personnel tracking as they may be used for 1.) Contextual display when viewing live Thing locations and 2.) Used as a related record in Event Rule generation - i.e. tell me when Thing XYZ enters / leaves a specific location or zone - or 3.) As a Filter property when creating a Thing Layer or Report - i.e. only show me Things inside Geofence XYZ.

Geofences in the RealTime application may be defined as:

Point with Radius: Renders a circular zone around a point.

Polygon: Renders a square, rectangle, or user-define polygon.

Where are Geofences Used in RealTime

Geofences are a powerful tool in the RealTime application and can be used to support several functions.

Rules: Define a Geofence rule and select the Geofence(s) that apply to receive Events and Alerts when Assets are inside or outside of the geographic area.

Thing Layer / Filter: When creating a specific view of data in Visualization, users may limit the data set by the Geographic location of Things. This is covered in more detail in the section on building Thing Layers.

Report Filters: Some reports may be created with a geographic filter so as to only report on data within or outside of a specific geographic area. This is covered in more detail in the Reporting section of the application.

Control Access Rights to Geofences

It may be necessary for some Geofences to only be accessed by specific users. To control access, follow the same steps to control access to any other record with RealTime.

  1. Navigate to your Admin tab.

  2. Choose ‘Geofences’ from the left sidebar. 

  3. Select the more actions button at the top and select “Manage Permissions”

3.0 Geofence Permissions.png

4. Select a group from the left side panel (it will be highlighted in Gray),

5. Select the check boxes to the left of the Geofence you want to manage permissions for.

6. Select ‘Save’ at the top right.

Creating a Geofence

3.0 Geofence Permissions 2.png

Users may create a new Geofence from two (2) locations within the RealTime application:

1.      From Visualization and Mapping Grid

2.      From Admin tab

From the Visualization tab and Mapping Grid:

1.      Select ‘Geofence’ icon located at the bottom left of the mapping Grid

2. Manage Visualization Geofence box will appear, Select ‘Draw Polygon’ or the drop down to select a circle or square shape.

3.0 Geofence from Map grid.png

3. Draw shape around desired location > then click into the blue shape

4.     Select ‘Create New’

3.0 Geofence from Map grid 2.png

5. Geofence detail window will appear. Here you will see the Geofence you drew on the previous page, with fields where you can enter free text prior to saving. Required fields are indicated by a red outline and asterisk.

6. Select ‘Save’.

3.0 Geofence from Map grid 3.png

From Admin tab:

1.      Select ‘Geofences’ from the left menu

3.0 Geofence from Admin tab 1.png

2.      Begin entering the name of location or address into the Geometry field.

3.      Zoom in or out to the desired location

4.      Select circle, polygon, or square to draw shape around location

5.      Enter a name of the Geofence

6.      Select ‘Save’

You will get a green ‘Success’ message and the Geofence detail screen will display.From the Geofence detail record, select ‘Rules’ in order to assign vehicles to this Geofence Rule.

You will get a green ‘Success’ message and the Geofence detail screen will display.

From the Geofence detail record, select ‘Rules’ in order to assign vehicles to this Geofence Rule.

3.0 Geofence admin tab 4.png

Editing a Geofence

1.      Navigate to Admin tab

2.      Select Geofences in the list on the left

3. Click on the green hyperlinked name of the Geofence where edits need to be made

3.0 Edit Geofence.png

4.      Select ‘Edit’

3.0 Edit Geofence 2.png

5.      Make appropriate edits

6.      Select ‘Save’.

3.0 Edit Geofence 3.png