Standard operating environment
MECC Central has been developed to conform to open standards and should run on any web browser that supports those standards.
The following browsers are recommended and are tested against at each release. Essentially these are the latest web browsers for each platform.
|
Platform |
Browser |
Notes |
|
Windows XP |
Internet Explorer 8 Firefox 7 Google Chrome |
|
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Windows Vista / 7 |
Internet Explorer 9 Firefox 7 Google Chrome |
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Macintosh OSX 10.6 |
Safari 5 Google Chrome Firefox 7 |
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iPad & iPhone |
Mobile Safari |
iOS4 does not support rich text editing. Neither iOS4 nor iOS5 support file uploads. |
|
Windows Phone 7 |
Built-in web browser |
Note that some early WP7 phones use the IE7 rendering engine rather than the IE9 rendering engine found on later models. |
|
Android |
Built-in web browser |
|
In addition, we strive to support the following older browsers (although we do not actively test at each release).
|
Platform |
Browser |
Notes |
|
Windows XP |
Internet Explorer 6 Internet Explorer 7 Firefox 6 |
Internet Explorer 6 and 7 only supports core features, and if possible you should use a more modern version. Firefox 7 is our recommended browser if you cannot upgrade your version of IE for technical reasons. Uses of IE6 and IE7 should upgrade to the latest browser version. |
|
Windows Vista / 7 |
Internet Explorer 8 Firefox 6 |
|
Firewall configuration
MECC Central uses HTTP and HTTPS over TCP ports 80 and 443 respectively. No special firewall configuration should be necessary.
Icons are uploaded for agencies and map icons (used for Information records).
Icon files can be in GIF, JPG or PNG format (PNG is recommended), and can be up to 2 MB in size. MECC Central will automatically process and resize the icons to the appropriate sizes required by the interface.
Note that non-square icons may be clipped into a square in some views, so it is best to upload square images for use as icons.
Map layers can be set up within MECC Central, using either KML or GeoRSS.
Files up to 5 MB have been tested and found to work, however keep in mind that these files are processed at the web browser so large files may not work on older computers or slow network connections.
You can either provide a static file, or you can publish a live KML or GeoRSS feed to a publicly accessible URL, and MECC Central will read it each time the layer is activated.
Static feeds are appropriate for layers such as council boundaries, whereas live feeds may be useful for consuming CFA GeoRSS data, for example.
Note that the map layers function is not intended to replace the role of a GIS officer in the MECC. Layers are typically simplified and will not replace your in-house GIS system for complex queries.
Property Addresses are in the same CSV format, with these columns:
|
Name |
Type |
Description |
|
id |
number |
The council’s property ID |
|
number |
text |
The street number. Can include the alphanumeric chars, for example "30 - 35", "1/24" are valid. |
|
street |
text |
The name of the street, including the street type. e.g. "Main Road" |
|
suburb |
text |
The name of the suburb |
|
postcode |
number |
The post code |
|
lat |
number |
The latitude of the centre-point of the property, in WGS84* |
|
lng |
number |
The longitude of the centre-point of the property, in WGS84* |
|
name |
text |
If the property is known as a friendly name, enter it here. This can be used for named lookups in MECC Central "Depot", "Fred Park", etc. |
* MECC Central uses the Google Map API and coordinate system which closely resembles WGS84 but may differ slightly in some locations.
Resources are in the same CSV format, with these columns:
|
Name |
Type |
Description |
|
name |
Text |
The name of the resource. E.g. “Tractor ABC-123” |
|
agency |
Text |
The agency code (COUNCIL if owned by council) |
|
unit |
Text |
The type of unit charged. E.g. “per hour”. If left blank, it is dollars. |
|
rate |
Text |
The dollars per unit. If no unit is specified, this is not required. |
|
description |
Text |
Text describing the resource, where it’s located, how to book it, etc. |
|
contact name |
Text |
A person to contact to book it |
|
contact phone |
Text |
The contact’s phone number |
|
contact email |
Text |
The contact’s email address |
The contact directory is designed to be uploaded once during the initial set-up of the system. After that, user management is performed using the Contact Directory system.
The format of the file is CSV (Comma-Separated Values), which can be created in Microsoft Excel and other spreadsheet programs.
The file format contains the following columns:
|
Name |
Type |
Description |
|
id |
Text (Mandatory) |
The user’s login id – we recommend aligning this to the first part of the user’s email address. |
|
name |
Text (Mandatory) |
The user’s name (firstname and surname) |
|
|
Text |
The user's email address. |
|
mobile |
Text |
The user’s mobile phone number. Please note that if you use Excel, it may treat the column as a number which will drop the leading 0, leading to a bad import. |
|
agency |
Text |
Each agency has a text ID that you will assign as you set them up. For example, Ambulance Victoria may have AMBVIC. Council will have COUNCIL as its code. |
|
subagency |
Text |
Sub-agencies are also created with a text ID. |
|
position |
Text |
The user’s position within the MECC. For example, “Deputy MERO”. For agency users, you can also put their position within that agency. |
|
profile |
text |
A free text field with any additional information you wish to add; for example, working hours, office location, etc. |
The CSV file should have the first row containing the column names, then each subsequent row containing the values themselves.