Attributes allow you to add custom, descriptive properties to your vehicles beyond the basic vehicle information. You can then use attributes as labels on reports and filters on maps and dashlets.
Example
Company XYZ has a fleet of trucks used for transporting large heating/cooling equipment. Because certain truck models in the fleet have larger load capacities than others, vehicle assignment for delivery jobs depend on the weight of the shipment. By creating a “Load Capacity” attribute for his trucks, XYZ’s owner can filter maps to show only trucks that have a given load capacity–perhaps to see which one is available for an urgent delivery. Additionally, he can add the “Load Capacity” attribute to any report–perhaps to compare the number of trips between low and high load capacity trucks for a given time period.
To create and assign vehicle attributes:
- From the portal, hover over the Account menu, click Manage Vehicles, and click Describe with attributes.
The Manage Attributes page opens in a new browser tab.
- At the bottom of the Attribute Definitions grid, click Attribute next to Create New.
The Add New Attribute screen window appears.
- Set the different properties for the attribute:
- Attribute Name: Enter the user-friendly identifier for the attribute (e.g., Load Capacity).
- Attribute Type: Select the check box(es) for each type this attribute supports (e.g., Users, Vehicles, Drivers, Landmarks, Hierarchy). For example, an ice cream company may add a “Flavor” attribute that applies to 1) the vehicles that transport certain flavors and 2) the ice cream factories (landmarks) that produce certain flavors.
- Value Type: Choose the data type that is allowed for this attribute. In the Company XYZ example, we chose Alphanumeric so that we can use free-form text to describe the available values (1000 lb, 2000 lb, 3000 lb).
The Alerts, Emails, and Timezone types are typically used with Hierarchy attributes.
- Treat as Category: Select this box to create a list of values from which to choose when applying this attribute to vehicles and using it as a filter on maps. In the Company XYZ example, the trucks have only three options for load capacity, so we set up this attribute as a category.
The following figures show the result of setting up an attribute compared with an attribute treated as a category (a pre-defined list of values) when assigning it to a vehicle:
VS
Using a pre-defined list makes it less likely for typos or other errors when adding an attribute to a query.
- Account Visibility: Select the check box(es) if you want other portal users on your account to see and use this attribute and/or edit this attribute.
- Click Save Attribute.
- From the Attribute Definitions grid, click the green check mark icon (e.g., Vehicle) to assign values.
- From the Assign Vehicle Attributes grid, set the attribute value for each vehicle that you want to assign. Values are automatically saved when you either make a selection (for pre-defined lists) or click/tab outside of the field (for text entry).
The attribute is now available to use on applicable reports, maps, and dashlets:
