Good to know: PROFILES

[Bernd Welter]

Hi there,

another important hint due to current issues: I'd just like to draw your attention to the term PROFILE in the context of xServers. The word is used in different meanings and so the following overview could give you a better understanding how not to mix it up:

• RequestProfile: this is a generic framework, optional parameter that occurs in each x-module. It is used to request a set of server side parameters,e.g. the profile file is named xlocate-schabernack.properties and it's content is requested like this:

  Code: Select all

  <ns4:CallerContext_4>
    <ns6:wrappedProperties>
      <ns6:CallerContextProperty value="schabernack" key="Profile"/>
    </ns6:wrappedProperties>
  </ns4:CallerContext_4>

• DimaProfile (routing): this s the logical name of a set of ROUTING parameters that are combined in a server side file.

  Code: Select all

  <wrappedDistanceMatrixCalculation>
     <DistanceMatrixCalculation xsi:type="DistanceMatrixByRoad" profileName="dimaCar" 
       deleteAfterUsage="true" deleteBeforeUsage="true" dimaId="1"/>
     <DistanceMatrixCalculation xsi:type="DistanceMatrixByRoad" profileName="dimaTruck" 
       deleteAfterUsage="true" deleteBeforeUsage="true" dimaId="2"/>
  </wrappedDistanceMatrixCalculation>

  This mechanism is used within xTour, xDima, xTerritory and xCluster. If the profileName==dimaCar the server looks for the file dimaCar.xml and so on.
• RenderProfile (mapping): a render profile describes a large number of parameters of a map rendering process such as colors of objects (e.g. streets, signs), font characteristics (size and additional behaviour), what info is displayed at what zoom level (truck attributes up to max scale of...). It is possible to create a customized render profile which is then referenced via a request profile (e.g. the request profile xmap-silkysand.properties refers to the rendering profile silkysand.ini): just some lines of a larger set:

  [config.town.symbols]
  ;
  ; Sets the kind of town symbol.
  ; 0 for rectangle
  ; 1 for circle
  ; 2 for cross
  ; 3 for ADAC atlas
  ; 4 for circles with and without a inner black circle and a rectangle (depending
  ; on the category).
  ;
  symbolkind=4
  ;
  ; Fill color of town symbols.
  ;
  symbolcolor=16777215
  ;
  ; Frame color of town symbols.
  ;
  symbolframecolor=0

• EffectiveProfile (routing): the effective profile is the XML formatted routing profile that is assembled on serverside after applying the routing parameters specified within the hierarchy of
  • RoutingOptions
  • XML Snippet
  • RequestProfile
  • Server default values
  It is logged in the server logs if enabled in the module properties files:

  # enables logging of the effective profile being used (at DEBUG level, adapt server-logging.properties and module-logging.properties)
  # for debugging purposes only, do not enable permanently in a productive environment
  # since 1.17
  #
  #log.effectiveProfile=false
  log.effectiveProfile=true

  Gathering the effective profile is quite helpful if you want to reproduce routings on a remote server if you don't have the opportunity to manipulate server files.

And here are some additional comments:

• A single xTour request can handle more than one DImaProfiles.

Best regards
Bernd