5 Oracle Map Builder Tool

This chapter briefly describes the map visualization component Map Builder tool, also referred to as Oracle Map Builder. It does not provide detailed information about the tool's interface; for that you should use see online help available when you use Oracle Map Builder.

Oracle Map Builder is a standalone application that lets you create and manage the mapping metadata (about styles, themes, and base maps) that is stored in the database. For example, use this tool to create a style or to modify the definition of a style. Besides handling the metadata, the tool provides interfaces to preview the metadata (for example, to see how a line style will appear on a map) and also spatial information.

Whenever possible, you should use Oracle Map Builder instead of directly modifying map visualization component metadata views to create, modify, and delete information about styles, themes, and maps. For any modifications made outside Oracle Map Builder, such as with SQL statements, you should refresh the database connection in Oracle Map Builder to get the current items.

To use Oracle Map Builder effectively, you must understand the map visualization component concepts explained in Map Visualization Concepts and the information about map requests in Map Visualization Servers.

• Running Oracle Map Builder
  Oracle Map Builder is shipped as a JAR file (mapbuilder.jar).
• Oracle Map Builder User Interface
  Oracle Map Builder generally uses the left side for navigation to find and select objects, and the right side to display information about selected objects.