MapsIndoors CMS Tutorial - Concepts

The new MapsIndoors Content Management System is now live and to give you the best start with the CMS, we’re releasing a series of blog posts with tutorials of our newly redesigned CMS.

In this first part of the MapsIndoors CMS Tutorial series, we give you insight into the basic concepts of the CMS; what they mean, and what you use them for. 

The CMS is the platform used to manage your map and corresponding data. At the highest level of the CMS is a Solution. A Solution is the container for all your data, and in some cases, you may have more than one Solution. 

Within a Solution is one or more venues. A venue can both consist of one building or a set of buildings that are geographically close enough to be perceived as a group. As an example, a university campus would be one venue even with multiple buildings. 

A building contains one or more floors, and on each floor, you’ll find Locations. 

A Location is one of three things: a room, a point of interest (POI), or an Area. Rooms have a geometry and are generated from your floor plans when the map is digitized. Examples of this are meeting rooms, lobbies, and restrooms. POIs are points on the map that can be added to the map or moved around in the CMS. These points of interest are locations that are not available in the floor plan drawings such as temporary event structures or coffee machines. Finally, Areas have a geometry, just like rooms, but are considered an overlay to highlight a specific area on the map. Examples of Areas are VIP zones at a stadium or office related neighborhoods. 

All Locations are associated with a location type and inherit the location type’s metadata, such as restrictions and display rules. Examples of Location Types include elevators, offices, and storage rooms. 

Locations can also be associated with one or more categories. Categories are used to browse important Locations and can be more specific than Location Types. For instance, Categories can be used to identify types of Food and Beverage, such as a sushi stand, or a sandwich truck. 

With each part of our CMS Tutorial series, you’ll find a video describing more on the topic and how it looks in the CMS. 

For more in depth CMS information, please visit our documentation site.

Stay tuned for the next part of the series: Navigation Overview.

The MapsIndoors CMS Tutorial series: 

Part 1: Concepts
Part 2: Navigation Overview
Part 3: Working with the Tool Bar
Part 4: Working with the Filter Bar
Part 5: Bulk Editing
Part 6: Managing Location Types (Coming soon)
Part 7: Creating Categories (Coming soon)