This document will explain how the ASR Eleos Integration handles automatic zone creations for Geotab. Within the ASR Eleos Integration, the appsettings file contains Geotab settings that can be configured to adjust certain aspects of auto-created zones such as the zone width, height, and names.
Figure 1. Here you can see some of the Geotab settings within the appsettings file. Note that your settings may be configured differently.
These settings are used in the business logic of the integration to help auto-create and update the zones. A few of the key settings that can be configured are:
DispatchZones – This can be set to either true or false and will determine if the integration disables or enables the processing for automated zone creation. Setting this to true enables automated zones to be created.
ZoneRadiusWidth – This is used to determine the default width or X value of automated zone sizes. The larger the value is, the wider your automated zones will be.
ZoneRadiusHeight – This is used to determine the default height or Y value of automated zone sizes. The larger the value is, the taller your automated zones will be.
AutomatedZoneName – This setting correlates to the name of the automated zones seen in MyGeotab. This is recommended to be named as “Automated” to help distinguish between manual zones and automated zones when viewing in MyGeotab.
DefaultShapeZoneName – This setting correlates to the zone shape name seen in MyGeotab. The default shape for automated zones is a rectangle. The name “DefaultShape” is set by default in our integration.
How It Works
The business logic of the integration that handles automated zones works by using a list of loads to get all the active unique stop locations that a zone has not yet been created for. Once identified, the zones are mapped with the unique stop locations and the automated zone is created using the unique stop information. It then checks to update any existing zones using the unique stop locations again and then compiles a list of the created or updated zones. This list of updated or created zones is then updated and inserted to Geotab.
The automated default zone creation uses the stop information along with the configured settings from appsettings to handle creating the automated zone correctly. From the stop information, the zone can be accurately mapped by using the stop’s latitude and longitude along with the ZoneRadiusWidth and ZoneRadiusHeight seen in appsettings to map the correct coordinates of the zone geographically. The result gives an accurately placed rectangular zone on a new or unique stop which can still be refined, if necessary, for optimal performance.
Figure 2. Here you can see within MyGeotab an example of an automated zone also indicated by the comment stating added by Eleos Dispatch.