<%NUMBERING1%>.<%NUMBERING2%>.<%NUMBERING3%> PRTG Manual: Map Designer

Use the Map Designer to create a map web page representing your network.

This documentation refers to the PRTG System Administrator user accessing the Ajax interface on a master node. If you use other user accounts, interfaces, or nodes, you might not see all of the options in the way described here. If you use a cluster installation, note that failover nodes are read-only by default.

In this section:

• Use a Proper Browser
• Basic Design Concept
• Device Tree Selection
• Properties Selection
• Edit Existing Map Items—Properties Box
• Edit Existing Map Items—Hover Icons
• Edit Existing Map Items—Using Cursor Keys
• Draw Connection Lines Between Items
• Snap To Grid
• Undo and Redo
• More

Use the Proper Browser

Due to the map designer's extensive scripting capability, it is important that you use a compatible browser when editing maps. We recommend that you use Google Chrome 57 or later (recommended). You can also use Mozilla Firefox 52 or later or Microsoft Internet Explorer 11. The map designer is not fully compatible with earlier versions of Internet Explorer or Opera browsers.

Basic Design Concept

Click the Map Designer tab to open the editor. It might take a few moments to load. Here, you can create your map by adding or changing items. The designer screen consists of three main parts: The Device Tree on the left side, the current Map in the middle, and the Properties on the right side.

If you get unresponsive script warnings, please see this Knowledge Base article: Why does my browser show an unresponsive script warning while loading the Map Designer?

Each map item takes attributes from both selections.

• Device Tree (left): Select the monitored object whose data you want to show on the map.
• Properties (right): Define how to show the map item.

Simply drag&drop any object from either side onto the map, or double-click on an object. You will always see all changes immediately.

Device Tree Selection

Use the Device Tree to select the monitored object whose data you want to show on the map (this can be a probe, a group, a device, or a single sensor). To find the desired object you have the following options:

• Use the arrow symbols at the beginning of each line to open nodes in the device tree and show objects below probes, groups, and devices.
• Enter a few characters into the Search box in the upper left corner to search for names (or part of names) of objects in your configuration. You will see the search results immediately. Click the red x icon to clear your search.

• No matter which method you choose to find the desired object, you can always drag any object from the Device Tree onto a free area of the map to create a new map item.
• If you drag it onto an existing map item, it replaces the existing item while Properties and size stay the same.
• You can also select a map item and double click a Device Tree object to replace the map item. If no item is selected, double clicking an object adds a new map item.
• To gain more space for map editing, reduce the size of the Device Tree box by dragging its right border to the left. Drag it to the right to enlarge it again.

Properties Selection

Use the Properties selection to define how to show the map item (for example, as an icon, a map, a table, or a graph). Select the appearance in different categories. Hover over a property object to get a live preview of it (in most cases).

If a certain Properties object is not available for the selected Device Tree object, you will see a corresponding text note.

There are many different property object types available. Simply click one of the categories to show all available types.

• Default Icons A, Default Icons B
  These categories offer a variety of iconic symbols of typical network devices in the current PRTG style. Category A comes with object data which category B does not include.
• Icons A, Icons B, Icons C
  These three categories offer a variety of iconic symbols of typical network devices. Below each icon you can see the object name and a sensor overview for the object. This shows how many sensors are in which status. For some sensors, a mini graph is shown as well.
• Icons A (Static), Icons B (Static), Icons C (Static)
  These three categories offer the same variety of iconic symbols of typical network devices as the category described above. Here, no object data is displayed but only the icon.
• Static Images
  This category offers free or public domain geographical maps from different sources. Use properties section Geo Maps if you want to show PRTG Geo Maps in the map.

The items in this section are independent from the selected Device Tree objects.

For additional geographical maps and other map customizations, please see this Knowledge Base article: Where can I find custom map objects and other map customizations?
 

• Status Icons
  This category offers options to insert status icons in different styles. These show the object name and an overview of how many sensors there are and their status. For example, you can add "traffic lights" or the QR code of a monitoring object to your map. There is also an object available for audible alert that will play a sound when the number of alarms of the monitored object are > 0. Note that your browser must support playing embedded sounds for this icon.

See also this Knowledge Base article: Which audible notifications are available in PRTG? Can I change the default sound?

• Cluster
  If you use the PRTG Clustering feature, you can add icons to your map which show the status of your cluster.
  The Map icon does not scale automatically, so the nodes are displayed on top of each other by default. Please manually enlarge this icon in the main window of the Map Designer (downwards and to the right) until it fits your needs.
• Data Tables
  Choose from several table lists that show sensor lists for the currently selected object. You can also choose from several lists that show sensors in a certain status only.
• Devices
  Add several views of your device tree to the map, including sensor gauges for the select object.
• Geo Maps
  In this category you can choose between a globe and a geographical map. You can see the location of the currently selected object in the Device Tree on the map. To use this feature, you must enable Geo Maps integration and you have to enter a Location in the settings of the monitoring object you want to use this with. For more information, please see the Geo Maps section.
  If Geo Maps integration is disabled, you will only see white boxes instead of map previews.
   
• Graphs
  This category offers different graph styles in several dimensions and detail. You can also select graphs including a legend or sensor states.
• Objects
  Add some simple geometric shapes to your map. The items in this section do not depend on the selected object in the Device Tree.
• Top 10
  Choose from several tables that show the top 10 sensors in certain categories, like least used CPUs, highest bandwidth usage, best availability, or slowest websites.
• Custom HTML
  You can use this property, for example, to add external images or applets to your map. To actually add custom HTML code to your map, add the item, and mark it to edit. You can then copy your custom code into the HTML Before and HTML After fields in the Properties box on the right side.

No matter which object you choose, you can always drag any object from the Properties box onto a free area of the map to create a new map item. If you drag it onto an existing map item, it replaces this item, while its Device Tree object attributes and size stay the same. You can also select a map item and double click an object in the Properties box to replace the map item. If no item is selected, double clicking an object will add a new map item.

To gain more space for map editing, reduce the size of the Properties box by dragging its left border to the right. Drag it to the left to enlarge it again.

Edit Existing Map Items—Properties Box

Click a map item to select it. You can then edit its attributes using the fields in the upper part of the Properties box on the right side:

• Top, Left, Width, and Height fields
  Enter position and size values for direct positioning. Click the Save button to save your settings. Alternative: Use the mouse to move and resize a map item.
• Layer field
  The layer number defines if an item appears on top of or behind another item if they overlap. The item with the higher number appears on top. Enter a positive integer value and click the Save button to save your settings. Alternative: Use the arrow symbols in the context menu of a map item to Bring to front or Send to back an item one layer (see below).
• External Link
  PRTG maps are interactive. You can enter the address of any website here. If you click the map item when viewing the map, PRTG will open this page in a browser window. Enter the whole URL to an external website (for example, https://www.paessler.com) or the address of a subpage of your PRTG installation (for example, devices.htm).
• HTML
  Click the arrow symbol underneath to show the HTML Before and HTML After fields. Any HTML code you enter in these fields is added before or respectively after the map item. Enter your custom HTML code that embeds an object and click the Save button. Your HTML object is inserted into the map. For example, you can enter the code <img src="http://media.paessler.com/common/img/logoclaim_r1.gif"> to insert an image of a Paessler logo.

Edit Existing Map Items—Hover Icons

Hover over a map item to show the edit icons for it.

• Bring to front (arrow up symbol)
  Move this item one layer to the front. This is useful when adding several items to a map that overlap each other.
• Send to back (arrow down symbol)
  Move this item one layer to the back. This is useful when adding several items to a map that overlap each other.
• Delete (trash symbol)
  Delete this item.
  Be careful! The item will be deleted immediately without notice and you cannot undo this. Alternative: Select the item and press the Del button on your keyboard.
• Drop Connections (scissors symbol)
  If there are connection lines between two items, you can delete all lines starting from this item. Connection lines will be dropped immediately.

Edit Existing Map Items—Using Cursor Keys

While an object is selected, use the cursor keys to move it one pixel at a time. Hold the Shift key in combination with the cursor keys to move the object 10 pixels at a time.

Draw Connection Lines Between Items

You can draw connection lines between any map items via drag and drop. Click the gray handles next to an item and drag a line to the item you want to draw a connection to. A line between these items appears immediately. This can be useful to indicate network connections or logical coherence between two items. To delete connection lines, click the scissors symbol in the item's edit icons.

Lines between objects are colored dynamically depending on the status of linked objects. For example, a line is red as long as one of the object's icons shows a red Down status. This only affects half of the line, at the end where the red sensor is shown. If both objects connected show a red sensor, this results in a continuous red line.

Snap to Grid

Choose Snap to Grid below the Device Tree box to define how map items are positioned when adding or moving them via drag and drop. The setting is active immediately. With snap to grid enabled, you can place items aligned with the grid only. If you deselect the Snap to Grid option, you can place map objects completely free.

Undo and Redo

You can revert previous changes to the map and its objects with the Undo button (Ctrl+Z) in the Device Tree box. To revert undo actions, use the Redo button (Ctrl+Y). You can undo and redo up to 50 changes when you work on a map. Because PRTG saves changes persistently in your configuration, you can even revert changes later.

Both buttons are only available if they can apply, otherwise they are grayed out.

More

Knowledge Base: Why does my browser show an unresponsive script warning while loading the Map Designer?

• http://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/19483

Knowledge Base: How can I add or edit map objects used for PRTG's maps?

• http://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/1703

Knowledge Base: Which audible notifications are available in PRTG? Can I change the default sound?

• http://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/26303

Knowledge Base: Where can I find custom map objects and other map customizations?

• http://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/61263