Building Attributes: View, Edit, Create Custom
Overview
Each building has attributes that can help you categorize them or provide placeholders for useful information that might otherwise need to be stored somewhere outside of the Tracer ES system. The attribute itself can be thought of as an information category. All buildings will have the same attributes, but the value assigned to each attribute can vary from building to building.
Tracer ES system uses attributes to:
- Locate and communicate with buildings (network attributes)
- Define the structure of the home page index
- Route alarms by e-mail
- Find and list buildings using the Find Buildings search
- There are two types of building attributes: standard and custom.
Standard Attributes are built into Tracer ES System and are automatically assigned to every building:
- IP Address or DNS Name - Every recognized object on network has an IP (Internet Protocol) address, which is a series of numbers, separated by decimals, that tells the network how to find it. An example of a local IP Address is 168.1.1.100. If the building has a DNS Name (the Domain Name Server name), it is usually best to use it instead of the IP address. If you are not sure what to use, contact your network administrator for assistance.
- Local Discovery - Discover only devices located on the Tracer ES's local domain and subnet.
- UDP Port - (User Datagram Protocol) port is the port the system will use to communicate to the building panel.
- Building Information - (Name, City, State, and Time Zone) Required attributes for the building.
- Additional General Attributes - (Address 1, Address 2, Postal Code, Contact Name, Phone Number, E-mail Address, Graphic Directory, and Site Type). These are not required by Tracer ES, but you may want to use them.
Custom Attributes are created by administrators or users and added to buildings. It might be useful to create a custom attribute if the standard attributes do not include information that you would like to gather or use for sorting buildings in the index.
View or Edit
To view or edit building attributes:
- Go to Home / building name / Advanced. Standard attributes are at the top of the list; custom attributes are at the bottom of the list.
- Click Edit to make changes.
- Make desired changes.
- Click Save.
Create Custom
You can create one of four types of custom attribute:
- Two Choices - The value of the attribute can be only one of two choices. Typical examples would be On or Off, Yes or No, or True or False. You must choose the two choices when you create the attribute (users cannot create their own choices later).
- Fixed Choice List - The same principle as Two Choices, but you can specify more than two. Examples could be North, South, East, West, or District 1, District 2, District 3. You must choose all of the available choices when you create the attribute (users cannot create their own values later).
- Growing Choice List - The same principle as Two Choices and Fixed Choice except that a user can provide an alternate choice of his or her creation. Likewise, subsequent users can select from your original choices or those added later by other users.
- Free Form Value - Users can write in anything they want for this value within number of characters you specify when you create it.
To create a custom attribute:
- In the header, click Actions and Settings | Buildings | Manage Building Attributes.
- Click Add New Building Custom Attribute. A series of steps begins.
- Complete the information on each page until you reach the final page, then click Finish.
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