Dictionary: Semantik of 'key'

[NorbertThoden]

While working with the Dictionary of V100 i ran into a couple of problems/questions around the result, especially the result.key.

In the first comments i will post these questions, so you can reply to every single question.

All questions are within this document: 2016-12-13_SymbologyQuestions.pdf

Contraints: I retrieve the results of the dictionary using DictionarySymbolStyle::searchSymbol(); As parameter I used an empty SymbolStyleSearchParamter object, to get the complete model.

These results are retrieved using a widget-based executable.

The used mil2525d.stylx is from the installer of arcgisRuntmeV100, file size: 21468160Bytes

Key The Dictionary returns properties containing

• Name (String)
• Tags (StringList)
• SymbolClass (String)
• Category (String)
• Key (String) The key has most of the time 8 digits: The SymbolSet (2 digits) and the Entity (6 digits). But sometimes it´s different

[NorbertThoden]

Question 1: Key containing chars? About 42 times the key does not contain digits but chars: (Other problematic keys are: SN/A, SM/A, SL/A, SK/A, SJ/A, SD-/A

Is that intended or a bug?

[NorbertThoden]

Question 2: Key and it´s suffix “_C” About 344 times i got a key containing the suffix “_C”: (Ok, C is for Charlie. And Charlie could mean Mil2525Charlie.)

Ok, according to the standard this sidc is an area:

Why are there two results? What is the difference of these two results?

[NorbertThoden]

Question 3: Key and it´s suffix “_1”, “_2” ... Often the key of 8 digits has a postfix like “_1”, “_3”, “_4”, “_6”. First i assumed that this is the identity: “_1” for Unknown, “_3” for Friend and so on. Here a screenshot my assumption is based on:

But after a while I found many entries not matching this assumption: The last is “Neutral”, but the suffix is “_2”. But “_2” would be “Assumed Friend”

So, what is the meaning of the suffix?

[NorbertThoden]

Question 4: Key is empty About 13 times the key is empty:

The 13 names of these entries are like

• (1) Protections Line : Mine Cluster
• (4) Protections Points : Nuclear…
• (4) Maneuver Areas : Limited Access Area
• (4) Fire Areas : Area Target

Is that intended or a bug?

[csmoore]

Here is a quick/high-level answer:

1. Most of the key conventions were taken from the naming conventions of the source SVGs documented here: https://github.com/Esri/joint-military-symbology-xml/tree/dev/svg (These have the convention: 0 - Unknown, 1 - Friend, 2 - Neutral, 3 - Hostile)

2. However some of the data came from elsewhere, and also represented some of the same symbols, so has a different/exceptional naming convention a. Tactical Graphics/Control Measures (Appendix B or Set 25) (Unknown = 1, Friend = 3, Neutral = 4, Hostile = 6) b. METOC (Appendix C, Set 45-47) _C c. Important Note: these entries already exist in the items from 1 above - so you don't really need to present them in a user interface, but these items are the actual lines styles (versus just the simple point/ previews/examples from the standard)

3. The style also contains entries from 2525C/2525B - these are the alpha entries (this same style can be used to create those standards) - this naming convention is documented here

4. There are perhaps some old/unused entries in this style (ex: SN/A - which is an echelon indicator on a line) that we are waiting a few releases to make sure they are not needed before removing

If it helps, here is a query we used to filter entries not needed by the user in our user interface:

https://github.com/Esri/military-symbol-editor-addin-wpf/blob/master/source/ProSymbolEditor/ViewModels/MilitarySymbolDockpaneViewModel.cs#L1713

[NorbertThoden]

Hi Chris! Thank you very much for your quick answer! It´s very helpful.

Just one more related to Question 3: Key and it´s suffix “_1”, “_2” ...: The first screenshot is showing 5 results: a) one entry with key 25270100 b) four entries with key 25270100_x From my point of view they are addressed be your note:

Important Note: these entries already exist in the items from 1 above - so you don't really need to present them in a user interface, but these items are the actual lines styles (versus just the simple point/ previews/examples from the standard)"

correct? If so, which part will maybe removed in future? Or in other words: Do you recommend to use a) or b)?

[csmoore]

You can just use the (a) version - that is the style symbol part you need to get a symbol preview and get the tags/key needed to construct the symbol.

There are no plans to remove these particular entries, these other 4 entries are there:

1. in Control measures (set 25) to have different colored versions
2. in other symbols to have 4 versions that match exactly to the frame (but note for these - there are only the _X versions)
3. but they should all have the same tags

[NorbertThoden]

Hi Chris! Thanks a lot for your precise answer!

[topowright-zz]

This issue was moved to Esri/military-symbology#276