Question

External KML Style file

arnold_bijlsma
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Has anybody ever tried to create an external Style.kml file that is being referenced by other KML/KMZ files? I have seen several blogs where the KML StyleMap is defined by creating a Style feature, and I've got that working fine. But I've got 500+ KML files (all regionalised etc.), and the result is that each of them has the same StyleMap definitions in the top of the KML. I would like to define all my Style definitions in a separate KML/KMZ file, and each KML file to reference just this file.

The Google KML documentation shows this is possible, and all you need is a line like this:

<styleUrl>style.kml#counties</styleUrl> 

But how to get this in FME? I have been playing around with the kml_style_url_* and kml_target_style_* attributes, but have been unable to crack it, and there doesn't seem to be any documentation on all these kml_* attributes.

8 replies

arnold_bijlsma
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Here's a screenshot of my workbench. It reads a large GDB (not shown) containing 7.5million points and fans them out into 500+ KMZs, one for each UK Postcode District. The screenshot below has only read the first 10000 records, and created 3 KMZs. Each point is colored red, amber, yellow or green depending on a ModelRiskLevel parameter.

arnold_bijlsma
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I think I may have cracked it. The trick is to have two Creator transformers: one creating the Styles using the KMLStyler transformer, and one creating the different StyleMaps using the kml_target_style_* attributes in an AttributeCreator. All outputs are then routed to a Styles.kmz

The big advantage of this approach is that if a user wants to have the styles changed (e.g. larger icons, different colors, labels switched on, etc.), all I'd need to do is send him a new 1kB Styles.kmz file (or the user can even manually edit it herself).

In the main workspace that creates all my 500+ KMZs, all I need is an AttributeCreator or AttributeManager and set

kml_style_url = Styles.kmz#myStyle@Value(ModelRiskLevel)_myStyleHighlight

See attached workspace createstyleskmz.fmwt and screenshot referencetostylefile.png

mark2atsafe
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I think I may have cracked it. The trick is to have two Creator transformers: one creating the Styles using the KMLStyler transformer, and one creating the different StyleMaps using the kml_target_style_* attributes in an AttributeCreator. All outputs are then routed to a Styles.kmz

The big advantage of this approach is that if a user wants to have the styles changed (e.g. larger icons, different colors, labels switched on, etc.), all I'd need to do is send him a new 1kB Styles.kmz file (or the user can even manually edit it herself).

In the main workspace that creates all my 500+ KMZs, all I need is an AttributeCreator or AttributeManager and set

kml_style_url = Styles.kmz#myStyle@Value(ModelRiskLevel)_myStyleHighlight

See attached workspace createstyleskmz.fmwt and screenshot referencetostylefile.png

Good question - and great answer. 

arnold_bijlsma
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Good question - and great answer.

Thanks Mark. And the workspace looks a lot better with the new Junction transformer.

I
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I think I may have cracked it. The trick is to have two Creator transformers: one creating the Styles using the KMLStyler transformer, and one creating the different StyleMaps using the kml_target_style_* attributes in an AttributeCreator. All outputs are then routed to a Styles.kmz

The big advantage of this approach is that if a user wants to have the styles changed (e.g. larger icons, different colors, labels switched on, etc.), all I'd need to do is send him a new 1kB Styles.kmz file (or the user can even manually edit it herself).

In the main workspace that creates all my 500+ KMZs, all I need is an AttributeCreator or AttributeManager and set

kml_style_url = Styles.kmz#myStyle@Value(ModelRiskLevel)_myStyleHighlight

See attached workspace createstyleskmz.fmwt and screenshot referencetostylefile.png

Hi Arnold, if you are still following this solution , I am unable to get something like this to work. Do you have a small complete example you could share. I agree the documentation is lamentable for this.

 

 

Thanks,

 

Ian

 

 

arnold_bijlsma
Rank
Badge +3

I think I may have cracked it. The trick is to have two Creator transformers: one creating the Styles using the KMLStyler transformer, and one creating the different StyleMaps using the kml_target_style_* attributes in an AttributeCreator. All outputs are then routed to a Styles.kmz

The big advantage of this approach is that if a user wants to have the styles changed (e.g. larger icons, different colors, labels switched on, etc.), all I'd need to do is send him a new 1kB Styles.kmz file (or the user can even manually edit it herself).

In the main workspace that creates all my 500+ KMZs, all I need is an AttributeCreator or AttributeManager and set

kml_style_url = Styles.kmz#myStyle@Value(ModelRiskLevel)_myStyleHighlight

See attached workspace createstyleskmz.fmwt and screenshot referencetostylefile.png

@ian2016: not sure what else I can share. The attached template file shows how to create a separate .kmz file containing all the style definition. Four styles are defined: Very High (red circle), High (amber circle), Medium (yellow circle) and Low (green circle). It also contains a blue circle as the highlight style. Those defined four styles and the highlight style are then applies to the kml_target_style_normal and kml_target_style_highlight attributes.

 

I have attached the styles.kmz file so you can look 'inside': styles.kmz

 

 

To create a KMZ file that references this styles.kmz, which is stored inside the same folder, you need the AttributeCreator as described in my answer.

 

 

There is also a bit about the balloon text, which has something to do with Extended Data and Simple Data. See https://docs.safe.com/fme/html/FME_Desktop_Documentation/FME_ReadersWriters/WKBkml/Extended_Data.htm

 

 

I am happy to share the full workbench on an individual basis, but I don't want to publish it on here. Just email me on arnold.bijlsma@stantec.com.

 

 

I
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Thanks for your help Arnold, as usually happens, I got your approach to work with an example of my own while waiting for a reply from you. I am not at all familiar with kml and have been going round in circles with examples with the styles in the same kml, so that was most of the problem - confusion. Concatenating text to reference inside other files seems a bit weird to me but hey , if that's the way it works.

If I were to produce a single kml how would I use the Style URL to reference the styles within the same file? just take of the file name part on the attribute creator?

Thanks for your help.

Ian

arnold_bijlsma
Rank
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Thanks for your help Arnold, as usually happens, I got your approach to work with an example of my own while waiting for a reply from you. I am not at all familiar with kml and have been going round in circles with examples with the styles in the same kml, so that was most of the problem - confusion. Concatenating text to reference inside other files seems a bit weird to me but hey , if that's the way it works.

If I were to produce a single kml how would I use the Style URL to reference the styles within the same file? just take of the file name part on the attribute creator?

Thanks for your help.

Ian

If you only have a single KML/KMZ file, it doesn't make much sense to have a separate Styles file. In that case, it's much easier to define your styles inside that KML file by simply using the KMLStyler transformer.

 

 

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