1.8.1.24.0014 Release NotesHelpstar ID Description of update Released to Clients on 9/17/2015.
2.Pictometry IPA Integration-Design1.1 Revisions
2.0 Overview The purpose of this project is to modernize our Pictometry integration to work with Pictometry’s IPA and allow users to access their Pictometry CONNECT imagery through PACS. Prior to this implementation Pictometry data has been stored and accessed locally. Pictometry CONNECT allows storage of imagery data in the cloud. The purpose of this design document is to cover the changes made for the Pictometry IPA integration. It will cover the setup and also the interactions with PACS. The embedded control comes with its own tools and behaviors that are not developed on our end. This document will not be covering use of the tools within the control except where those tools interact with PACS. 3.0 Pictometry Configuration The Pictometry control is web based. No installs are needed on the client machine in order to run the new Pictometry tool. We will host the Pictometry tool from a web server in the office. In order to set up Pictometry you will need to configure the service url and a unique key that is recognized by the service. While each client will use the same service url, each will have their own unique key. Two new pacs_config entries have been added for the Pictometry configuration. 1) Client ID. This is the unique key for the client. select * from pacs_config where szConfigName = ‘Client ID’ and szGroup = ‘Pictometry’ 2) Service URL. This is the url for the service that hosts the Pictometry control. select * from pacs_config where szConfigName = ‘Service Url’ and szGroup = ‘Pictometry’ For testing purposes the Service Url should be: http://vm64devarc08:8890 And the unique key should be: Hzy69YWxS3 Prior to configuring Pictometry, any attempt to access the Pictometry viewer will result in a “Pictometry is not configured.” Message box. 4.0 Pictometry Configuration Pictometry is opened through the right click context menu in the GIS viewer.
The starting location in Pictometry will be the right click location in the GIS viewer. The Pictomerty viewer is a separate window that is detached from PACS. It can be pulled to a 2nd monitor, minimized and maximized, ect.. Although detached, the window is still part of GIS and will be closed if the user shuts down their GIS viewer or closes PACS. A screenshot of the Pictometry viewer is shown below. Notice the PACS icon and the grouping in the task bar of Windows. The tools in the Pictometry viewer are built in functionality from Pictometry.
5.0 GIS Viewer Location Updates The Pictometry viewer will attach to the location in GIS initially. Any updates cause by panning, zooming, or changing the view angle in the Pictometry viewer will cause a corresponding update in GIS. The current Pictometry view is shown in GIS using a red boundary.
A right click context menu in the Pictometry viewer allows the user to ‘Attach to GIS’ and ‘Detach from GIS’. In attached mode the GIS viewer is updated to follow the location in the Pictometry viewer. In detached mode, you will still see the red Pictometry boundary but the GIS viewer will no longer follow the Pictometry location. The initial setting is attached. The Pictometry viewer will remember the last used setting for attached/detached and restore the preferred setting on the next launch. 6.0 Location Indicator Pictometry provides a location tool in the viewer control. Whenever this tool is used to place a location, a corresponding location indicator will be placed on the GIS map. An example of the location indicator in GIS is shown below.
3.GIS-Service Layers and Min/Max Extent-Design1.0 Revision History 1.1 Revisions
2.0 Overview The purpose of this project is to improve the GIS 2.0 performance for our SDE clients. The direct connection to SDE uses a local service layer. This is slow as ESRI has admitted. Addition of the new Service Layer data type will give SDE clients an alternative option. The clients will still use their SDE data, they will just host it as an ArcGis for Server web service and add it to the map as a service layer (instead of using a direct SDE layer). A min and max extent feature allows the user a fine level of control over which layers are displayed at a particular zoom level on the map. This allows the user to prevent intensive layers (like the parcel layer or a raster layer) from drawing when zoomed out past where they needed. The purpose of this design document is to cover the changes made for the addition of the service layer data type and the min/max extent feature. It will provide information on the UI/behavior and also impact areas for testing purposes. 3.0 Service Layers 3.1 Adding a Service Layer From the add data tool, select ‘Service Layers’ option from the combo box. Enter the rest service URL which will end in /MapServer. Press the connect button, and the listbox will be populated with available layers from the service. Check the layers that you want to add and click the Add Data button to add them to the map. Note: The urls for the rest services in the office are Older Service: http://vm64devarc08/ArcGIS/rest/services/Development/MapServer New 10.3 Services: http://vm64devweb12.pacs.local/arcgis/rest/services/Stevens/MapServer http://vm64devweb12.pacs.local/arcgis/rest/services/Andrews/MapServer
This concludes the UI change portion of the new Service Layers. Once added to the map, the service layers should behave just like the SDE and shapefile local service layers (with exceptions to the rule for symbology and labeling). 3.2 Symbology a) The user will not be able to update the symbology on layers from older ArcGis Servers and layers on new servers that have not been configured to allow modification. You can check the service in your browser to verify capabilities using the url’s above. Note that the older service will not have a “Can Modify Layer” property when you click on one of the layers. The two 10.3 services have this property for a layer. Only layers that have the “Can Modify Layer” property configured to true can have their symbology updated in GIS 2.0. The layers for Stevens will allow symbology updates. The layers for Andrews will not. Layers that don’t allow symbology updates will not have a symbol in the gis table of contents. They will also not have a symbology tab in the layer properties dialog.
b) Some service layers that allow the modification of symbology will have a transparency defined in their drawing info. For layers that have this defined, their symbols may not match what is shown in GIS for the symbology. In these cases, a warning is issued on the symbol edit dialog that informs the user of this setting. For accurate symbology results in GIS 2.0, the transparency should be set to 0 on all layers. Degrees of transparency can’t be achieved with the service layers. A symbol is either completely transparent or it is not. For this reason the symbol settings for service layers are slightly different. The opacity option is replaced with a shade option. A new “No Fill” checkbox has been added to allow the user to choose a fully transparent symbol. c) Degrees of transparency can’t be achieved with the service layers. A symbol is either completely transparent or it is not. For this reason the symbol settings for service layers are slightly different. The opacity option is replaced with a shade option. A new “No Fill” checkbox has been added to allow the user to choose a fully transparent symbol. 3.3 Labeling Some service layers will already have labeling defined. It is a recommended practice to turn off labeling on the service. The labels set up in GIS are not able to replace labeling defined on the service. If labeling is set up on the service and the user adds labeling in GIS 2.0, both labels will be shown for that layer. 3.4 Impact Areas As mentioned before, the UI to add the layers is the only intended visual change. Underneath the layers should function with all the tools, labeling, ect… just as the local service layers have. This section will cover areas of the code that required major change for the addition of service layers. a) The code that determines whether or not a particular layer is a parcel layer has changed. The new service layers tend to have some prefixes on the prop_id column name that was causing it not to be identified. Since this code has changed it is necessary to verify that parcel layers of service layers, local and direct access shapefile layers, geodatabase layers, and SDE layers are all correctly identified. This can be checked by right clicking on the layer and opening up the layer properties dialog. On the General tab, below the Name and Source there will be a Parcel Layer check box with radio options for current and certified years. This section is only visible for layers that have been identified as a parcel layer. b) Labeling – Our labeling engine required several updates. No changes were made to the data retrieving part of labeling so the data itself shouldn’t be in question. Labeling needs to be verified to ensure that it works with shapefiles (both local and direct access), SDE, service layers, and geodatabase layers. Ensure labels are coming up for both parcel data field and gis fields. The easiest way to test the GIS fields is to label any layer that is not a parcel layer. c) Comparables – Need to make sure the parcels are identified and colored correctly. d) Selection – many changes were need to allow selection of parcels on service layers. Verify that the selection tools are working correctly with shapefile, SDE, geodatabse, and service layer data types. e) Save/Restore – Need to make sure the new service layers save and load as expected. f) Geoprocessing – verify that the geoprocessing tools work with the new service layers. g) Click based operations – Need to ensure that click based operations are working with the new service layer types. On the toolbar these are ‘Go to Property’, ‘Property Info’, ‘Property Links’, and ‘Property Note’ tool. 4.0 Min/Max Extent The Min/Max Extent functionality is accessed through the context menu for every non-group layer in the table of contents. 4.1 Single Selection
When a single data layer is right-clicked, the context menu has the new items shown above. Here is description of the new items. a) Max Extent: none – This is just a visual indicator that tells the user whether or not a max extent is currently set for the layer. If no max extent is set, it will show ‘none’. If a max extent is set, it will be displayed as a floating point value. b) Set Max Extent = Sets the maximum extent at which the layer is visible to the current extent of the viewer. c) Clear Max Extent – This clears a max extent when one is present on the layer. If no max extent is set, this option is disabled. d) Min Extent: none – This is just a visual indicator that tells the user whether or not a min extent is currently set for the layer. If no min extent is set, it will show ‘none’. If a min extent is set, it will be displayed as a floating point value. e) Set Min Extent = Sets the minimum extent at which the layer is visible to the current extent of the viewer. f) Clear Min Extent – This clears a min extent when one is present on the layer. If no min extent is set, this option is disabled. 4.2 Multi Selection When multiple layers in the table of contents are selected, the set and clear extent options are available.
a) Set Max Extent – This will set the maximum extent of all selected layers to the current extent of the viewer. This option is only available if all of the selected layers are data layers. If any of the selections is a group layer, this option will be disabled. b) Clear Max Extent – This will clear the maximum extent for all selected layers. This option is only available if all of the selected layers are data layers and at least one of the selected layers has a maximum extent set. c) Set Min Extent – This will set the minimum extent of all selected layers to the current extent of the viewer. This option is only available if all of the selected layers are data layers. If any of the selections is a group layer, this option will be disabled. d) Clear Min Extent – This will clear the minimum extent for all selected layers. This option is only available if all of the selected layers are data layers and at least one of the selected layers has a minimum extent set. 4.3 Special Cases / Additional Testing a) Saving and Loading – The min and max extents that are set for each layer should be saved with the map and loaded up the next time it is used. This should not break maps that existed prior to the update. b) Crossing extent boundaries – Both a min and max extent can be set on a single layer. If a max extent has been set on a layer and the min extent is set to an extent greater than the maximum, the maximum extent will be cleared and the minimum will take charge. Likewise, if a min extent has been set on a layer and the max extent is set to an extent less than the minimum, the minimum extent will be cleared and the maximum will take charge. 4.8.1.24 New Features GANew Features Released to Clients on 7/9/2015. We are incorporating the PTAD EARS layout changes and SB1 Legislative modification into a single release. This release includes the following additions and modifications to functionality: Electronic Appraisal Roll Submission (PTAD EARS) Important Changes for 2015 Fields have been added to indicate that properties quali\-fy for a tax limitation due to the owner being 65 or over or disabled. A field has also been added to indicate that the property is located within a tax increment reinvest\-ment zone. PTAD is now requesting that all fields in all record types be completed as part of the submission. Some appraisal districts did not complete the account category detail (ACD), account owner name and address (AND) or ac\-count parcel address and legal description (APL). PTAD now has a new appraisal system and those fields will be used by that system. This will improve the accuracy of appraisals used in the PTS.
New Fields AJR88 New indicator for TIRZ. A new TIRZ checkbox (for Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone) has been added to the Entity general panel. This checkbox will be available in both Appraisal and Collections applications. The field in the layout displays as a ‘Y’ if the TIRZ checkbox on the associated entity is checked or the property is in a TIF (Tax Increment Finance) zone. NOTE: Please review your TIF zones, any entities created to represent a TIF Zone, TIRZ or CETRZ (County Energy Transportation Reinvestment Zone). AJR89 New indicator for tax ceiling. The new Tax Ceiling Indicator column displays based on the exemption on a property. 1’ for an OV65 or DP exemption ‘2’ for an OV65S or DPS exemption ‘3’ if neither AJR90 New field for tax ceiling amount. The new Tax Ceiling Amount displays the amount of the tax ceiling, or zero if there is no tax ceiling. Modified Fields APL05 Legal Description Any line ending characters are removed so they do not make it into the export data file. APL09 New Property Indicator Reports properties which did not exist last year or was deleted. We do not have clear instruction on handling the ‘substantially improved’ criterion, so we will not at this time try to report new value from the improvement level in this field. APL13 ARB Hearing Indicator Reports properties which have a protest for the exported year. APL14 ARB Adjustment Code The column indicates whether or not the property value was adjusted by the ARB, and if so, the reason for adjustment. Blank if not protested or protest not closed. N – No adjustment V – Adjusted by ARB as the result of a value appeal (Reason code Q1) E – Adjusted by ARB as the result of an equity appeal(Reason Code Q2) B – Adjusted by ARB as the result of both value & equity appeals(Reason Codes Q1 & Q2) APL15 Property Market Value Before ARB Adjustment Already populates in the file APL16 Market Area Code Neighborhood code if present, otherwise abs/subdivision code. AND11 Percent Ownership Already populates in the file ACD06 Standard Industrial Code Taken from [property].[prop_sic_cd] Blank if NULL Displayed in full if longer than 5 characters. Padded with zeroes on left to 5 characters if ending in a non-numeric character Padded with zeroes on right to 4 characters if ending in a numeric character This column is left justified. ACD07 Square Footage – Improvement For a personal property, the maximum pp_area among all the pers_prop_seg records is extracted For all other properties the value from [property_profile].[living_area] is extracted Displays 0000000 if neither pulls data. ACD08 Number of Bedrooms Due to inconsistencies in how clients maintain this information, we received approval to postpone implementation of this field for 2015 ACD09 Number of Bathrooms Due to inconsistencies in how clients maintain this information, we received approval to postpone implementation of this field for 2015 ACD10 CACH Indicator Displays a ‘Y’ if the property has an improvement attribute designated as the Heating and AC and the associated attribute_val is flag as CACH ‘N’ otherwise ACD11 Year Built For a personal property, the minimum pp_yr_aquired among all the pers_prop_seg records is extracted For all other properties value from [property_profile].[yr_blt] is extracted Displays 0000 if neither pulls data. ACD12 Construction Type/Class Displays the Construction Type/Class (i.e. imprv_det_class_cd-imprv_det_sub_class_cd) associated with the highest value improvement detail for the property. Note that when multiple highest value improvement detail records exist, the one with the lowest imprv_id and imprv_det.id is used to extract data. This column is left justified. ACD13 Number of Stories Displays the number of stories associated with the highest value improvement detail for the property. Note that when multiple highest value improvement detail records exist, the one with the lowest imprv_id and imprv_det.id is used to extract data. ACD14 Subdivision/Neighborhood Code Same as APL16 Neighborhood code if present, otherwise abs subdivision code. This column is left justified. ACD18 NAICS Code Taken from [property].[prop_sic_cd] Blank if NULL Padded on left with zeroes to 6 characters if the rightmost character is numeric Padded on right with zeroes to 6 characters if the rightmost character is not numeric SB1 Legislative Changes for Residence Homestead Exemption Increase Amount Modify the state exemption amount: (NO DEVELOPMENT NEEDED) This is specifically related to the state amount of the school district HS exemption Harris Govern/True Automation Support staff will manually update each client database upon request Freeze Ceiling Recalculation Adjust the corresponding ISD OV65, OV65S or DP, DPS freeze ceiling for 2015 ONLY on ceilings existing prior to 2015: Adjusted Calculation: [2014 tax imposed for ISD – ((10,000) * 2015 ISD tax rate)] + New value tax, as applicable The word ‘imposed’ is important because there are times when the tax amount assessed on a property could be lower than the freeze ceiling. PACS will need to use the actual tax amount imposed in the calculation, if it differs from the freeze ceiling amount. The tax law change specifically indicates 10,000 should be used to adjust the tax limitation (what we call the freeze ceiling). We will use 10,000 regardless of the actual change in exemption amount applied to a property; e.g. low value property shown below.
NOTE: Likely the 2015 tax rate will not be set by the time we implement the changes (rates are set in October) New Value should be calculated as exists today for exemption purposes, e.g. new improvement value, etc. A property may have more than one freeze ceiling based on the entities that grant one associated to the property. The changes are specific to the ISD entity freeze. Non homesite value (not included in the freeze ceiling?) on the property should be handled as exists today on reference to calculating the total tax due on a property. The re-calculated ceiling amount for 2015 on the ISD entity will remain in effect for 2015 forward. Display Pre SB1 information similar to Pre-HB 5 Tax Statement Changes Update Tax Statements with provisional text: For Levy Statements & Corrected Statements – This text is only valid for 2015 taxes printed before the required election (where likely the provisional legislation will be passed by voters) After the November election, if the voters approve the increase we will NOT display this text for any statement printed or created after that date (or as soon as we can make the resulting change to PACS). This does NOT affect mineral tax statements. Display the conditional text with an additional page The NEW text should display for only tax statements including 2015 taxes for an ISD entity and HS exemption on the property. Highlighted portions should not be included on the statements.
Create a process to calculate the tax amount with current exemption amount ($15,000) in addition to the increased exemption amount ($25,000) to include in provisional text above as highlighted. This does not need to be displayed or stored separately in PACS, i.e. only necessary to display for the tax statement. [1] Total Tax Due if exemption had not been changed: Based on the tax statement selections and effective dates in PACS, calculate total tax due (including all entities selected) with the existing $15,000 on the ISD “amount equal to the sum of the amount calculated under Section 26.09(c-1) based on an exemption under Section 11.13(b) of $15,000 and the total amount of taxes imposed by the other taxing units whose taxes are included in the bill” [2] Difference between tax amounts due: Total Tax Due with 15,000 exemption – Total Tax Due with 25,000 exemption “difference between amount calculated under Section 26.09(c-1) based on an exemption under Section 11.13(b) of $15,000 and amount calculated under Section 26.09(c-1) based on an exemption under Section 11.13(b) of $25,000)” [3] Total Tax Due with the exemption change: Based on the tax statement selections and effective dates in PACS, calculate tax due (including all entities selected) with the existing $25,000 on the ISD “insert amount equal to the sum of the amount calculated under Section 26.09(c-1) based on an exemption under Section 11.13(b) of $25,000 and the total amount of taxes imposed by the other taxing units whose taxes are included in the bill” [4] Difference between tax amounts due: Tax Due with 15,000 exemption – Tax Due with 25,000 exemption “difference between amount calculated under Section 26.09(c-1) based on an exemption under Section 11.13(b) of $15,000 and amount calculated under Section 26.09(c-1) based on an exemption under Section 11.13(b) of $25,000” For imported accounts where we may not have information for both the 15K and the 25K exemption amounts, PACS will need to calculate the additional text values above (1-4) for imported accounts regardless of how the final exemption amount is presented. PACS may calculate the exemption amounts based on the entity information stored in PACS. The vendor may provide the exemption amount. Helpstar ID Description of update
5.8.1.24.0007 Release Notes (Limited)Released to Clients on 8/13/2015. Changes in the release are related to Legislative SB 1 & SJR 1 and include: Creation of Pre-SB1 Freeze Ceiling capture process in order to capture the freeze information prior to the 2015 HS exemption increase to $25,000.
A new PACS_Config item, TaxStatement: 2015ProvisionalTextOFF, was added to turn OFF the provisional text, as a date field.
Addition of provisional text to 2015 Tax Statement to print as a third page.
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