Best practices, features and limitations of the Field Tool
The Field Tool is a downloadable mobile app that gives you a simplified tool for viewing & collecting information when in areas with little or no comms. It complements and extends the use of Intterra's web application to field users and makes it possible to collect information; once back in an area with sustainable comms, the data will be synced to the full-feature Intterra web application.
This article highlights the best practices, features and limitations of the Field Tool.
- First - Is the Field Tool the best tool for the job? Firefighters have many tools to accomplish their mission. They each have their strengths and weaknesses. Software is no different. Intterra has the full-feature web-based application and the Field Tool for use in situations with poor comms. The Field Tool is not intended to replace the web Maps app. It has a very focused purpose focused on offline collection. Ask yourself - for the job at hand, should I be using Intterra’s Field Tool app or the web Maps app? Check out: Welcome to the Field Tool and Should I use Intterra Maps (web) or the Field Tool?
- The Field Tool app is designed to assure that data transfers successfully automatically, and it does this optimally when users prepare for offline use. (See the "Prepare for Offline Use" section of Getting Started with the Field Tool.
- For optimum data collection and transfer, it's best to cache the Offline Area in which you will be working and Force Offline.
- Confirm with your Intterra account rep that the auto cache settings are optimized for your situation. Field Tool Auto-Cache provides a description of how data is automatically cached to your device. Settings that control how much and often data is cached can be changed to improve performance in areas with a high density of data, such as structure assessments in an urban setting.
- Make sure you have an adequate power source. Check out Battery Life Considerations for the Field Tool.
- Locations & tracking are challenging and vary greatly based on the device and user settings. Make sure the device settings are set for tracking and/or adding features by device location. Check out Sharing Your Location Reference for the Field Tool to help plan and troubleshoot how device settings affect how and when your device handles location tracking.
- Complex symbology used for some features associated with structure preplans, incident lines and labels are simplified on the Field Tool and will not appear as on the web Maps app. Also, home risk icons will not update with a new rating until the data is fully synced.
- The Field Tool is currently limited to layers that are hosted on Intterra’s ‘cloud’. Accessing the EGP’s National Incident Service (NIS) layers for incident and triage mapping is only accessible using Intterra’s web Maps app.