The Command Line interface to the FalconView Map Data server is intended to allow users (typically administrators) to automate common map management functions in FalconView by allowing the functions to be called from batch files or other scripting tools.
The tool is a small exe with no graphical user interface it can be invoked with a number of command line switches to specify what functions should be performed.
The syntax of FVCommand is:
FVCommand [command] [file containing Data Sources for command] [\L] for legacy (3.3) coverage.
Commands (case optional):
- CovGen <file name> [\L] Generates coverage (no BCP files)
- CovGenCreateBcp <file name> [\L] Generates coverage and creates BCP files
- CreateBcps <file name> Create BCP files from existing coverage
- LoadBcps <file name> Load BCP files
- CreateDSFile <file name> Creates a file that contains all Data Sources currently in DB
- LoadDSFile <file name> Adds the Data Sources in the file to the DB
- CleanCovDB Returns DB to an initialized state
- DeleteDS <file name> Deletes the Data Sources in the file
- DetachDB Shrinks and detaches the DB from Sql Server
LoadCsdIndex <folder name> Loads CSD index from "nitf\index.ntf" located in <folder name>
LoadTlmIndex <folder name> Loads TLM index from "nitf\tlmindex.ntf" located in <folder name>
To generate coverage on all the current paths:
FVCommand !CreateDSFile ds.txt
FVCommand CovGenCreateBcp ds.txt
The list of data sources is a text file which contains one directory path per line. For instance:
C:\pfps\data
\\GPL\NAVPLAN
D:\
This file can be created with any standard text editor such as notepad or the file can be created based on the current FalconView paths by calling: FVCommand !CreateDSFile [name of file to create]
When FVCommand is called with any of the following switches:
- CovGen
- CovGenCreateBcp
- CreateBcps
- LoadBcps
- LoadDSFile
FalconView will read the list of data sources from the file and if they do not exist in FalconView, they will be added.
FVCommand can support “Jukebox” style data sources which are data sources which contain a set of directories each with the contents of one NGA CD. To add a Jukebox data source, add a “\**” to the end of the path. For example:
\\GPL\Source\NGA\1.NAVPLAN\**
FVCommand can run in different processes simultaneously. For example, you can have 2 command windows running FVCommand generating coverage on different Data Sources at the same time. This can improve total coverage generation time considerably.
When the \L switch is used with one of the CovGen commands, the 4.x series coverage generation will be performed and then a set of legacy 3.x series “.cov” files will be generated for use with earlier versions of FalconView.
FV Command ships with FalconView 4.2 and later (in program files\pfps\mapdataserver). A copy of the program and dlls is available on the Downloads page. To use this with FalconView 4.1.1 unzip the contents into c:\pfps\mapdataserver\ and run it from there.
