Saving Map Customizations

The environment variable $MAP_CUSTOMIZATION (needed for pre-NNM 6.x only, standard menu item in NNM 6.x) allows ipmap to inform ovw that two new menu items should be available under the File menu to import and export an ASCII customization file. This file records standard information for all the icons in the Internet submap. It does not save customized objects such as manually added connections. The customization file is oh-so-welcome in reconstructing a map. This may be necessary because the map builder ruined the map beyond repair, a collection station had a database crash and had to rediscover its management domain, or the local database consistency was so bad that ovtopofix did not have the power to repair it.

A few minor wrinkles may present themselves after importing a map customization. The customization may contain icons not yet discovered, so a warning is issued. A device selection name may have changed, so it’s not put into its “home” container but left in the Internet submap. Devices may be discovered that aren’t in the customization, and they too are left in the Internet submap. The net result is that the Internet submap is not yet “pretty” due to the orphan icons that have no “home.”

Rather than despair over this misfortune, use a simple trick to restore the map to its original state. Follow these steps:

• add a helper ^[1] container icon to the Internet submap
  
  

  ^[1] The term “helper” container is not an official NNM term.

• drag the helper container to a clear location
  
  
• use a selection rectangle to select orphan icons
  
  
• drag these orphans into the helper container
  
  
• repeat until all orphans are in the helper container
  
  
• drag the helper container near the cluster of other containers
  
  
• resize the Internet submap window slightly; ovw will redraw the map with the original icon sizes
  
  
• open the helper container
  
  
• drag the orphans into their proper “homes”
  
  
• save the customization again
  
  

A big benefit of the helper container is that it quickly circumvents the incorrect scaling on the reconstructed map caused by orphans being placed far from the original symbols.