OGC/Google KML Writer Parameters

Document

Sets an alternative filename for the root document if the dataset is either a KMZ file or a folder.

Note  Changing this parameter may result in a dataset that is unreadable by Google Earth.

This parameter is overwritten by the Parent Document File Name at the feature-type level. Specifying a file name forces a certain set of features to be segregated in a separate file.

Optional, descriptive text that describes the file. It appears in the KML file in the format:

<description><![CDATA[This is a description]]></description>

Note  To use standard HTML inside a <description> tag, you can enclose it with a CDATA tag.1 If you don't use a CDATA tag, you will have to use entity references instead of angle brackets (this prevents Google Earth from parsing the HTML incorrectly). For example, the symbol > is written as &gt; and the symbol < is written as &lt;.

Specifies whether the output file is drawn in the viewer when it is initially loaded.

Controls whether a root-level <Document> element is created.

The default is No.

Author

Specifies the value of the <atom:name> element for the dataset.

Specifies the value of the <atom:email> element for the dataset.

Specifies the value of the <atom:link> element for the dataset.

Watermark

Watermarks are simple shortcuts for creating a ScreenOverlay in the lower left-hand corner of the Google Earth view window.

The name and description (the snippet) are displayed in the Google Earth tree.

Optional, descriptive text that describes the icon. This parameter can also be a URL in the format:

<![CDATA[<a href="http://watermark/watermark">This is a watermark snippet</a>]]>

Note  To use standard HTML inside a <description> tag, you can enclose it with a CDATA tag.2 If you don't use a CDATA tag, you will have to use entity references instead of angle brackets (this prevents Google Earth from parsing the HTML incorrectly). For example, the symbol > is written as &gt; and the symbol < is written as &lt;.

Watermarks require the overlay icon (specified using the Watermark Overlay Icon writer parameter).

Description Balloon

Determines whether or not user-defined attributes will be included in the feature’s description field.

The value of the Use HTML in Description Balloon parameter will determine if the attributes, and their corresponding values will be displayed using a HTML table, or a series of colon-separated key-value pairs.

Values can be Yes or No. The default is Yes.

Specifies whether or not the description, snippet, and balloon text elements should be wrapped in a CDATA block. Possible values are Yes, or No. The default is Yes.

External Documents

Specifies the filename of an external kml file that will be used to store Style or StyleMap elements.

If specified, all Style and Stylemap elements will be routed to this document. The value of this parameter may be a filename or a relative path (for example files/style.kml).

Note  When using the writer to create a KMZ file, it is recommended that you put the style document in a subfolder. This ensures the proper file will be loaded when the KMZ is opened in Google Earth.

Specifies the filename of an external kml file that will be used to store Schema information for the dataset. If specified, Schema elements will be written to this file, and the schemaUrl value of each placemark will be updated accordingly.

The value of this parameter may be a filename or a relative path.

When using the writer to create a KMZ file, it is recommended to put the schema document in a sub-folder. This ensures the proper file will be loaded when the KMZ is opened in Google Earth.

Raster Features

Controls whether or not the writer will examine incoming features to determine if they have raster geometry. If a raster geometry is detected, the feature will be forced to be a GroundOverlay feature.

Value – Yes (default) or No

Specifies whether or not GroundOverlay features should be passed through the ground overlay pyramider pipeline prior to writing. This pipeline will create an "image pyramid" out of the overlay raster, splitting the raster into smaller files or varying resolution, to improve viewing performance.

The default is No.

Specifies how the writer will handle raster features. This preference only applies if Generate Raster Ground Overlays is enabled.

There are three possible values:

  • write – (default) Write the raster feature using the FME writer that corresponds to the Raster Output Format parameter. This option allows the KML writer to handle raster features irregardless of their origin, as well as to take advantage of any resampling performed during the transformation process.
  • copy – Copy the image file that the raster feature originated in to the folder of the KML dataset. The resulting <GroundOverlay> element will reference the copy of the image file. Note: This will only work for PNG, JPEG, or TIFF images.
  • relative – Similar to the "copy" option, but leaves the image file in its original location. This option avoids gratuitous file copying.

Specifies which file format should be used if the Raster Handling Mode parameter is set to "write".

Possible values are tiff (default), jpeg, png, gif.

Specifies the preferred format for associated texture files. This preference will be used as long as the specified format supports the properties of the texture raster; if not, it will be overridden.

Possible values are:

  • Auto (default) – The writer chooses the best representation based on the incoming texture raster.
  • BMP
  • GIF
  • JPEG
  • PNG

If the preferred format is ignored, a message is added to the log file. Possible reasons that the preference will be ignored include a lack of raster palette support, alpha channel support, or color depth support in the selected format.

Network Link Parameters

Specifies whether or not NetworkLink elements should be automatically generated when documents are referenced. The default is Yes.

Specifies the URL value of the targetHref for the NetworkLinkControl Updates.

Pipelined Features

Specifies whether or not features with vector geometry (Placemarks) should be passed through the regionator pipeline prior to writing.

The default is No.

Specifies whether or not PhotoOverlay features should be passed through the photo overlay pyramider pipeline prior to writing.

The default is No.

Writer Parameters

KML supports a full 3D model. By default, if any feature is 3D, it will be written out to 3D KML.

3D KML contains an embedded Collada model, and this causes the file size to increase. You can turn off the 3D support in the KML writer and force FME to write out to 2.5D by setting this parameter to Yes. The representation will still appear to be 3D, but it will be a simple shape.

  • Yes – A single textures.txt file will be generated for the whole dataset.
  • No (default) – Texture mapping will be performed by adding the required <ResourceMap> elements to the Placemark element’s Model geometry.
Note  The OGC KML 2.2 specification has deprecated use of the textures.txt file in favor of ResourceMap elements.

The value of the hint attribute of the kml element for the dataset.

The default is none. Users wishing to write datasets for Google Sky should use the value target=sky.

See the Google KML documentation for further information.

Specifies whether icons should be copied from their location to the dataset’s images folder.

The possible values are Yes and No. The default is Yes.

Note  This only applies to icons referenced by the kml_icon attribute, icons referenced by the kml_icon_href will not be copied. If the kml_icon_href is present, the value of kml_icon will be ignored.

Specifies whether or not schema elements should be output. Possible values are Yes, or No. The default is Yes.

Specifies whether features should be oriented before writing.

Possible values are None (default), Right, and Left.

Specifies whether or not the writer should increase the logging verbosity.

The default is No.

If the value is no (default), then the folders for user-defined feature types will only be created if at least one feature is written with a feature type corresponding to the folder name.

If the value is yes, then a <Folder> will be created for each user-defined feature type, regardless of whether or not any features are written with that feature type.

Note  This option does not apply to feature type fanout.

Specifies whether or not features with model geometry should be reprojected such that the model geometry is a local coordinate system with meter units.

Yes (default): The input feature must have a valid coordinate system, and will be reprojected as necessary.

No: The placement location of the model must be specified via format attributes, and the geometry will be written to a Collada file as-is.

Note  Google Earth requires the geometry to use values with valid COLLADA units.

If the value is folder, then a single level of folders will be created, where each folder’s name maps to the value of the fanout attribute. If the value is subfolder, then a two-level folder hierarchy will be created, where the top-level folder’s name will be the same as the original feature type, and each subfolder’s name maps to the value of the fanout attribute.

Use Network Authentication

Note  This parameter is always visible in some formats, and visible in other formats only when the dataset is a URL.

Authentication Method

Specify the authentication method to use when accessing a password-protected server.

  • Basic (default) – Basic access authentication is designed to allow a client to provide credentials to a server on the assumption that the connection between them is trusted and secure. Note that any credentials passed from client to server can be easily intercepted through an insecure connection.
  • Digest – Digest authentication is one of the agreed-upon methods a web server can use to negotiate credentials, such as username or password, with a user's web browser.
  • NTLM – A challenge-response protocol that is used to provide compatibility with versions of Windows earlier than the Windows 2000 operating systems.
  • Web Connection – Web connections provide a convenient and secure way to store and reuse previously established connection parameters. See Web Connection below.
  • Single Sign-on – FME will use the credentials of the current user to authenticate the HTTP request. This authentication method currently works only on the Windows operating system.
Note  To access datasets using a proxy server, use the Network tools in FME Options. From the FME Workbench menu, select Tools > FME Options > Network. For more information, see "Network Proxy" in FME Workbench Help.

Web Connection

Using Web Connections

FME Options: Web Connections