Visualizing data updates using the live mode

You can visualize time-enabled data that is being updated frequently using the live mode on the Time Slider window. For example, you can visualize the latest location of animals you are tracking or the latest discharge observations at the stream gauges in a watershed area. Once you have set the time properties on the layer, you can use the time slider to visualize your data using the default historic mode or switch to live mode to visualize the data collected and available for the current system time.

To visualize the data in live mode, you will have to ensure that new data is being added to the underlying source data of the time-enabled layer to visualize any live data updates in the display. For example, if you are tracking animal locations, ensure that the data (in other words, the locations as well as the time) is being recorded in a point feature class as the data is being acquired.

When visualizing data in live mode, the time of the map is set to the current system time and the map is refreshed based on the time step interval you have set on the time slider. For example, if you have data that is updated with new records every minute, you can set the time step interval on the time slider to one minute. The time slider fetches the latest data updates after one minute and displays the data in the map. However, if you set the time step interval to five minutes, the time slider fetches and displays the latest data updates after five minutes.

Learn more about setting the time step interval on the time sliderLearn more about setting time properties on a layer

Using the live mode on the time slider

After setting the time properties on the layer, you can click the Live Mode button on the Time Slider window to toggle between the live mode and historic mode.

Note:

When visualizing time-enabled data in historic mode, the icon on the Live Mode button appears as on the Time Slider window. Once the Live Mode button is clicked, the icon changes to .

Steps:

1. Open the Time Slider window by clicking the Time Slider button on the Tools toolbar.
2. Click the Time Slider Options button to open the Time Slider Options dialog box.
3. On the Display tab, set the appropriate time step interval. The time step interval determines how often the slider will look for new data updates in the time-enabled layers in the display. For example, if you want to update the display with new data every five seconds, you can set the time step interval to 5 seconds.
Tip:

• When in live mode, set the time step interval appropriately. For example, if you set the time step interval to 6 hours, the time-enabled layer is refreshed after six hours.
• When in live mode, you can also specify a time window on the Time Slider dialog box. This allows you to visualize not only the most current data that is being added to the time-enabled layer but also the data in the past that lies within the time window.

  Learn more about setting a time window

4. Click the Live Mode button on the Time Slider window.

   The time slider control goes to the end time of the slider and the map time is set to the current time. The time slider control keeps updating every so often based on the time step interval that has been set. Also, the icon on the Live Mode button changes to .

5. To stop visualizing data in live mode, you can either click the Live Mode button again or click any other control on the Time Slider window.

   Once live mode is turned off, the time-enabled data in the past can be visualized in historic mode of the slider.

Note:

• While visualizing data in live mode, clicking any other control on the Time Slider window stops the live data updates. Once the live mode is stopped, you can again interact with the time slider control to visualize data in the past.
• If the map document is saved with the live mode on, the next time you open the map document, the time of the map will reflect the most current time of the time-enabled data.
• When using the live mode, if a time zone has been specified on the time slider, the current time of the map is set to the current time in the time zone that was specified. For example, say the current time on your computer is 08:00:00 a.m. in (GMT -08:00) Pacific time (US and Canada) and the time zone on the time slider is set to (GMT -05:00) Eastern time (US and Canada). Clicking Live Mode on the time slider in this case sets the map time to 11:00:00 a.m., which is the current time in (GMT -05:00) Eastern time (US and Canada).

  Learn more about setting the time zone on the time slider