Symbol Dictionary

The military symbols which are displayed using the MessageProcessor are stored in a SymbolDictionary class. The SymbolDictionary class is created with the MessageProcessor and the MessageProcessor exposes the SymbolDictionary through the API. Each military symbol in the dictionary has metadata stored with it which can be used to perform searches to find the correct symbol in a situation awareness update application for example.

Military symbols in the SymbolDictionary can be searched using either Keywords or Filters. Typically the results from the Keywords and Filters searches will be used to populate GUI components which allow a user to search for symbols so they can make their own spot report.

Keyword Search

Every symbol has a number of associated keywords such as "Trainer", "Volcanic Eruption", "Vip" etc. All possible keywords used in the symbol dictionary can be obtained from the SymbolDictionary.

Filter Search

Every symbol has 3 attributes which are "Geometry Type", "Category" and "StyleFile". You can construct a filter using any of these attributes and their value combinations to locate a military symbol in the SymbolDictionary.

The result of a SymbolDictionary search can be displayed in a GUI for a user to select a chosen symbol. The chosen symbol identifier (SIC) can then be used to construct a new message using the MessageHelper class to aid the construction of a Message which in turn can be processed by the MessageProcessor to display the symbol on the map..

2/7/2013