Getting Physical With PRTG - Part 2

Written by George Liu | Feb 8, 2019

Hate being stuck in traffic? Ever thought about how network monitoring software can be used to ease that congestion? In this article, I will show you how to implement live traffic cameras into PRTG. So again, let’s get physical with PRTG.

First things first, let’s find the links which will allow us to add in the individual cameras.
(This particular example refers to traffic cameras located in Sydney Australia. Please find out if these facilities are available in your region.)

1 - Register for a NSW Open Data account:
https://opendata.transport.nsw.gov.au/

2 - Under ‘My Account’ select ‘Applications’
https://opendata.transport.nsw.gov.au/applications

3 - Create a new application and select ‘Live Traffic Cameras API’

4 - Once the new application is created, search for ‘Live Traffic cameras’
https://opendata.transport.nsw.gov.au/dataset/live-traffic-cameras

5 - Test newly created application against API to obtain image URL of cameras.
For example:

{
      "type": "Feature",
      "id": "d2e11",
      "geometry": {
        "type": "Point",
        "coordinates": [
          151.13159,
          -33.78199
        ]
      },
      "properties": {
        "region": "SYD_NORTH",
        "title": "M2 (Ryde)",
        "view": "M2 at the Lane Cove Road exit looking west towards Epping.",
        "direction": "W",
        "href": "http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/trafficreports/cameras/camera_images/m2_ryde.jpg"
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "Feature",
      "id": "d2e5262",
      "geometry": {
        "type": "Point",
        "coordinates": [
          150.84489,
          -33.79519
        ]
      }

Once you have obtained camera_image URLs for all desired locations, it will be time to open PRTG and create the map to view these images.

There are great tutorials offered by my colleagues at Paessler to create basic maps, but the following instructions will be tailored to adding traffic cameras into PRTG maps.

Step 1: Add Map Hover over (+) and select Add Map from the menu to add a map. An assistant appears. Enter a Map Name and define Map Layout settings (size and optionally a background image). In the Public Access section, define the accessibility to your map without login.
Step 2: Add Map Items Click the Create button to open the Map Designer. Select (Custom HTML element) from the Properties on the RIGHT. Drag&drop the selected item to the main window of the Map Designer. The item will immediately appear on the map. Define further properties of the item: mark it in the main window of the Map Designer and see section Properties on the right. Save your changes to the properties.
Step 3: Identify item properties Click on the newly created item in the main window of the map designer. This will open the Properties for the item allowing you to input HTML syntax. HTML Before is for adding title information which will appear on top of the item. HTML After is for information which will propagate inside the main square of the item.
Step 4: Add HTML syntax to pull live camera information
Step 5: Sample live camera Repeat steps 2 to 4 and arrange items accordingly.

So that's it with Getting Physical With PRTG, Part 2. Have fun trying it out. If you have any questions, criticism or wishes, please feel free to send us your comments. And if you are interested in part 1 of this series, you can read it here.

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