WEXWatch user guide

WEXWatch is a field-issue portal for the Huntly revocation and SH1B Waikato Expressway (WEX) programme. Staff on site photograph a defect or observation, upload the photo, and WEXWatch turns it into a mapped issue that everyone involved in the programme can see, discuss and track through to resolution.

The photograph is the anchor. Because field photos carry GPS coordinates in their metadata, WEXWatch can place each observation on the map exactly where it was taken, without anyone typing in a location.

Who uses WEXWatch

The programme involves several organisations working on the same corridor, so one deployment is shared by all of them:

• Councils and client representatives, who need visibility of what has been found and what has been done about it.
• Consultants, who inspect, assess and advise.
• Contractors, who carry out the physical work and record what they did.

Everyone works inside the same map and the same issue list. What you are allowed to do depends on the role an administrator gives you — see Roles and permissions.

Core concepts

Organisation. The company or agency you belong to. Your organisation is also classified by type: Council, Consultant, Contractor or Other.

Project. A body of work with its own map and its own issues, for example the Huntly WEX corridor. You reach a project through your organisation, and data is never shared between organisations that are not part of it.

Issue (also called a location or a pin). One observation in the field. An issue holds a name, the nearest street address, an issue type, a status, a description, the date it was recorded on site, its coordinates, and at least one photo. Each issue appears as a pin on the map.

Photo. The geotagged image that created the issue. WEXWatch keeps the original file untouched and generates smaller copies for display.

Conversation. The running record of what has happened to an issue: the original upload, the messages people have posted, and other recorded activity. Replies sit under the message they answer, so two matters on one issue stay apart, and entries are added rather than edited over the top of each other, so the history stays readable.

Owner. The person responsible for resolving an issue now, as distinct from whoever logged it. Ownership moves only when someone accepts an offer of it.

Audit trail. A separate, append-only log kept by the system recording who created, changed or uploaded what, and when. It is not the same as the conversation: the conversation is for the team, the audit trail is for accountability.

A typical day

1. Walk the site and photograph anything worth recording, with location services switched on so each photo carries GPS coordinates.
2. Open WEXWatch, start a new issue and drop the photos in.
3. For each photo, check the name, confirm the nearest address, set the issue type and the date it was recorded on site, and add any notes.
4. Save. The pin appears on the map, coloured by its status, and the issue joins the All issues list.
5. Back in the office, others open the issue, post in its conversation, take ownership of what they are dealing with, and move the status forward as work is surveyed, repaired and inspected.

Where to go next

If you are new, read Getting started and then Creating an issue — between them they cover almost everything you need for day-to-day use.

This guide can be read without signing in, so you can send a link to anyone who needs to understand how the portal works.