1.
Introduction 1.1
About City Online 1.2
System requirements 1.3
Navigating the web site
1.4
Printing from City Online 2.
Purchasing Products 2.1
Product categories 2.2
Adding products to shopping cart 2.3
Adding products to favourites list 2.4
Making a payment 2.4.1
Purchases using credit card 2.4.2 Creating a Payment Profile 2.5
Shipping/Handling 2.5.1
Pick up items 2.6
Refund policy 3.
Searching City Online 3.1 Performing a text search 3.2 Performing an advanced search 3.3 Performing a map search 3.4 Understanding search results
Learn more about
Individual Account Management,
Company Account Management, the
City Online Map Viewer
Welcome to City Online. We've compiled a comprehensive help section for your reference and to assist with navigation through the website. If we've missed any answers to your questions, please let us know.
This section explains the following topics:
- About City Online Updated
- System requirements
- Navigating the website
- Printing pages
City Online is a corporate initiative administered by the Infrastructure & Information Services business unit, the Access Solutions Division of The City of Calgary. Our participating business units and affiliates are committed to provide products and services in response to your requests, with enhanced customer service and in support of a corporate initiative for web-based delivery.
We recommend the following configuration for your computer.
- Screen/Monitor resolution - 1024 x 768 pixels
- Browser - Internet Explorer 9.0 or higher / Google Chrome 32 or higher
- Other software - SilverLight 3.0, Adobe Reader 9.2.0
- City Online also follows The City of Calgary security standards.
Learn more
Please refer to our
Site map for links to all the key sections of City Online.
You will find the 'Products' menu, 'Map Search' tool and advertisements on the left side of the City Online website. From here you can access product information.
All products that are available for sale or download are listed under the
Products menu. Products are grouped under the following categories:
- Documents
- Environmental Products
- Imagery
- Maps
- Property Information
- Services
- Tabular Data
Each product category that is listed under the
Products menu may have up to two levels of sub-categories. For example,
Maps is a product category which has
Digital Maps,
Geospatial Data - By Section (License)Geospatial Data - City Wide (License) and
Paper Maps as sub-categories.
To view products that belong to a specific category, click or mouse-over the desired category from the
Products menu. In case the selected category has sub-categories within it, then select the sub-category to which the product belongs to. Based on your selection, the product will get displayed in the
Product Listing page. For example, if you want to buy a book named “Watermarks - One Hundred Years of Calgary Waterworks” you will need to adhere to the following selection sequence.
Maps >
Geospatial Data - By Section (License) > and then
Digital Aerial Survey (DAS) >“Digital Aerial Survey (DAS) by Section - AutoCAD (City Standard)”
Sign into City Online to complete a purchase. To A City Online account is required to purchase any product from City Online. Learn more about signing in or signing up for a City Online
Individual or
Company account.
Along the top of the screen is a stationary navigation bar that has the following links:
-
Contact Us takes users to the online form which routes information requests, comments or suggestions to the 3-1-1 operations centre.
-
Help provides instruction on how to navigate the website and includes a list of Frequently Asked Questions.
-
Search allows you to search for products and services offered by City Online. Type a keyword or product name into the
Search text box and click the
Search button.
-
Advanced link below the
Search text field takes you to the
Advanced Search page. Here you can search for items in on City Online using metadata properties.
-
My Shopping Cart displays what items you have placed in your cart, and provides you with a total dollar amount. Here you can remove products from your cart, add items to your favourite lists, and proceed with payment options.
-
My Account displays the details of the access privileges and shopping experience of a City Online account holder. Only registered City Online users that are signed in can view the
My Account dashboard.
-
My Lists displays what items a City Online user has listed as a favourite item. Only registered City Online users that are signed in can view the
My Lists feature.
Right underneath the top navigation is the "breadcrumb trail". It will track your location in the web site so you navigate back to higher level pages. You can click on any of the words within the breadcrumb trail to go back to any of the pages in this path.
Note: Each word in the “breadcrumb trial” is a link which will take you to the corresponding page.
We know that there is content on this site you will want to print and keep, so we have made sure it is easy for you to do just that.
There are two easy ways to print information from City Online:
- Use your browser's print button; or
- Select the printer
icon on any of the printer-friendly content pages located in the upper right corner of the screen.
This section explains the following topics:
- Product Categories
- Adding products to your shopping cart
- Adding products to your favourites list
- Making a Payment
- Purchases using credit card
- Shipping/Handling
- Refund policy
City Online provides various products and services available from The City of Calgary's various business units and affiliated agencies. Each category contains a small picture of the product or service, together with a short description of that product or service. You can click any one of these to read the complete product description.
City Online products are broadly classified into two categories:
- Downloadable/Soft products
- Services/Form products
Note: There may be multiple variants of the same product. Product variants may be different from the base product in name and pricing. For example, if you select
Products menu> > City Facilities, you will find two variants of the product
Geospatial Data - By Section (License) >
Digital Aerial Survey (DAS)
- Digital Aerial Survey (DAS) by Section - AutoCAD (City Standard)
- Digital Aerial Survey (DAS) by Section - Microstation
Soft products are those that can be directly downloaded from the City Online portal, after purchase. There may be a retention period for downloading the product up to a certain number of days. The product can be downloaded any number of times within this retention period, without paying any additional cost.
Some examples of ‘Soft’ products are:
There a some soft products that belong to a special category that ask you for additional inputs. City Online retrieves the product details from external sources, based on the values you specify for chosen fields like, Parcel Address, Legal Description, Roll Number, LINC number, etc. You will be prompted to insert these values when you try to add such products to your shopping cart. You can include address using the
Insert Address button. The number of property information report generated will be equal to the number of address you include. Also, you can include multiple product information at a time using the check box available against the product name. Some examples include:
- Neighbourhood View
- Basic Site Information (with Map View)
A service or form product is an appeal that you make to The City of Calgary, requesting for a particular service. After adding a service/form product to your shopping cart, you will be prompted to enter information on an appeal form. A service-related product generally attracts a service fee. There may also be a physical component (such as a permit) to such products that will be mailed to you at a later date.
Some examples of ‘Services/Form’ products would be Cat Licenses, Development Appeal to the SDAB, Recreation – Program Registration, etc.
Additional information about the City Online products:
- Some products come free of charge ($0 products) and can be downloaded directly from the web site without the need to sign in to the portal. However, in case of hard products, there may be an associated shipping/handling cost.
- Some products are downloaded regularly from City Online. These are ‘Evergreen’ soft products. City Online has no download retention period for such products, which means you will need to pay only once irrespective of the number of times you download that product.
- Products can either be licensed or non-licensed. Licensed products carry a subscription charge.
Licensed products include the electronic data sets, maps, etc., that are tagged with an explicit license agreement. The online License Agreement process is easy to use and, in most cases, you can download the data immediately. No copy of the License Agreement will be sent to you. Please use the browser ‘Print’ function to print the License Agreement for your records.
Non-licensed products on the other hand have no License Agreement associated with them. Products belonging to this group can be downloaded directly from the web site without the need to sign in to the portal.
Note: Licensed and non-licensed products can be purchased on the same order.
Thumbnail images of products, together with a brief description appear in each category. To see more information, including Shipping/Handling charges, click either the "Read more..." link, the small picture in the category you are interested in, or the product's name. This will bring you to the product details page, which contains important information too large to fit in the thumbnail category page. Contact information (e- mail, phone and web site) for individual business units appears on the bottom left hand corner of each product page.
You can buy products from the City Online portal based on their availability. Products generally fall under the following ‘Availability’ statuses.
-
Available
Unless stated otherwise, products listed as "Available" are shipped to you. If you wish to purchase a product or service on City Online that is not listed as available for pickup, please contact the respective business unit as they may have a physical sales/pick-up location.
-
Temporarily Unavailable
Products may be "Temporarily Unavailable" if they are sold out, unable to ship or if City Online is experiencing technical issues. In some cases, City Online is not the sole method of sale and the product may still be purchased either in person or through another method. Contact the respective business unit on the product page for further information. Contact information (e-mail, phone and web site) for individual business units appears on the bottom of each product's page.
-
Available for Download
Many digital products are available for immediate download. Some physical products may also have a downloadable component, such as a manual or map.
- Select the product from the Products menu or from the results obtained from a search.
- Click
Read More to view the Products Details page which contains information like the product’s price, shipping/handling costs, tax exemption details, product description, quantity, availability, etc.
Note: The product variant if any will appear in the drop-down list. Pricing details may vary based on your selection of product variant.
- Click
Add to Cart (below each available item). The items and price will be updated in
My Shopping Cart below the top banner. If the product or service (example, EAI products) requires certain specific information, you will be prompted to insert values in a form. At this point, you may still cancel or modify your order.
Note: Perform steps 1 to 3 to add more products to your shopping cart.
- Click
My Shopping Cart (below top banner) to view all items in your shopping cart and make the desired changes if any.
- Click
Remove to remove items, then click
Update Cart. The item will be deleted from your cart and the new cart will be displayed.
- Enter the desired number in the
Quantity box then click
Update Cart to change quantities. The new quantity and sub-total will be updated on the page.
Note: The
Quantity box will be disabled for 'soft' products.
- On the
My Shopping Cart page, click
Continue Shopping to add more items. You will be returned to the City Online home page. At this point, you may still cancel or modify your order by clicking
My Shopping Cart (below the top banner).
You can save items that you purchase frequently in your favourites list. This makes it easy for retrieval and re-purchase of the items at a later date.
- Select the product from the
Products menu or from the results obtained from a search (normal/advanced).
Note: You can add products to your list either from the
Product Listing page or the Product Search Results page.
- Click
Read More to view the
Products Details page which contains information like the product’s price, shipping/handling costs, tax exemption details, product description, quantity, availability, etc.
Note: The product variant if any will appear in the drop-down. Pricing details may vary based on your selection of product variant.
- Click
Add to list (below each available item) to add the item to the default list. (or)
If you want save the item in a different list, click on the drop-down (v) icon at the right corner of the
Add to list button. From the dialogue that opens perform one of the following,
- Select your favourites list from the
Add to the following List box after selecting that option. Click
Save to add the item to the list or click
Cancel to go back to the previous step.
- To create a new list, select
List Name option and insert a unique list name in the box. Enable
Save as default List to make the newly created list as the default one. Click
Save to add the item to the list or click
Cancel to go back to the previous step.
- To view the items in your favourites list, click
My List on the top banner of the portal.
Note: Perform steps 1 to 3 to add more products to your favourites list.
Once items are added to your shopping cart, you can proceed making a payment for them.
- Click
Proceed to Checkout once the items and quantities you would like to purchase are in your cart. You will be taken to the
Check Out page.
- At this point, you may still cancel or modify your order by clicking
Return to Cart.
Note: If you are a ‘Company’ user, you can purchase products that will be invoiced in your company’s name. If you are an ‘Individual’ user, you will need to pay using your credit card.
- On the
Check Out page, select the
Payment Type as either ‘Credit Card’ or 'Interac'. City Online accepts Visa, MasterCard and American Express.
- Click Next. The
Billing Information page is displayed.
- On the
Billing Information page, enter the values in the required fields.
- Click Next. If you have selected any licensed product, you will be prompted to enter into an online licensing agreement. You will then be asked to read and agree to the License Agreement by clicking "I Agree".
Only
License Products will appear on the License Agreement. All non-licensed products ordered simultaneously will be displayed on the
Order Review page following the License Agreement.
- Click
Submit Order to continue.
Note:
- At any point before proceeding to Order Confirmation, you can modify or cancel your order by clicking
Return to Cart.
- If you had selected a
Service/Form product, the associated service charges will appear as a separate item in the
Order Review page. In that case, you will need to add the charges as a separate product to your shopping cart, and then
Update Cart before continuing with Proceed to Checkout.
- You will be connected to a secure server and prompted for your credit card information.
- The
Billing Address information get automatically populated based on the values you inserted before.
- Select ‘Shipping Address same as Billing Address’ if your Shipping Address and Billing Address are same. If not, insert values into the
Shipping Address fields.
- In the
Payment Information section, enter details such as the Name on card,
Credit Card Type,
Credit Card Number,
Expiry Date (month and year).
- If you have any comments/additional information, you can mention the same in the
Comments box.
- Once you submit your credit card information by clicking
Checkout, your transaction will be complete.
- An
Order Confirmation screen will appear, summarizing your order details, transaction success/failure information, order date, order number for a successful transaction. You can print the ‘Order Confirmation’ by clicking the printer icon.
Learn more about
What happens once your transaction is processed?
- Once the transaction is complete, a receipt is displayed and a copy of the receipt with the order details is sent to your e-mail address.
- Click
Continue displayed at the bottom of the screen to proceed.
- If you have purchased downloadable products, clicking
Download will take you to another screen where you can download your products. Check off
Include Explanatory Notes to include all related notes to your download (if applicable). If you purchase multiple downloadable products, click
Download All. You will be prompted to save a Zip file to your desktop. To unzip your files, use your User ID as the password.
- All customers who order downloadable products will also be able to download their purchased items under 'Order History' on the 'My Account' page.
If your order contains physical products to be shipped, the purchase information will be forwarded to the appropriate City of Calgary business unit or affiliate for fulfillment.
Taxes
Federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) will apply to most products purchased from City Online. Certain items may be tax exempted, in which case this will be indicated by the words "Tax Exempt: "Yes" on the
Details page for the respective product.
- In ‘My Account’ click on ‘My Payment Profile’.
- The ‘User Prolife – Online Payment’ page is displayed.
- Enter your credit card information into the required fields.
- Click Submit.
- You will then be re-directed back to the ‘My Account’ page.
- Repeat the above steps to add a new card, if desired.
Note:You may also set up your ‘Payment Profile’ during the checkout process, by selecting ‘Payment Profile’ as the payment method of choice and then entering your information into the required fields.
Orders will be shipped from City Online via Canada Post. Shipping charges are stated on the product
Details page and are subject to change. The total Shipping/Handling costs for your order are summarized on the
Order Review page prior to entering your credit card information. Shipping and Handling charges are subject to GST.
City Online will only ship to Canadian addresses. We will not ship to P.O. Boxes. Some products are subsidized for Calgarians, and as such may not be available for shipping outside of Calgary. This will be indicated on the product's detail page. Such orders will be cancelled and the transaction voided. International delivery is not offered. If you wish to place an order from outside Canada, please contact the specific business unit for their policies regarding International shipments, NAFTA certificates, etc. Unless otherwise stated on the product's
Details page, we generally ship within three to seven business days. Most orders are shipped much faster though- usually the next business day. Whenever possible, orders consisting of multiple items are shipped together. Occasionally we may need to ship items in several packages, in which case the packing slip will reflect this.
In some cases, products are available at no charge as a public service. However, shipping charges may still apply. See the product's
Details page for this information.
Note: Shipping may take from 5-7 business days. Allow extra time around holidays.
Occasionally, due to size or other reasons, a pick-up option may be designated for a product at a specific location stated on the product's
Details page. Information about the pick-up locations can also be found here. Pick-up hours will be stated, but if in doubt, contact the respective business unit to confirm hours of operation.
Customers ordering items for pick-up are required to bring a copy of the e-mail receipt along with the photo identification, to the pickup location to claim the purchase. NO EXCEPTIONS.
The products must be picked up within two business days of order placement. If the order also contains 'Available' items then we expect to send these out within three to seven business days. There is no provision to pick up shippable items at the same time as customer pick-up items. Customers will be billed for the full amount of their order once shippable items have been sent.
The City of Calgary does not provide refunds or returns for products ordered and downloaded or delivered through City Online, unless you have a Company account, and your request falls within the terms of
2.6. If a publication or product is delivered to you in error, please use the
Contact Us page immediately upon receipt to arrange for the appropriate replacement products or files.
Do you have any inquiries related to our products or services?
Please direct product specific questions to each City of Calgary Business Unit responsible for that product. You will find contact information listed within the individual product descriptions. If you have any questions or comments about using City Online that are not answered here, please visit our
Contact Us page.
Go to Top
Did your company receive a duplicate charge on your invoice? If so, City Online customers may be entitled to a credit in situations where a duplicate query is made, or an error occurs during the processing of a query. Please use City Online’s self-serve transaction and invoice adjustment feature to submit your request.
- On the City Online home page, click
My Accounts and click
View Order History. The
View Order History page gets displayed.
- Enter the
Order Date Range and click
Apply Filters to view orders within a specific duration.
Note: If you are a ‘Company Account Manager’, you can view orders made by a specific user by selecting the
User Name from the list.
- Click
Request Adjustment corresponding to the
Order Number for which you want an adjustment to be made.
- Enter the required information(Product, Adjustment Reason,
Comments) and click
Submit to request for the details.
- An information page will be displayed, which you can print for your records.
Note: For audit purposes, all requests for adjustments must be submitted online.
Learn more about
order history and adjustments.
This section explains the following topics:
- Searching City Online
- Performing a text search
- Performing an advanced search
- Performing a map search
- Understanding search results
City Online contains an effective search tool that allows you to do a search operation from all pages of the City Online portal. There are two search options you can make use of:
- Text Search
- Search by keyword
- Advanced search
- Map Search Tool
If your search criteria is a simple or rather direct keyword, you could use the simple keyword Text search. In case you have more than one phrase to look for in a single search, or if you want to narrow your search to a specific category, you will find the
Advanced search options handy.
Map Search Tool
Our dynamic GIS map interface can be used for both reference and to purchase items through the City Online storefront.
When opening the GIS map, you will be redirected to City Online with the map opening as a pop-up window. Please disable pop-up blockers to allow this to happen.
Search visually using map features and the zoom/pan functions or use the
Search Icon to enter specific criteria. Search directly by parcel address, community, ATS section number, or Electronic Block Profile.
The default map parameters are a scale of 1:294518, with only select layers enabled:
Standard Dynamic Layers> Registered Ownership Parcel AND
Calgary Basemap> all layers At this view, the City of Calgary is displayed with minimal detail, making it the ideal starting point to form a search. Add map features by selecting the Layer elements from the
Layer Legend.
Use the arrow tool to select
enabled map features. Add any item to the cart by selecting products from the
Reports tab (text products) or the
Download tab (spatial data).
As an example: to view the ATS section layer overlayed on the City of Calgary basemap
- Select the . Standard Dynamic Layers are enabled at various map scales. Use the zoom tool to activate the respective layer(s).
Select the
Layer Legend>Section. Standard Dynamic Layers are enabled at various map scales. Use the zoom tool to activate the respective layer(s).
- Use the
Select tool to highlight one or more of the section.
- To purchase section information, select
Download> by Section OR
Standard Spatial Standard Spatial Standard Spatial Data by Polygon.
These steps can be applied to any of the Standard Dynamic Layers to purchase these products:
- Digital Aerial Survey by Section
- Digital Elevation Model by Section
- Orthophotos by Section
- Ownership Parcel Fabric
- Sanitary Utilities by Section
- Storm Utilities by Section
- Water Utilities by Section
- Electronic Block Profile
- Community Maps Transnet
To select property information, search by address and then select the Report Icon and choose from the reports list.
Learn more about the Map Search Tool by visiting the City Online Help for Map Viewer. Learn more about
purchasing by ATS section or by
custom area or by
block profile.
ATS Section Numbering
Mapped data is licensed by section. The section reference number is a way of breaking down Calgary into managable pieces. The following is information to help you understand and search by section. The section reference divides Calgary into 286 map sections. As Calgary annexes additional land, new sections are added. The section reference number is broken down in the following example. A typical section reference number: 0924015. This number is broken down into these components.
- Section: (09)
- Township: (24)
- Range: (01)
- Meridian: (either West of the 5th - line between 29/1 OR West of the 4th - right hand side of 29/1)
For help finding a section, Land Use Maps are available on the Development & Building Approvals Web site. Click on the larger map to see the PDF map for a particular section. On the PDF map is printed the section reference number. With the section reference number, visit City Online and enter the number into the search engine. All maps available for that section will appear in the search results.
Learn more about
purchasing by ATS section.
- In the
Search list box, select the product category (e.g. Documents).
- In the
For text box, type a part or whole of the keyword that you want to search (e.g. Calgary 100).
- Hit Enter on your keyboard, or click
Go to initiate the search. City Online will search for content relevant to your search and display the results in the
Search Results page.
To sort the results in a particular order, select a sort-type from the Sort By list box. This will re-arrange and display the search results for you. For more information on sorting search results, see
Search Results.
Generally, you will find exactly what you are looking for with just a basic query (the word or phrase you search for). However, the following tips can help you make the most of your searches.
Text Search Rules
When you search for text, you generally can type the text you are looking for (the search string). However, there are a few things you should be aware of:
- Search strings are not case-sensitive; that is, uppercase
A is the same as lowercase
a.
- Type a list of terms separated by spaces to find documents containing all of your terms. This is the same as using AND.
- Type a list of terms separated by commas to find documents containing one or more of these terms. This is the same as using OR.
- You can use the common Internet search operators plus (+) and minus (-). Put a plus in front of any term that must be included in the results and a minus in front of any term that must be excluded from results. Do not include a space after the plus or minus.
Note: Do not use these Internet search operators in the same search with the operators described in the table. In addition, the following table describes a number of operators you can use to modify your search strings:
Operator/Description |
Example Search Text
|
Example Search Results
|
Wildcards are symbols that represent any character, allowing you to search for partial terms. The asterisk (*) represents any number of characters. Note: You must include at least three characters if you are doing a substring search (wildcards on each end of the string).
|
sub*
|
subdirectory, subject, subjective
|
AND finds objects containing all of the specified terms.
|
holiday AND schedule
|
Holiday Schedule
|
OR finds objects containing at least one of the specified terms. Note: This is the same as entering a list of terms, separated by commas (,) or vertical bars (|).
|
holiday OR vacation
|
Holiday Schedule, Christmas Holiday Party, Scheduling Vacation
|
NOT excludes objects containing the specified term.
|
holiday NOT vacation
|
Holiday Schedule, Christmas Holiday Party
|
NEAR finds terms within a specified proximity of each other. For example, <NEAR/10> finds objects within 10 words of each other.
|
early <NEAR/10> retirement
|
Plan early for your retirement
|
The
Advanced Search page lets you search for items in your portal using metadata properties and location to define your search. It includes the following sections: To define your search:
- Click the
Advanced link below the City Online banner.
- Select the product category from the
Search In list. For example,
Books.
Note: In case you are not aware of the product category, you can select ‘All Categories’ section which is the default input. Also if you are aware that the product you are searching is a ‘Document’ but not sure the exact sub-category i.e. whether it is a book or manual, then select the primary category ‘Document’ for your input.
- Choose the
Sort By criteria from the list.
- Enter the search item in the
Search Term text box.
- Select the field name from the
Field(s) list box.
- In the
Condition drop-down list, select the operator to apply to this condition. This list will vary depending on the property selected:
- For any text property you can search for a value that contains your search string, or you can search for properties that are blank (Does not contain).
- For any date property you can search for a value that comes after, comes before, is, or is not the date and time you choose.
- For any number property you can search for a value that is greater than, is less than, is, is not, is greater than or equal to, or is less than or equal to the number you enter in the text box.
- Repeat steps 4 to 6 if you want to add multiple search conditions.
- When you are done with defining your search, select
Search.
Note: If you want to set all search conditions back to the defaults, select
Reset.
Mapped data is licensed by section. The section reference number is a way of breaking down Calgary into manageable pieces. The following information will help you to understand and search by section.
The section reference divides Calgary into 286 map sections. As Calgary annexes additional land, new sections are added. The section reference number is broken down in the following example.
A typical section reference number: 0924015
This number is broken down into these components:
Section: (09) Township: (24) Range: (01) Meridian: (either West of the 5th - line between 29/1 OR West of the 4th - right hand side of 29/1)
To do a map search,
- On the City Online home page, click on the 'Map Search' banner.
- From the map interface choose the product viz., City Online Reports, Map and Data. City Online displays the list of products applicable to the selected area on the map.
Note: Map interface will only have the downloadable products for product selection.
The search results page displays the results of your search. Depending on how many results are returned and the ‘results per page’ value you have chosen, the search result may be split across multiple pages.
If your search returns more than 10 results, you see the 5 highest-ranking results in the first page. Click
Next to view additional results. If you wish to see more results on a single page, select an appropriate value from the
Results per page list.
Each search result contains a short description of the product, the product’s variant list, and a product icon. You also have options to add items to your shopping cart or favourites list from the
Search Results page, for every search result item.
Sorting Search Results
By default search results are listed in order of relevance; that is, results that most closely match your search query are listed first. To change the sort order of your results, select an option in the
Sort by drop-down list:
- Price: High to Low
- Price: Low to High
- Alphabetical: A to Z
- Alphabetical: Z to A
|