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

We recommend the following configuration for your computer.

1. Screen/Monitor resolution - 1024 x 768 pixels
2. Browser - Internet Explorer 9.0 or higher / Google Chrome 32 or higher
3. Other software - SilverLight 3.0, Adobe Reader 9.2.0
4. 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
• Passes and Tickets
• Property Information
• Services
• Tabular Data
• Teachers Only
• Open Data

Each product category that is listed under the Products menu may have up to two levels of sub-categories. For example, Documents is a product category which has Books, Manuals and Reports & By-Laws 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.

Documents > Books > “Watermarks - One Hundred Years of Calgary Waterworks”

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.

 1.4 Printing Pages

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:

1. Use your browser's print button; or
2. 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 three categories:

• Downloadable/Soft products
• Physical/Hard 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> Open Data > City Facilities, you will find two variants of the product Hard Surface Areas.

• Hard Surface Areas - AutoCAD Drawing (DWG) - $0.00
• Hard Surface Areas - OpenGIS (KMZ) - $0.00

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:

• Electronic Block Profile - AutoCAD
• Open Data Catalogue (free of charge)

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) 

Physical/Hard products are those that will be shipped to your mailing address, after you make the purchase.
Some examples of ‘Hard’ products are:

• Calgary Transit Monthly Pass
• Composter

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.

1. Select the product from the Products menu or from the results obtained from a search.
2. 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.


3. 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.


4. Click My Shopping Cart (below top banner) to view all items in your shopping cart and make the desired changes if any.
5. Click Remove to remove items, then click Update Cart. The item will be deleted from your cart and the new cart will be displayed.
6. 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.


7. 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.

1. 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.


2. 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.


3. 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.
4. 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.

1. 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.
2. 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.

1. On the Check Out page, select the Payment Type as either ‘Credit Card’ or 'Interac'. City Online accepts Visa, MasterCard and American Express.
2. Click Next. The Billing Information page is displayed.
3. On the Billing Information page, enter the values in the required fields.
4. 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.
5. Click Submit Order to continue.
   

Note:

1. At any point before proceeding to Order Confirmation, you can modify or cancel your order by clicking Return to Cart.
2. 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.


3. You will be connected to a secure server and prompted for your credit card information.
4. The Billing Address information get automatically populated based on the values you inserted before.
5. 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.
6. In the Payment Information section, enter details such as the Name on card, Credit Card Type, Credit Card Number, Expiry Date (month and year).
7. If you have any comments/additional information, you can mention the same in the Comments box.
8. Once you submit your credit card information by clicking Checkout, your transaction will be complete.
9. 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

1. 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.
2. Click Continue displayed at the bottom of the screen to proceed.
3. 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.
4. 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.

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. 

2.4.2 Creating a Payment Profile

1. In ‘My Account’ click on ‘My Payment Profile’.
2. The ‘User Prolife – Online Payment’ page is displayed.
3. Enter your credit card information into the required fields.
4. Click Submit.
5. You will then be re-directed back to the ‘My Account’ page.
6. 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.

2.5 Shipping/Handling

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.

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.

1. On the City Online home page, click My Accounts and click View Order History. The View Order History page gets displayed.
2. 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.

 

1. Click Request Adjustment corresponding to the Order Number for which you want an adjustment to be made.
2. Enter the required information(Product, Adjustment Reason, Comments) and click Submit to request for the details.
3. 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.

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:

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,

1. On the City Online home page, click on the 'Map Search' banner.
2. 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.

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