2d2arcims Lessons Learned Morgan

DEVELOPING INTERNET MAPPING APPLICATIONS USING ArcIMS: LESSONS LEARNED Matthew S. Felton and John M. Morgan, III, Ph.D. Towson University Center for Geographic Information Sciences

© 2005 Matthew S. Felton and John M. Morgan, III All Rights Reserved

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WHO AND WHAT WE ARE ●

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CGIS is a self-support organization with the University’s Division of Economic and Community Outreach Founded in 1992 Current staffing … not a student “sweatshop” ● 35 full-time, contractual employees ● 6 part-time employees including 2 graduate assistants and 1 undergraduate student worker Awarded contracts for work during FY 04-05 with government agencies and businesses in excess of $3.0 million Operates as a GIS business within the University environment

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BACKGROUND ● ●

Began working with Web mapping tools during Spring 2000 Multiple new technologies to learn … ●

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Initially struggled to get beyond basic “out-of-the-box” functionality of ArcIMS Hired a Web programmer (Spring 2001) ●

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Web servers, servlet connectors, JRE, MapServices, Author / Designer / Administrator / Manager

“It’s easier to teach a Web geek GIS than to teach a GIS geek Web programming.” Began developing applications using Active Server Pages (.asp)

Advanced training at ESRI Headquarters (Redlands, California) ●

As a result of partnership with National Aquarium In Baltimore

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THE CHALLENGE … MANY TYPES OF DATA ●

Raster ● ●

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Vector ● ● ●

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Satellite imagery Landscape characterization data Reference layers GPS ground truth data Water quantity/quality data

Other ● ●

Real-time data Metadata

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THE CHALLENGE … MANY TYPES OF USERS ●

Government ● ● ● ● ● ●

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Education ●

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K-12 Schools

Non-profit groups ● ●

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NASA US Environmental Protection Agency Maryland Department of Natural Resources Maryland Department of Planning Maryland Department of the Environment Montgomery County Department of Park and Planning

Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay Jones Falls Watershed Association

Private ●

GIS Integrated Solutions / ADC The Map People

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THE CHALLENGE … MANY TYPES OF USERS (CONTINUED) ●

General public ● ●

National Aquarium in Baltimore patrons National Asthma Atlas

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A TYPOLOGY OF INTERNET MAPPING APPLICATIONS Type Purpose

Typical Functionality

Advanced

Basic

Present the user with many tools and data layers

Serve as an “online data browser”

Serve as “online GIS software”

Allow users to perform very basic functions)

Provide a flexible, multiplefunction experience

Tightly control access to database

Browse data (pan/zoom)

Browse data (pan/zoom)

Find, query

Manipulate layer visibility

Manipulate layer visibility

Geocode

Select features

Print

Custom Integrate geographic information into existing business functions Transparency of Web mapping technology

Browse data (pan/zoom)

Geocode Print

Learning Curve

High

Medium

Low (none)

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ADVANCED VIEWER … ONLINE GIS

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ADVANCED VIEWER … ONLINE GIS

http://chesapeake.towson.edu/mapping/advancedims.asp

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A TYPOLOGY OF INTERNET MAPPING APPLICATIONS Type Purpose

Typical Functionality

Advanced

Basic

Present the user with many tools and data layers

Serve as an “online data browser”

Serve as “online GIS software”

Allow users to perform very basic functions)

Provide a flexible, multiplefunction experience

Tightly control access to database

Browse data (pan/zoom)

Browse data (pan/zoom)

Find, query

Manipulate layer visibility

Manipulate layer visibility

Geocode

Select features

Print

Custom Integrate geographic information into existing business functions Transparency of Web mapping technology

Browse data (pan/zoom)

Geocode Print

Learning Curve

High

Medium

Low (none)

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BASIC VIEWER … SIMPLE GEOSPATIAL DATA VIEWER

http://chesapeake.towson.edu/mapping/watershedmapper.asp

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A TYPOLOGY OF INTERNET MAPPING APPLICATIONS Type Purpose

Typical Functionality

Advanced

Basic

Present the user with many tools and data layers

Serve as an “online data browser”

Serve as “online GIS software”

Allow users to perform very basic functions)

Provide a flexible, multiplefunction experience

Tightly control access to database

Browse data (pan/zoom)

Browse data (pan/zoom)

Find, query

Manipulate layer visibility

Manipulate layer visibility

Geocode

Select features

Print

Custom Integrate geographic information into existing business functions Transparency of Web mapping technology

Browse data (pan/zoom)

Geocode Print

Learning Curve

High

Medium

Low (none)

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CUSTOM VIEWER … STEALTH GIS

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CUSTOM VIEWER … STEALTH GIS

http://aqua.org/chesapeakebay.html

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“LITE” INTERNET MAPPING APPLICATIONS ● ● ● ●

Not an ArcIMS application Wizard-based ArcView extension Converts ArcView maps (.mxd files) to HTML “image maps” Examples ●

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GeoNorth CartaVision http://www.geonorth.com/ alta4 geoinformatk ag http://www.alta4.com/

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STAFFING NEEDS IN A PERFECT WORLD ●

GIS specialists ●

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Web programmers ●

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Effectively communicate complex information

Database administrators ●

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Enhance user experience through layout and graphics

Technical writers ●

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Bandwidth issues, Web server technology

Graphic design ●

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ASP/ColdFusion, JavaScript, JAVA, HTML

Network engineers ●

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Database development and symbolization

ArcSDE, Oracle/SQL Server

Project manager ●

Coordinate development of application

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KEY LIFECYCLE STEPS ●

Requirements ● ●

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Design ●

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Based upon design and requirements

Testing ● ●

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Build it on paper first!

Development ●

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Understand business process Needs before technology

Does it work? Well? Can I break it?

Installation ● ●

Configuration Tuning / performance

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BUILDING A FAST, FLEXIBLE SITE ●

Server side scripting ●

Lightweight Code is compiled on a server and HTML is sent to browser Faster download keeping the page lightweight on the client Dynamic Session variables can hold both map object and user information Flexible ● ●

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Many useful tools available for ASP, such as DB connections ●

Secure Clients can’t see code “Easy” to customize (if you know what you’re doing!) ●

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Examples ● ● ●

Active Server Pages (.asp) Java Server Pages (.jsp) ColdFusion

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SPECIAL TOOLS … POINT FEATURE UPLOAD ●

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Allows dynamic uploading of point features Currently used for submission of GPS field data Process … ●

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Users submit text file or individual X,Y coordinate pairs ArcSDE dataset is updated Web map automatically displays new points

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SPECIAL TOOLS … CLIP, ZIP, AND SHIPTM

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A WORD ABOUT OGC ●

What is it? ●

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Why use it? ●

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Open GIS Consortium http://www.opengis.org/ Goal  Improve accessibility to geospatial data How  Interoperability through standards Facilitates the integration of different mapservices through the browser or a server

How? ●

Install the WMS Connector (ArcIMS)

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ISSUES … SCALABILITY ●

Key factors ●

Required processing power How many users per day? How many transactions per user? How much data per transaction? What response time is desired? What resources are available? Staff Server Bandwidth ●

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ESRI system design white paper ●

http://www.esri.com/library/whitepapers/pdfs/sysdesig.pdf

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LESSONS LEARNED … GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ● ● ● ● ● ●

Invest in adequate training Use a development environment Plan, plan, plan Don’t forget about the map Test, test, test Partnerships!

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LESSONS LEARNED … MAKE IT SIMPLE FOR USERS! ●

State and local government ● ●

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Educators ● ●

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Not always familiar with GIS tools Highly specialized needs Simplicity is a must; easy to use interface K-12 schools may not have broadband connections

General public ● ●

Don’t let ‘em know they’re using GIS Pages must be very lightweight Dial-up connection (slow) Users generally lose interest if the page loads slowly ●

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ALASKA WEB MAPPING APPLICATIONS ●

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ADF&G – Division of Wildlife Conservation http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/gis/index.cfm Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation Tidelands Mapper http://tidelands.landrecords.info/ Alaska Engineering Design Information System (University of Alaska) http://m2.crrel.usace.army.mil/aedis/ Alaska Harbor and Boating Facilities (Alaska DOT&PF) http://gis.dot.state.ak.us/website/akharbors/MapFrame.htm AKDNR LAS Mapper http://mapper.landrecords.info Barrow Area Information Database – Internet Map Server http://ims.arcticscience.org/

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ALASKA WEB MAPPING APPLICATIONS (CONTINUED) ●

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Fairbanks North Star Borough Geographical Information System http://gis.co.fairbanks.ak.us/ Geographic Information Network of Alaska (University of Alaska) http://www.gina.alaska.edu/page.xml?group=data&page=internetmaps erver Municipality of Anchorage Corporate GIS Internet Contacts Page http://munimaps.muni.org/common/GIS_portal_entry_gold/gis_portal_e ntry.htm Mining Claims Online (Alaska Department of Natural Resources) http://akmining.info/ Southeast Alaska Fish and Wildlife Map Viewer (Inforain) http://www.inforain.org/website/nfwf_orig/top.htm

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ALASKA WEB MAPPING APPLICATIONS (CONTINUED) ●

University of Alaska Southeast Internet Map Services http://gina.uas.alaska.edu/spatialdata/website/

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INTERNET MAPPING RESOURCES ●

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Jay Morgan’s Online GIS Bibliography http://cgis.towson.edu/morgan/books/gis.htm ESRI Internet Map Server Demos http://maps.esri.com/ ESRI’s Support Center – ArcIMS http://support.esri.com/index.cfm?fa=software.filteredGateway&PID=16 Open GIS Consortium “Cookbooks” http://www.opengeospatial.org/resources/?page=cookbooks

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TUGIS 2005 … MARCH 21-22, 2005

http://cgis.towson.edu/tugis2005

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FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Matthew S. Felton, Associate Director Center for Geographic Information Sciences Towson University 7800 York Road, Room 306 Baltimore, Maryland 21252-0001 410-704-5292 410-704-3888 (fax) [email protected] http://cgis.towson.edu/

John M. Morgan, III, Ph.D., Director Center for Geographic Information Sciences Towson University 7800 York Road, Room 306 Baltimore, Maryland 21252-0001 410-704-2964 410-704-3888 (fax) [email protected] http://cgis.towson.edu/