Gaia brings WFS Transactions on ArcGIS to everyone
Modern mapping technologies can allow anyone to contribute up-to-date knowledge anywhere and at anytime - not just professionals equipped with GIS desktops. If you look at the geospatial market a key aspect of this emerging environment is likely to be open geospatial services supported by ArcGIS Server 9.3. Implementing specifications from the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) ArcGIS Server 9.3 not only enhances interoperability - it offers a new angle on data updates.
How? ArcGIS Server 9.3 implements OGC Web Feature Service (WFS) to let anyone interact with geospatial services and affect remote content. This is possible because the folks at ESRI have implemented a powerful concept from the OGC WFS specification – Transactions. WFS Transactions on ArcGIS Server allow users to selectively pull in geospatial information and then push out value-added content for reuse by others. At this point I should mention that WFS-T tools like The Carbon Project’s CarbonArc PRO (an ESRI ArcGIS desktop extension) have been around for a few years - and allow ArcGIS users to graphically update, delete or insert info on a WFS-T within the ArcGIS ArcMap application. But sometimes ArcGIS desktop may not be that easy for the average "non-GIS" end-user (and some people might not even have an ArcGIS desktop ;-)
So to make WFS-T usable by non-GIS professional a light, cost-effective and user-friendly software client is needed that can work with ArcGIS Server 9.3. This tool would enable users to post updates in a visual and intuitive way. To support this requirement and accommodate for users who can’t rely on stable network connectivity, such as users in the field, a standalone application also seems to be reasonable. Enter the WFS-Transactions Extender to The Carbon Project’s Gaia SDI platform. The Gaia WFS-T Extender allows geospatial edits and updates using WFS-T and GML in both online and offline environments - and the user-interface wraps the OGC standards into an easy-to-use application accessible to everyone, including non-GIS users. The app also works with non-ESRI WFS-T as well - and we hope it promotes enhanced collaboration and participatory mapping in the geospatial community.
- Jeff
How? ArcGIS Server 9.3 implements OGC Web Feature Service (WFS) to let anyone interact with geospatial services and affect remote content. This is possible because the folks at ESRI have implemented a powerful concept from the OGC WFS specification – Transactions. WFS Transactions on ArcGIS Server allow users to selectively pull in geospatial information and then push out value-added content for reuse by others. At this point I should mention that WFS-T tools like The Carbon Project’s CarbonArc PRO (an ESRI ArcGIS desktop extension) have been around for a few years - and allow ArcGIS users to graphically update, delete or insert info on a WFS-T within the ArcGIS ArcMap application. But sometimes ArcGIS desktop may not be that easy for the average "non-GIS" end-user (and some people might not even have an ArcGIS desktop ;-)
So to make WFS-T usable by non-GIS professional a light, cost-effective and user-friendly software client is needed that can work with ArcGIS Server 9.3. This tool would enable users to post updates in a visual and intuitive way. To support this requirement and accommodate for users who can’t rely on stable network connectivity, such as users in the field, a standalone application also seems to be reasonable. Enter the WFS-Transactions Extender to The Carbon Project’s Gaia SDI platform. The Gaia WFS-T Extender allows geospatial edits and updates using WFS-T and GML in both online and offline environments - and the user-interface wraps the OGC standards into an easy-to-use application accessible to everyone, including non-GIS users. The app also works with non-ESRI WFS-T as well - and we hope it promotes enhanced collaboration and participatory mapping in the geospatial community.
- Jeff
posted by Jeff Harrison @ 9:13 AM
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1 Comments:
Is there a trial version of this available?
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