WebMap Internet Based Application for Remote Data and Information Access and Visualization

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WebMapInternet Based Application for Remote Data
and Information Access and Visualization
BALWOIS Conference on Water Observation and
Information System for Decision Support Ohrid,
FY Republic of Macedonia - 25/29 May 2004

• Dejan Lekic, Gordana pegar
• Ministry of Science and Environment Protection
• Directorate for the Environmental Protection
• Ruze Jovanovica 27a
• Belgrade
• Serbia and Montenegro

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What is WebMap?

• Client-Server Internet based application
• Data and information browsing, presentation,
  visualization and retrieval
• User friendly interface with multi-language
  support
• Wide set of possibilities for time series data
  (including statistical analysis)
• First version developed for the MEDHYCOS project
• Further enhancements for the FAO project dealing
  with water resources on the island of Cyprus
• Customized versions used in National hydrometeo
  services in Macedonia and Bulgaria
• Final version developed for the WOISYDES project,
  available online at http//woisydes.mpl.ird.fr/We
  bmap/App/db/index.php

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Applied Information System Technology
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Used Technology in Detail

• Server-side installed packages
• RDBMS Oracle, MS Access, MySQL or any other
  ODBC compliant database management system
• Apache Web Server or Microsoft Internet
  Information Server
• PHP engine with precompiled ODBC module
• WebMap Server-side
• Database with previously defined logical
  structure
• Set of PHP server side scripts and HTML templates
• Language database for multi-language interface
  support
• Client-side required packages
• Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher
• JavaScript engine (preinstalled with IE)
• VML, vector image rendering engine (preinstalled
  with IE)
• WebMap Client-side
• HTML and XML files (resulting as PHP output)
• JavaScript modules providing application
  interactivity
• CSS files for application interface formatting

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Application Description Data Flow
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Application Description

• User friendly cartographic interface
• Data and Information attached to geo-referenced
  set of Objects
• Objects grouped as a Layer
• Database input MS Access, MS Excel, ASCII files
  for the data, MapInfo for the maps
• Virtually any kind of file can be attached to the
  Object including documents, images, audio and
  video files
• Entire database can be attached to an Object,
  providing multi-scale view for detailed map
  display
• Several databases interfaced with the same
  application, on-line database switching
• All the changes in the database instantly
  available on the remote client

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WebMap Application - Details

• Three components WebAccess Administrator Panel,
  Database Inventory Browser and Main WebMap
  application
• WebAccess Administrator Panel - used for WebMap
  user management, create, modify and delete users
  of the system, granting the access to the
  different security levels of the application,
  monitoring user's activities on the system
• Database Inventory Browser browsing the
  inventory of the information stored in the
  database without actualy accessing the raw data.
  Information grouped by Layers, Objects, Data,
  Views and Variables

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Main WebMap Application - Details
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Main WebMap Application Details 1/5

• Four frames a) Map frame (also a container for
  data visualization), b) Layers/Objects frame,
  c) Attachments Tree frame, d) Attachment
  Details frame
• Map frame vector map of the selected region
  with all the geographical objects grouped in a
  set of layers. Objects responding to user
  interaction providing object/layer name
• Common tools for map zooming, panning (moving),
  copying and printing are also available through
  the set of buttons residing in the top-left
  corner of the map frame
• Layers/Objects frame contains a list of layers
  selected by the user for the current map view.
  Nested sub-lists representing the objects
  contained in the selected layer
• These two frames are interconnected selection
  in one frame invokes the same selection in the
  other one
• User interaction with the object listed/displayed
  in these frames invokes the creation of on-line
  database query resulting with the tree structure
  of the data attached to the selected object

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Main WebMap Application Details 2/5

• Attachments Tree frame shows all the data,
  files and information attached to the selected
  object, organized in a form of tree structure
• Five types of information for each
  objectGeneral Information, Time Series, Table
  Series, Meta-data, Attachments
• General Information - information about object
  position, attributes, etc.
• Time Series - data in a form of time series
  grouped by variable name and/or aggregation level
• Table Series time series data, suitable for
  presenting the time series with large amount of
  measured values (i.e. chemical analysis)
• Meta-data - additional static information about
  the object
• Attachments - files in any format (spreadsheet,
  text, image, audio, video, etc.) attached to the
  objects, organized using themes and file types

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Main WebMap Application Details 3/5

• Attachment Details frame - showing the detailed
  information about the chosen item making
  available procedures for further data/information
  visualization, retrieval and manipulation
• Attached files, table series and meta-data can be
  viewed on screen and/or downloaded to the client
  computer
• Time series type of data provides a complex set
  of tools for data presentation
• Table - tabular data on-screen presentation,
  including the monthly and yearly minimums,
  maximums and averages,
• Report - tabular "print ready" form in MS Word
  format.
• Chart - data presented in a form of line/bar
  chart. The chart can be zoomed, copied and
  printed since the graph is created in a vector
  form (Figure 9).
• File - ASCII or Excel file for the selected
  period,
• Statistics - basic statistics about the selected
  time series,
• Distributions - theoretical (Gumbel, Pearson III
  and Log-Pearson III ) and empirical distributions

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Main WebMap Application Details 4/5
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Main WebMap Application Details 5/5

• Other application features also include
  functionalities accessible using the menu bar
• Real-time database switching through the list of
  all the available databases
• Search tool for searching the entire database
  (layers, objects, variables, attachments) for a
  given term
• Extra feature can be triggered with right mouse
  button over an object on the map and/or object's
  list giving information about the selected object
  in sense of geometrical relationships (contains,
  belongs) with other objects and their layers
  displayed on the map
• Right click over the raster background provide
  access to the raster image switching menu
• Full manual accessible through Help menu

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WebMap Conclusion

• WebMap as an application running in a real-time
  using Internet technologies provides an efficient
  and low cost tool for accessing remote
  hydrological or any other kind of database.
  Multiple databases can be interfaced with the
  same WebMap application covering geographical
  regions of different scale, from the scale of the
  continent to the particular point of interest
  such is a river or a lake.
• Full featured interface gives an up-to-date view
  on the data and information stored in the
  database and offers many custom procedures for
  data visualization and presentation. Specific
  technology for displaying vector objects inside
  Web browser window increases the usability and
  interactivity of the user interface.
• Built-up with a modular approach it can be easily
  tailored to virtually any kind of relational
  database structure which contains information
  organized in a geo-referenced form.

Check it on-line http//www.woisydes.net http//w
oisydes.mpl.ird.fr/Webmap/App/db/index.php