Title: WebMap Internet Based Application for Remote Data and Information Access and Visualization
1WebMapInternet 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
2What 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
3Applied Information System Technology
4Used 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
5Application Description Data Flow
6Application 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
7WebMap 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
8Main WebMap Application - Details
9Main 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
10Main 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
11Main 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
12Main WebMap Application Details 4/5
13Main 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
14WebMap 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