The focus of the project was to add Web Feature Server 1.1 and Geography Markup Language 3.1.1 capabilities to uDig in order to support discovery and reading of FGDC Framework Data. The project involved adding complex features support to the core model of GeoTools, writing a WFS 1.1 datastore, GML 3.1.1 reader for complex and nested features, and testing these improvements against the NSDI WFS.
The core feature model of the GeoTools code was successfully improved as evidenced by CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) launching a multi-million dollar project to bring complex feature support to Geoserver. However, uDig integration has only been partially successful. The addition of WFS 1.1 and GML 3.1.1 to uDig's trunk code base has been slow due to the reduced frequency of additions of branch code into the trunk, uDig's prolonged release cycle for version 1.2, and the extended period of beta releases. The code is currently on an unstable branch for the foreseeable future. The code is available to users at the level of GeoTools and as an uDig plugin. Until, the code is committed to trunk, TOPP has released a distribution available at http://files.opengeo.org/udig-wfs11/
TOPP used the distribution in a workshop to test and document the
improvements. That workshop was successful and
workshop participants were able to install and work with the
distribution. As part of the workshop, participants contributed a
script for a screencast as well as additional user focused
documentation. An online presentation based on the screencast and user
notes are planned in the future.
With the increased interest in complex feature support, a more current build of uDig with complex feature support may be needed. There are tentative plans to offer the new build as a download and publicize it through blog posts and supporting educational materials.
Accomplishments:
- Addition of working code improvements in the core of GeoTools used in production on a variety of systems to handle complex schemas like those of the NSDI framework data.
- A version of uDig that successfully utilizes to the NSDI WFS node and is also tested against Ionic and MapServer framework deployments.
- A successful workshop with GIS users from Alachua County, Florida who tested the framework data on uDig, using a variety of data sources.
The Open Planning
Project
Center for International Earth Science
Information Network (CIESIN)
URISA's GISCorps
Contact:
Chris Holmes
718-290-5730
cholmes@openplans.org
Other contacts:
Greg Yetman, 845-365-8982, gyetman@ciesin.columbia.edu
GISCorps, www.giscorps.org