East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham, 21st September, 2011 – Cadcorp, the UK based developer and supplier of GIS and web mapping software, has unveiled its latest addition to the Cadcorp SIS – Spatial Information System product family – Web Map Layers. Web Map Layers is an off-the-shelf but extensible web mapping product designed for map viewing and interrogation. The product is perfect for users without direct experience of GIS, such as members of the public, and the vast majority of office workers who interact with spatial data but lay no claim to be GIS specialists.
Web Map Layers manages spatial data as individual map layers, each of which is served as an Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. © (OGC) Web Map Service (WMS). The user interface is entirely web-browser-based and built on the OpenLayers JavaScript library. This gives the application the familiar look and feel that everyone has come to expect of web mapping: notably zooming and panning by clicking and dragging – so-called ‘slippy’ maps. Unlike some hosted products, Web Map Layers divorces the application software from dependency on any particular map data supplier or product.
Stephen Cox, Application Development Manager at Cadcorp. explained how Web Map Layers came about. “We originally designed Web Map Layers as a web mapping application for organisations that want to share spatial information with the general public. That is, as an internet-only application. It quickly became apparent to us that there was a strong demand in both the public and private sectors for a single web mapping application which could be used by both the public and by employees alike, albeit serving different spatial data sets in each case. Organisations can see the benefit of having just one web mapping architecture that supports many use cases.
Web Map Layers doesn’t pretend to be a full function browser-based GIS, but it does blur the distinction often made between GIS and web mapping by allowing organisations to query vector-based data sets. Spatial analysis is taken care of by the provision of generic web services which seamlessly integrate into Web Map Layers. At the initial release, Cadcorp is offering three web services: “About Property”, “Find My Nearest” and “Spatial Query”.
Web Map Layers’ advanced geospatial capabilities are provided by Cadcorp’s geospatial web services engine – GeognoSIS. This is capable of supporting both web mapping and more complex web GIS. In its web mapping role GeognoSIS acts as a standalone OGC WMS and Web Feature Service (WFS). It also provides Web Map Layers with tile-based services, and serves as a spatial data aggregator.
Cadcorp CEO, Mike O’Neil stressed the business drivers behind the interest in Web Map Layers. “Many organisations are looking to make cost savings in both customer-facing and employee-facing processes by pushing IT applications to the web. The trend is visible in ‘channel-shift’: encouraging customers to use the internet in preference to telephone and face-to-face contact. It is also visible in ‘desktop substitution’: using simpler browser-based solutions to replace more complex desktop products. With Web Map Layers an organisation can reap the benefits of both substitution effects, and only have a single architecture to maintain; an architecture that can also offer highly functional GIS when and where required.”
About Cadcorp
Cadcorp® is a UK based developer and supplier of world leading GIS and web mapping software. From its headquarters in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, Cadcorp’s sales, support, distribution and partner network stretches worldwide.
Cadcorp SIS® – Spatial Information System® software suite – is an integrated family of standalone, web, developer and mobile GIS products. Our cost-effective products help organisations in the public and private sectors maximise their investment in geographic information by making it easier to share spatial data between people and between systems.
As a long-standing technical member of the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc® (OGC), Cadcorp has been at the forefront of the application of open technologies and standards-based products. Cadcorp is an ISO9001:2008 and ISO/IEC 27001:2005 certified company and an Oracle® Partner. In the UK, Cadcorp is an Ordnance Survey® Developer Partner; Northern Ireland Land & Property Services® (LPS) Licenced Partner; corporate member of the Association for Geographic Information (AGI) and a corporate member of the British Cartographic Society (BCS).
For more information please visit: www.cadcorp.com
