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The Development of “BAU GIS” Web/Program
using Open Source MapWindow
B. Sadoun
*
, O. Al-Bayari, J. Al-Azizi and Samih B. Al Rawashdeh
Department of Surveying and Geomatics Engineering
AL-Balqa’ Applied University, Al-Salt, Jordan
Key Words: GIS, Web Interface, Open Source GIS, MapWindow.
Abstract: “BAU GIS" is a Programmable Geographic Information System that supports manipulation, analysis, and
viewing of geospatial data and associated attribute data in several standard GIS data formats. “BAU GIS”
program is a standalone application, developed using Map Window Open Source GIS and visual basic 10.0.
It has been designed to address the need for a GIS programming tool that could be used in engineering
research and project software, without requiring end users to purchase a complete GIS system, or become
GIS experts. It is a GIS modeling system, and a GIS application programming interface (API) all in a
convenient redistributable package. The BAU GIS application is free, extensible GIS that can be used as an
open-source alternative to desktop GIS, in order to distribute data to others and develop and distribute
custom spatial data analysis tools.
1 INTRODUCTION
Due to the advancement in the computing
technology and the rising need for GIS applications
(www.esri.com;
wiki/ArcInfo;
wiki/Google_Earth), more and more scientists are
developing free of charge possibilities to those who
cannot afford to buy commercial software. The main
purpose is to serve the groups who are working in
Meta Data management and who publish their works
on the World Wide Web for all users.
MapWindow: This is a mapping tool, a GIS
modeling system, and a GIS application
programming interface (API), which was developed
at Utah State University by Daniel P. Ames and a
team of students (
Appleman, 1998). It was
developed to address the need for a GIS
programming tool for research and projects, without
the need to purchase GIS system, or become GIS
experts. It is used to distribute data and to develop
custom spatial data analysis tools
(
www.mapwindow.org; MapWinGIS, 194pp).
Developers can write Plug-ins to add additional
functionality (models, special viewers, and hot-link.
Handlers, and data editors can pass these to users. It
includes standard GIS data visualization features as
well as database functions such as attribute table
editing, shape file editing and data converters.
Dozens of Standard GIS formats are supported,
including Shape files, GeoTIFF, ESRI format,
ASCII and binary grids (
GIS Fundamentals;
FOSS4G). It includes a complete ActiveX
component to instantly add GIS capabilities to the
user’s existing software product (
MapWinGIS,
194pp
; FOSS4G). Additional geo-processing
components are available for .NET-compatible
Languages. Components of MapWindow are: (1)
MapWinGIS: This is an ActiveX control, which may
be placed into any project in any programming
language that supports ActiveX. This is the main
map component - if the user wanted to write a
program that displayed shape data, for example, the
user could use this control for the display portion of
the user’s program. (2) MapWin Interfaces: Also
called the "Plug-in Interface". It is a dll file, which
will allow the user to write the user’s own plug-ins
to the main application. This may be done from any
programming Language, which supports the creation
and use of Microsoft .NET 2.0 Dynamic Link
Libraries (dlls). (3) MapWinGeoProc: This is a
.NET library of geoprocessing functions, including
tools for managing projections, clipping and
buffering.
273
Sadoun B., Al-Bayari O., Al-Azizi J. and B. Al Rawashdeh S..
The Development of “BAU GIS” Web/Program using Open Source MapWindow.
DOI: 10.5220/0004630602730277
In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Data Communication Networking, 10th International Conference on e-Business and 4th
International Conference on Optical Communication Systems (ICE-B-2013), pages 273-277
ISBN: 978-989-8565-72-3
Copyright
c
2013 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)