[udig-devel] Any plans for metadata, feature and data catalogues? Several :-)

[Jody Garnett]

John Reid wrote:
> Doh! I just found the Catalog view after I sent my previous email. I 
> notice that the Eclipse uDig extras packs include EMF and GEF. Do 
> these provide the basis for the Catalog view?
Sorry I should of been more explicit.

The uDig GIS Platform (consisting of the catalog plugins and catalog 
view) are indeed the base you are looking for. You will find Jira items 
describing the wish to construct specific views targeted at file and 
database management. Right now the catalog view is focused on "active" 
connections.  Also part of the GIS Platform is the Search view, the 
thing I would like to hook up to OGC Catalog.

The uDig GIS Application is centered around the Map Editor, and 
Printing. The Map Editor uses EMF for the definition of Map and Layers 
used for visualization. The printing support uses GEF to allow you to 
define a layout used when printing maps.

So:
- GIS Platform - about spatial data
- GIS Application - about maps

You can make a RCP application based on just the GIS Platform if you 
desire, I wanted to make geoserver configuration tool for example, or a 
tool that would run validations against the available dataset.

> Just a quick sketch of what I was thinking. I'm interested in the use 
> of Feature catalogs to facilitate:
> * the sharing of models (and data) between different organizations.
There is a OGC Standard that could be implemented here if you desire, or 
we could define a common export format.
> * the data provider's documentation of datasets and hopefully 
> therefore the user's understanding of them.
This kind of ties into the above, their are several competing metadata 
formats for spatial data, the GIS Platform is "agnostic" in that at an 
API level it will let you provide your own interface, ISO, ebRIM or 
Dublin core as
your needs indicate.  uDig itself makes use of a modified Dublin Core 
construct you can see as ServiceInfo and GeoResourceInfo - the method 
names follow Dublin core.
> * the ability to create and use complex features.
You will find that the geotools library has a long running (more then a 
year now) series of branches working on complex features. GeoServer is 
considering using it soon for a project finishing in December. However 
that would not be enough to take the idea mainstream, they were hoping 
uDig would also make leap - something we need a biz for.

All of your ideas are in scope for the GIS Platform.
> From a quick initial look I thought that some of the tools in the 
> Eclipse Modeling Project could provide the ability to exchange and 
> visualize feature/data models and tool chaining through the use of UML 
> Class and Activity Diagrams within uDig. Metadata and data catalogs 
> would be a natural extension of this.
The improved GeoTools feature model (referenced above to above) is 
intended to be intergrated with EMF, the idea being that we can define 
an FObject and FClass extending from EMS EClass/EObject. You can find 
members of the GeoAPI project perusing this idea, and it would be a good 
sanity check to have before the revised feature model goes live.
> Is this something that would of interest and worth pursuing?
Yes it is, and it is already being pursued in some fashion on several 
different fronts. Sorry for the long explanations above, if you have 
questions please just ask. And if any of the ideas sound like something 
you would like to work on let me know and I can make to appropriate 
introductions.

Jody
>
> Paul Ramsey wrote:
>> We initially thought about expanding the current Catalog view into a 
>> whole RCP "Perspective", and it still seems like a good idea, but 
>> have been distracted by the work around just getting the map-centric 
>> view up to an acceptable level of polish. I would not say we have 
>> explicit plans right now, but we have no antipathy towards to concept 
>> -- it seems like a fundamentally good idea.
>>
>> P
>>
>> On 8-Jun-06, at 5:16 PM, John Reid wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> Not quite sure what I'm trying to say here... Does uDig already 
>>> provide or are there plans for a data-centric view similar to 
>>> ArcCatalog?
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> John
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> User-friendly Desktop Internet GIS (uDig)
>>> http://udig.refractions.net
>>> http://lists.refractions.net/mailman/listinfo/udig-devel
>>
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>
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