Upon completion of module 8, you will be able to describe what's involved in publishing data.
Until now we've been focusing on the acquisition of data that already exist. Your assessment of data in your project may have yielded a need for some new data layers. You will have acquired these by now and quite likely created some new data with the GPS or by analysis of other data to create new data.
This module is one week in length. Please refer to the course Calendar tab, in ANGEL, for the due date.
FME saved Workbench FMW file, the workbench log and metadata for one layer.
Please see the Deliverables section at the end of Part II for this week's readings and action items.
Lesson 8 is one week in length. Please refer to the Calendar in ANGEL for specific time frames and due dates. To finish this lesson, you must complete the actvities listed below. You may find it useful to print this page first so that you can follow along with the directions.
Step | Activity | Access/Directions |
---|---|---|
1 | Work through Lesson 8 | You are in the Lesson 8 online content now. The overview page is previous to this page, and you are on the Checklist page right now. |
2 | Complete the deliverables for Lesson 8 | Page 4 has this week's deliverables. |
My story:
If you recall, the layers that the State College Borough Water Authority identified on their GIS wish list came from many sources. We have added GPS, schools data, forest data, Centre County data and the CAD Drawing. These were imported from a number of sources and comprise a lot of different data types. Now, we wish to hand the project off, and to do this we will give them a unified data source.
Workbench is the real workplace of the FME package. It has an industrial strength Database Management System that is optimized for spatial datasets. The same thing can be achieved by using ArcMap and ArcCatalogue. To it in these packages each piece of data will have to be treated separately and it is once only operation. In Workbench, the action can be saved and run again as things are needed. Workbench also keeps extensive log files so that work actions and flows can be recorded and documented.
Look around in FME and you will see lots and lots of features that we do not have time to look into, but you can select, subset, transform, generalize, simplify, and otherwise modify data as it is loaded. This can be particularly useful if you are transferring data from a different program. It is also the time to generalize data to a similar scale. The repeatability of these programs really is useful if you are receiving data from another source on a regular basis. For example, the works department has data on government owned and controlled buildings and the planning department has information on new buildings and you also have parcel data. These different departments might send you new data on a update basis or might send out a weekly data update. These you have to integrate each week to ensure that you are working on the same data. It would be nice if all the data were in the same format, but as it has different sources, it quite likely will not be standardized. If you have a lot of interactions with CAD based data that is not in geographic coordinates but is in arbitrary CAD space units, it is sometimes better to build a custom CAD projection so that ArcGIS knows how to reproject them, rather than transforming them. The custom projection takes a flat projection like UTM and then provides a custom offset (False Easting and False Northing ) to line it up. It might also take a custom scaling index to ensure a similar scale. This is really worth doing if you have lots of CAD drawings in the same source coordinates or if you have a frequent update series.
In the example above, we have used the scenario of a consultant working with a variety of other authorities to create a GIS for the Water Board. When we hand it off, they want to have the data in their GIS with minimal work. Assuming that they had an ArcGIS system, the geodatabase is the best choice for delivery. It is richer than the open source standard, the shapefile. Shapefiles do not have anywhere near the amount of information about domains, topology and time (temporality) that a geodatabase can or an ArcInfo coverage can have. If you want exchange files on a regular basis, as when a corporation updates files and passes them on to another entity, then it pays to have inbuilt translation methodology like FME Workbench. If the data are to be put on the web for anybody, then a widespread propriety file like ArcGIS or even ArcInfo Coverage e00 export file are okay, but open source data would be better. Most GIS systems have routines to deal with common propriety file types, and Esri is now the de facto statndard. How about if the downloader runs a rarer GIS? Has anyone received GRASS or SmallWorld files? These can be difficult to work with and not everyone has the Interoperability Extension or FME. Open source files are fine for simple geometries without topology and are probably the best in many situations. However, they are not universally the best. Sometimes, a more complex spatial entity is better preserved in a more complex data type. Make a lfinal ist of file types you have incorporated into your project and add it to your document e-portfolio.
You have just completed Part I of this module, Part II, you will load GPS data you've acquired.
Your story:
By now you should have acquired data for your project. As the project is completed you will be effectively publishing the data you have collected (even if the data is for restricted distribution, think of it as publishing it only to me). You may be sharing the data with the organization you have teamed up with. You may be making a map and making that available. You may have done some analysis and be supplying the results of the analysis. Technically, these are all uses of the data and may or may not be affected by any license you have signed or agreed to when you obtained the data.
This module is one week in length. Please refer to the course Calendar tab in ANGEL for the due date.
1. Readings:
Required:
Recommended:
2. Make sure you have sent the FME saved Workbench FMW file, the log and metadata for one layer from Part I.
3. Post a project write-up including:
4. Discuss the weekly topics on the discussion forum.
5. Complete Quiz 3.
In addition to posting your final project to your portfolio, you can publish your data to a clearinghouse for extra credit.
You have just completed module 8.
Don't forget...if you have any questions, feel free to post them to the Lesson 8 Discussion Forum.
Links
[1] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog488/sites/www.e-education.psu.edu.geog488/files/downloads/ESRIInteroperability.pdf
[2] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog488/sites/www.e-education.psu.edu.geog488/files/downloads/Geomatics_and_FME.ppt
[3] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog488/sites/www.e-education.psu.edu.geog488/files/downloads/Arc_Info%20E00%20Format.pdf
[4] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog488/sites/www.e-education.psu.edu.geog488/files/downloads/GIS_dataexchange_%20problems.pdf
[5] http://gos2.geodata.gov/gos/help/become_a_publisher.htm
[6] http://gos2.geodata.gov/wps/portal/gos/kcxml/04_Sj9SPykssy0xPLMnMz0vM0Y_QjzKL9443cnIFSYGYfpb6kehCFgghb31fj_zcVP0A_YLc0IhyR0VFABDAZM0!/delta/base64xml/L3dJdyEvUUd3QndNQSEvNElVRS82X0tfVko!