engleski

Web Based Data Visualization Interface For Spatial Databases

Today a great deal of accumulated spatial data fund resides within spatial databases (SDBMS). Some of it is 2D, some is 3D and finally there is also a certain amount of it enriched with a temporal component. Unfortunately, unlike traditional CAD or GIS based spatial data management systems, spatial databases do not come with "off the shelf" graphical user interface for spatial data visualization. Querying is naturally possible in alphanumerical form. All sorts of CAD and GIS systems being able to retrieve and generally manage data within SDBMS can of course be used for those purposes, but with two important drawbacks: they cost additional money and must be installed on client's computer. Then, there is a variety of "map servers" but also burdened with costs and limited to two-dimensional displaying. This situation can be overcome, and surprisingly enough, with less effort. With only a medium level of programming knowledge one should be able to prepare his own database query visualization interface, leaving it either low-level to be able to directly write, execute and visualize his data access queries or coding them into the interface to make it accessible to users with less or no SQL experience. Using Servlet/JSP, a powerful server side scripting technology based on Java programming language and VRML as the standard for 3D spatial data visualization on the Web, fully Web based and user platform independent interface is developed. Server side application written in Java receives user requests, fetches the data from the database, does all the necessary conversions and preparations and serves it to the user in a standard VRML format. The user interface for displaying and manipulation of spatial data stored in SDBMS, modeled in up to three dimensions and requiring only VRML viewer to be installed on a client computer, is described in this paper.

Spatial databases; server side scripting; 3D data visualization

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