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Introducing the MapWindow GIS Project

Article · August 2007

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Daniel P Ames Christopher D. Michaelis

Brigham Young University - Provo Main Campus Idaho State University
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OSGeo Journal Introducing the MapWindow GIS Project Vol. 2, August 2007

Project Spotlights

Introducing the MapWindow GIS Project

by Daniel P. Ames, Christopher Michaelis and Ted plication support manipulation, analysis and view-
Dunsford ing of geospatial data in many standard GIS data for-
mats. Hence, MapWindow is a mapping tool, a GIS
modeling system, and a GIS API, in a redistributable
Introduction open source form that is appealing for its simplicity
of use and for running on Microsoft Windows. This
MapWindow is an open source geographic informa- paper presents the project history, current status, key
tion system (GIS) and an application programming elements and future plans.
interface (API) distributed under the Mozilla Pub-
lic License (MPL), built upon the Microsoft Dot Net
Framework 2.0. The project is maintained by an Project Background
active group of international developers who reg-
ularly release updates and bug fixes through the In 1998, researchers at Utah State University in Lo-
MapWindow.org web site.26 gan, Utah, USA were using MapObjects LT 1.0 from
In 2005, the United States Environmental Pro- Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) as
tection Agency adopted MapWindow as the core a GIS component in several research projects. How-
GIS platform for its BASINS watershed analysis and ever, restrictive redistribution licenses and the inabil-
modeling software which is used by environmental ity to edit vector or attribute data files or display and
professionals at all levels of U.S. government and in- interact with raster data became significant barriers
ternationally. This was followed by adoption at the to use of this component.
United Nations University and many other govern- Indeed, dynamic and interactive functions that
mental, non-profit, and commercial entities through- require low level access to spatial data were not well-
out the world. Indeed, from November 2006 through supported in freely distributable Windows-based
July 2007 the software was downloaded over 60,000 GIS programming components at that time. An al-
times and has over 7,000 members on the opt-in mail- ternative approach for these projects was to move to
ing list. There are also currently 630 subscribers to a proprietary desktop GIS system (e.g. ArcView 3.1),
source code commit notification mailing lists, and 43 writing the needed tools as extensions. However,
regular source code committers. many applications in environmental science and en-
The MapWindow components and end user ap- gineering are more suited to a standalone environ-
26 MapWindow web site: http://www.mapwindow.org

ISSN 1994-1897 13
OSGeo Journal Introducing the MapWindow GIS Project Vol. 2, August 2007

Figure 1: Basic MapWindow interface with Shapefile Editor enabled.

ment due to the need to distribute the tool to indi- Project Description
viduals who do not own a desktop GIS or are not
GIS experts.

The core MapWinGIS component was developed

to meet this need for an alternative to existing pro- MapWindow GIS Application
prietary GIS components. MapWinGIS is an Ac-
tiveX control that gives full ability to display, query,
manipulate, and use spatial data. Because of the
engineering-oriented nature of the projects that ne-
cessitated its development, MapWinGIS was partic- The MapWindow application is a lightweight spatial
ularly optimized for rapid display of data and is in- data viewer with an intentionally slim default inter-
tended to be a fully functional model interface, not face intended to simplify its use and improve adapt-
simply a map viewer. Development focuses included ability to specific uses. The main GUI and function-
high-speed image and raster display, limiting the ality can be extended through plug-ins and scripts
amount of re-drawing, and including APIs for low- which add capabilities as needed. Also the default
level access to spatial data. application itself can be customized to change the
look, feel and even its title-bar name at runtime. By
default, the MapWindow layout includes a map, a
The MapWindow GIS desktop application wraps legend, and a preview-map. Built-in toolbar buttons
all of the MapWinGIS ActiveX functionality, provid- allow one to manage project files (collections of data
ing end users with a common legend, toolbar and a layers), to print, and to navigate the map. Figure
consistent interface that can be extended by adding 1 shows the MapWindow interface with the Shape-
plug-ins or a customized configuration file. In short, file Editor plug-in enabled and with the title bar cus-
MapWinGIS ActiveX was built to add GIS function- tomized for a specific project. Both open source and
ality to custom end user applications and MapWin- commercial plug-ins have been developed by users
dow GIS desktop was built to help users deploy GIS- worldwide for a variety of applications; many of
enabled applications assembled from pre-built plug- these are available for download from the MapWin-
ins and datasets. dow.org web site.

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OSGeo Journal Introducing the MapWindow GIS Project Vol. 2, August 2007

Figure 3: MapWindow 5 Component Diagram

Figure 2: A Simple Mapping Application
MapWindow ActiveX Control
In addition to building plug-ins, one can cus-
tomize the look and feel of the MapWindow appli- The core MapWindow component is an ActiveX con-
cation by changing the included default.mwcfg XML trol, MapWinGIS.ocx that can be used in Visual Ba-
configuration file. Changes to this file can affect ti- sic or any language that supports ActiveX (e.g. C#,
tle bar, splash screen, about box, plug-in loading and Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel). MapWinGIS has
window layout settings, among others. An XML been optimized for fast image and raster display, lim-
project file allows users to save a list of loaded data iting the amount of redrawing, and including APIs
layers and session settings. The Newton Reservoir for low-level access to spatial data. A simple Visual
Information System project in Figure 1 is an exam- Basic program using the control and just a few lines
ple project included in the MapWindow installation of code is shown in Figure 2.
package. All of the data loaded into MapWindow
and all settings (e.g. symbology, loaded plug-ins,
and project projection), are saved to the project file. Ongoing Development and Future
Plans
Development plans for MapWindow include a com-
MapWindow Plug-ins ponent structure upgrade in version 5.0. This version
focuses on incorporating the Geospatial Data Access
MapWindow has an extensible architecture that al- Library (GDAL) and OGR Simple Feature Library
lows developers to write plug-ins to add function- for additional data format support, and Net Topol-
ality using Dot Net compatible languages such as ogy Suite (NTS) for topological support. Version 5.0
VB.Net or C#. This is done by implementing a spe- also targets OGC compliance and improved modu-
cific plug-in interface in a custom DLL file which is larization. An ASP.Net-based web component for
placed in the application directory and automatically performing online mapping and geoprocessing has
detected at runtime. Plug-ins can also be written and also been introduced.
compiled directly in the MapWindow plug-in editor Version 5.0 also introduces an interface layer
eliminating the need for an external development en- around every component. By doing this, any
vironment. The MapWindow plug-in interface pro- given component (e.g., MapWindow.Data) may be
vides extensive capabilities allowing the developer replaced with a third-party component if needed. In-
to use as little or as much as needed to accomplish deed any code that implements the specified inter-
a particular goal. Default plug-ins packaged with faces will be compatible with other MapWindow 5.0
MapWindow include tools for editing shapefiles and components.
attributes, identifying features and performing com- Finally, MapWindow 5.0 components are de-
mon geoprocessing tasks. Plug-in developers retain signed and written entirely in Microsoft Dot Net
all copyright and licensing rights for their work and code (Managed C ++, C#, and VB.Net) except for
hence can redistribute their products as proprietary, linked-in components (GDAL and OGR) which are
open source, or otherwise as needed. maintained in their native form. This eliminates

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 OSGeo Journal GeoNetwork Open Source Vol. 2, August 2007

many long-standing problems with COM registra- ment and use.

tion on the Windows platform. An overview dia-
gram of the planned MapWindow 5.0 components Daniel P. Ames
and linkages is shown in Figure 3. Idaho State University
http: // www. hydromap. com/
dpames AT gmail.com
Conclusion
The MapWindow GIS project is a dynamic and active Chris Michaelis
effort to build and distribute open source GIS tools Idaho State University
that integrate tightly with the Microsoft Windows http: // www. happysquirrel. com/
operating system. Supported by a large number cmichaelis AT happysquirrel.com
of commercial and non-commercial funding sources,
volunteer developers, and student research activi- Ted Dunsford
ties, this project is expected to grow in the foresee- Idaho State University
able future and continue to be a model of a success- http: // www. MapWindow. org/
ful open source for geoinformatics software develop- hadunsford AT mapwindow.org

GeoNetwork Open Source

Internationally Standardized Distributed Spatial element in the development of a United Nations Spa-
Information Management tial Data Infrastructure (UNSDI). In other national
and international organizations and initiatives such
by Jeroen Ticheler and Jelle U. Hielkema as the Consultative Group on International Agricul-
tural Research (CGIAR), the European Space Agency
GeoNetwork opensource is a standardized and decen- (ESA), the US Federal Geographic Data Committee
tralized Geospatial Information Management Sys- (FGDC), in countries implementing National Spatial
tem, based on the concept of distributed data and Data Infrastructures (NSDI), in Europe in the con-
information ownership and is designed to enable ac- text of The INfrastructure for SPatial InfoRmation
cess to geo-referenced data and cartographic prod- in Europe (INSPIRE), as contribution to the Group
ucts through descriptive metadata. Collections on Earth Observations (GEO) and others, GeoNetwork
maintained at different organizations are accessible opensource has also seen a remarkable uptake.
through a single entry point. This approach of ge-
ographic information management enhances easy
and timely access to existing spatial data for a wide The GeoNetwork opensource
community of users, supporting informed decision- project
making in a variety of application fields. Web2 tech-
niques have been adopted to allow more interactive GeoNetwork opensource is a decentralized geospatial
and intuitive use of the system and to offer building information management system based on interna-
blocks for future web service offerings. tional standards. It is designed to enable easy
The main goal of the GeoNetwork opensource and timely access to geo-referenced data and carto-
project is to provide free and open source soft- graphic products through descriptive metadata from
ware that improves accessibility to a wide variety of a variety of data providers. The system tries to
geospatial data and information products at differ- support a wide community of spatial information
ent scales and from distributed sources. The collec- users to make better-informed decisions. It im-
tions are organized, documented and published in proves geospatial information sharing between or-
a standardized, consistent way both at the metadata ganizations and their users, using the capacities of
and data level following international standards. As the Internet. It often triggers improved collaboration
such the tool has become a popular and widely ac- within and between organizations, reducing duplica-
cepted geospatial Information Management System tion and enhancing information consistency and data
within the UN system, forming a central and basic preparedness.

ISSN 1994-1897 16

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