WebFOCUS Newsletter September 2005

We will discuss that in this article, and in particular, the WebFOCUS GIS Adapter for ArcIMS. ArcIMS is GIS technology from Redlands, Calif.-based ESRI, considered to be the world leader in this area.

The WebFOCUS GIS Adapter for ArcIMS is a bi-directional interface for associating your data with map layers. The interface allows you to view a report and click on a link to change the colors, shapes or sizes of features on the map. The interface also allows you to view a map and select features from the map to be used to filter the report or graph request that is invoked. The key is having values in your data that can match to values stored in the map layer.

One of the adapter's components is ArcIMS, a lightweight, high-performance, server-based product that manages spatial queries and generates map images for distribution over the web.

It is estimated that 80 percent of data has a spatial reference. So what's a good example of the association between a map layer and your data? Let's pick something very familiar, such as a zip code.

Imagine you are looking at a map of the country with shapes representing the zip code boundaries. First you would select the report you want to invoke. The report must contain a WHERE clause against a data field that contains zip code values. For example:

WHERE ZIP_CODE EQ &ZIPLIST ;

The next step is to click on the map and drag a rectangle to surround the zip codes you want to see in the report. After you release the mouse button, WebFOCUS takes over to query ArcIMS, process the answer and turn it into a filter list that gets passed to your report.

The WebFOCUS GIS Adapter manages the flow of requests and data between WebFOCUS and ArcIMS. In this example the request will be a spatial query to ArcIMS to retrieve the zip code values based on the beginning and ending points of the rectangle that you created on the map. The answer set is received from ArcIMS in XML format, transformed to an appropriate format and included in the WebFOCUS request to launch your report.

It is very easy to develop a FOCEXEC that supplies the WebFOCUS GIS Adapter with the values necessary to change the way the map appears. Most companies have a report that looks something like this:

TABLE FILE SOME_DATA
SUM CURRENT_VALUE
BY ZIP_CODE
END

By adding one additional element you can turn this into a "map FEX:

COMPUTE 
  COLOR/A15 = IF CURRENT_VALUE GE 100000 THEN 'GREEN'
         ELSE IF CURRENT_VALUE GE  75000 THEN 'BLUE'
         ELSE IF CURRENT_VALUE GE  50000 THEN 'YELLOW'
         ELSE IF CURRENT_VALUE GE  25000 THEN 'ORANGE'
         ELSE 'RED';

When the GIS Adapter receives the report output it creates the request for ArcIMS to draw each zip code with the associated color.

Zip codes, states and sales regions are examples of polygons on the map. By default the color is the only attribute that can be changed for a polygon.

Streets, water pipes and power lines are lines on the map. It is possible to change the color and the width of these to indicate conditions in your data.

Stores, customers and insured locations are represented as points on the map. Points offer you the ability to represent your data with a powerful combination of color, size and shape. Perhaps you want to represent your highest volume customers as 25-pixel green stars. Your next tier could be 15-pixel blue circles and your lowest volume customers could be 5-pixel red squares.

This is a very compelling way to represent your data. Patterns and trends will be readily apparent that may never have been noticed by looking at rows and columns or even a graph. Features that are adjacent to each other on the map can be very far apart when viewed in a sorted report.

Suddenly you will be analyzing your data and asking new questions that lead to improvements in your business performance, and isn't that what Operation Business Intelligence is all about?