Pitney Bowes MapInfo
One Global View Troy, New York 12180
Tel: 518-285-6000 or 800-FASTMAP
Fax: 518-285-6070
http://www.mapinfo.com
MapInfo Professional version 9.5 is the latest release of Pitney Bowes
MapInfo desktop location intelligence software. The list price of the
most recent release of MapInfo is $1,645 for a single copy. This review
will center
on the new features and upcoming enhancements included within a planned
maintenance release later this year.
Ease of Use
Pitney Bowes MapInfo continues to enhance the user experience by taking
suggestions from the user base to make the software easier to use and
produce better maps. The visual elements of MapInfo Professional have
been upgraded to appear more consistent with the different Microsoft
operating systems. Objects such as dialog boxes appear different in
MapInfo Professional, based on the operating system’s current display
theme (a Windows control panel setting) for users with Windows 2000, XP
or Vista.
MapInfo Professional makes it easier for users to specify feature
styles on their maps. The styles for Line Style, Region Style, Symbol
Style, Text Style and Colors Style are arranged in a grid denoted with
numbers and letters to provide a specific address for a specific style.
Figure 1 shows the symbol and color dialogs that appear when a user
selects one of the dropdown menus in the Symbol Style dialog box. Users
can share specific symbol information with other users, such as the
star in Figure 1, by designating its address in the grid, which is E-1.
The reference grids can be displayed or hidden by checking the Show
reference grid for style pickers on the Options>Preferences>Style
dialog.
 |
Figure
1: Color and Symbol styles in the Symbol Style dialog box. (Click for
larger image)
MapInfo Professional v9.5 supports custom symbols from any raster
format that any installed raster handler can support. The Add button on
the Symbol Style dialog box allows users to add raster files from their
local computers. MapInfo Professional includes a new group of custom
symbols from the West London local authorities, called “Civic England.”
These new symbols represent institutions, leisure activities and
transportation. Users can create their own folders to store custom
symbols.
MapInfo Professional can now read the native projection information for
shapefiles before creating a .tab file for the shapefile. Upon opening
a shapefile, the user will specify a name for the .tab file and MapInfo
Professional will read the native projection information of the
shapefile. Users have the option to select the projection in the source
shapefile or can choose a new projection through a dialog box. Choosing
a new projection does not reproject the shapefile’s objects, which
could produce unexpected results. This new projection option is useful
if the shapefile does not contain the projection information file
(.prj), but the user knows the projection of the shapefile from the
metadata.
The New Map Window dialog has been redesigned in the latest release of
the software. In the past, users could add up to four tables,
selections or queries when they created a new map window. The
redesigned dialog makes it easier to add more layers when a new map is
created. The layer order for the new map can be arranged in the New Map
Window dialog box before the map window is created.
Labels in previous versions of MapInfo Professional tended to appear
jagged on a map, especially when they were rotated. MapInfo
Professional v9.5 includes a new anti-aliasing process to enhance the
rendering of labels on a map, so the labels appear smoother on the map
display.
 |
Figure
2: Map Options with Enhanced Rendering set to None. (Click for
larger image)
 |
Figure
3: Map Options with Enhanced Rendering set to Anti-Alias. (Click for
larger image)
MapInfo Professional v9.5 includes a new feature that detects
overlapping autolabels and repositions the text around point, line or
region in order to avoid overlap and display more labels. The Label
options dialog includes radio buttons for adjustments to labels.
Examples include “Discard overlapping text,” “When overlaps occur, try
another position,” and “Allow overlapping text.” The radio button “When
overlaps occur, try another position” is a new option that adjusts the
overlapping labels and repositions the text to get as many labels on
the map as possible without overlapping with other labels.
MapInfo Professional v9.0 included the ability to create curved
labels. A new feature added to the Label Options dialog in this
version sets a percentage of a curved label that extends beyond the
size of the polyline if the text for the label is longer than the
polyline feature. For example, if the percentage is set to 40%, then
the label text can extend up to 40% beyond the end of the polyline for
MapInfo Professional to include that curved label on the map. The label
will not be displayed on the map if the text is longer than 40% of the
size of the polyline. Figure 4 shows the new label adjustment options
in MapInfo Professional v9.5, including positioning labels when
overlaps occur and the slider bar to extend curved labels.
 |
Figure
4: New label adjustment options in MapInfo Professional v9.5. (Click
for
larger image)
Another feature that has been added to MapInfo Professional provides a
context menu for layer operations such as opening the Layer Control
dialog, viewing an entire layer, selecting all objects from a layer,
and making a layer editable. The user can press the Select tool on any
feature in a layer and then right-click after the selection is made to
bring up the context menu. Based on the features selected, the layer
name in the Layer Control list will be highlighted in bold letters. The
context menu provides a quick way to create selections, access the
Layer Control list and maneuver around the map.
Data Creation and Editing
MapInfo Professional includes a new extension called MapCAD, which has
a set of powerful CAD drawing tools for enhanced data creation and
editing. Pitney Bowes MapInfo has a contractual arrangement with GeoAS
to include the MapCAD editing tools in this release of MapInfo
Professional. MapCAD is not part of the standard MapInfo Professional
installation, meaning that users will have to install this feature
separately from the installation CD. Once it is installed and loaded,
two new toolbars will appear on the user interface: the MapCAD toolbar
and the Objects toolbar. The MapCAD toolbar contains 33 new tools for
data editing and the Objects toolbar contains 30 tools. Figure 5 shows
the tools available on the MapCAD and Objects toolbars. The MapCAD and
Objects toolbars are completely customizable, so that users can check
and uncheck the tools from the toolbars to show or hide tools from the
toolbars. The Help button on the MapCAD toolbar contains a link to the
documentation for the product, including a detailed description of all
the MapCAD tools.
 |
Figure
5: MapCAD functions included with MapInfo Professional v9.5. (Click for
larger image)
Enhanced Data Access
MapInfo Professional continues to support the latest database platforms
from vendors such as Microsoft and Oracle. MapInfo Professional has
been upgraded to support the Microsoft’s latest release of SQL Server
2008. Adding data from Microsoft SQL Server Spatial is done through the
File>Open Universal Data. The first time a user connects to SQL
Server 2008, he will have to enter the server and database through the
Settings dialog, along with a username and password. The spatial data
within Microsoft SQL Server 2008 are Read-Only, whereas the attribute
data are Read/Write. Figure 6 shows the Formats Gallery for the
Universal Data where the user can choose the Microsoft SQL Server
Spatial data option.
 |
Figure
6: MapInfo Professional Formats Gallery with Microsoft SQL
Server Spatial. (Click for
larger image)
MapInfo Professional has updated the list of coordinate system
projection codes to include those of Oracle 11g SRID. This function
ensures that .tab files based on Oracle tables contain the correct
coordinate system reference for MapInfo Professional to display the
data correctly in a map window. MapInfo Professional can create a text
object from an Oracle 11g table that contains an Annotation Text
column. The data from the Annotation Text column can be linked or
accessed live.
Another improvement for tables in MapInfo Professional is the ability
to drag and drop columns in the Table Maintenance dialog boxes. In
previous versions of the software, users had to select a column and
then push the Up and Down buttons to move a column to a different
location in a table. The Up and Down buttons are still included in the
Table Maintenance dialog boxes. However, the ability to simply click on
a field and drop it in another location can be very useful to reorder a
table that has many columns.
Users who work with a Web Feature Service (WFS) transaction server can
use MapInfo Professional to insert, update and delete records from the
WFS transaction server. The layer from the WFS can be downloaded
locally in MapInfo Professional so that the user can edit the layer.
When the user has completed his edits, he can save those edits back to
the WFS server. Since several users can be working on single WFS
server, MapInfo Professional will check to see if there are any data
conflicts for the features that the user edited. If the server cannot
commit the changes because of data conflicts, the user can resolve the
conflicts automatically, interactively or save the data locally and
leave the server as is. The Automatic Conflict Resolution will treat
all of the edits the same way and upload them and overwrite the WFS
transaction server data. The Interactive Conflict Resolution allows the
user to investigate each record in conflict and decide which records to
overwrite on the WFS transaction server.
Programmability support via .NET
MapInfo Professional v9.0 became the first release in which MapBasic
was included as a free download for the software. MapBasic continues to
be a free download with several new functions added in MapInfo
Professional v9.5. Developers who want to add GIS functionality or
automate a repetitive process in MapInfo Professional can call
functions and subroutines written in the MapBasic development
environment. MapBasic programs can also call functions and subroutines
written using Microsoft's .Net development platform. Developers can
write code in languages such as C# (C-sharp) and VB.Net (Visual Basic
for .Net), using Microsoft's Visual Studio development environment and
then call these procedures with MapBasic. Alternatively, MapInfo
Professional can also be integrated inside a .NET application to add
location intelligence to a custom application. MapInfo Professional
includes a sample program for the “Named Views” tool, which replaces
the Named View dialog box with one created in .NET. The .Net Named
Views dialog box is resizable and it displays the named views (map
bookmarks) in a hierarchical tree, where users can organize their views
by dragging and dropping.
Enhanced Licensing and Deployment
MapInfo Professional supports a new deployment option for Workgroup
installations. This deployment option allows the storing of application
data files, such as templates and custom symbols, in a shared, central
location. During the software installation process, there is an option
to choose the MapInfo Professional Workgroup Installation. The System
Administrators will create both the shared location for the application
data files and a method for users to install MapInfo Professional on
their local machines. Users will install the application on the
computers and create a pointer to the location of the shared files.
MapInfo Professional includes a new licensing model where organizations
can distribute permanent licenses using a MapInfo License Server, which
is available on the installation CD. Generally, users can activate a
permanent node-locked license using the Pitney Bowes MapInfo FNO
server, but for users with limited Internet access, a License Server
can be installed on an organization’s network to activate a permanent
distributed license. Activated Licenses can be transferred to the
network License Server or back to Pitney Bowes MapInfo when a user
wants to move a license to another computer or needs to make hardware
changes such as reformatting a hard disk.
Product Improvement Suggestions
MapInfo Professional includes a new product feedback function through
the Help menu for users to submit feedback on the software directly to
the product managers.
Planned Enhancements
Pitney Bowes MapInfo is planning a maintenance release for MapInfo
Professional v9.5 in November 2008. The maintenance release will
include a new enhancement to display translucent vectors and enhanced
rendering. Translucent vectors allow a user to place a polygon layer
over other layers, yet still be able to see the layers below the
polygon layer by setting a translucent fill property for the polygon
layer. The selected features fill pattern will have a translucent
setting to make the selections look better. Labels will also have a
translucent property to lighten the labels and soften the message on
the map.
Conclusion
Pitney Bowes MapInfo continues to develop MapInfo Professional to suit
customer needs and to support changes in operating system and database
software technologies. The product suggestions for the most recent
release of MapInfo Professional came directly from a survey of users.
The new product feedback function will allow Pitney Bowes MapInfo to
collect and analyze user feedback from more of its users going forward.
Users should find that the new features in MapInfo Professional v9.5
make the product easier to use and it displays better output. Users who
need to edit spatial data will find the MapCAD tools very useful for
their workflows and users who access spatial data in Oracle and
Microsoft SQL Server database now have updated functionality to access
these databases. Developers can now use the .Net integration to
customize MapInfo Professional or to add GIS functionality to their
applications.
