The product was an outgrowth of project work undertaken in Sweden to facilitate GeoMedia WebMap development, which had required some customization in the past.Tools to publish projects using GeoMedia WebMap were available previously, but not without additional support.
When installed, GeoMedia WebMap Publisher inserts a "dockable" toolbar within GeoMedia that contains controls to help create a publishable version of a GeoMedia workspace. A GeoMedia user, having developed the workspace to the point at which they were ready to create a website, would click a "Quick Start" button on the toolbar.This action will write a description of the GeoMedia project workspace to a metadata table in a Microsoft Access database.In addition, this process creates the HTML files that become the newly developed website.
The user would then start GeoMedia WebMap Publisher and connect to the meta database to retrieve the project settings and view that project.A table of contents is automatically generated and each feature within the viewable map area is linked to the underlying database information.
Each time any changes are made by the user to the database from within GeoMedia, the results are updated within the meta database as well.The next instance of the refreshed website page will also contain the updates.
It is a simple workflow will help any GeoMedia user publish project work as a website.The product will be welcome news for any GIS project managers faced with the need to share data among either internal project managers or external constituents.
The product is a good example
of the commercialization of project work originally undertaken to customize
a client's needs.Intergraph has capitalized on its network of worldwide
intellectual capital in software development to help develop a very useful
product.