last updated 12th January 06
By 4ecotips.com

Drill-down feature enables real-time viewing

People viewing maps online can now call up, interrogate, explore and analyse the information they contain interactively in real time, thanks to a new capability built into the latest version of GeoConcept Internet Server, the powerful geographic information system from MapMechanics.

This new capability has been made possible by the introduction of an On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) capability in GeoConcept. This "G-OLAP" technology allows people using Web browsers to drill down into the data behind online mapping on a live basis, viewing and analysing the information in whatever way suits them - both textually and in the form of annotated maps.

The feature is seen as ideal both for internet mapping, where uses might range over consumer, business and public sector applications, and where mapping is deployed within an organisation over an intranet, and users may need to interrogate data in a wide variety of different ways.

As an example, a user might be viewing a map of Great Britain that shows economic activity symbolically by region. If the user clicks to zoom in on a region, GeoConcept will automatically extract the relevant thematic data for that region from the underlying database, and generate new symbols to display it intelligently on the maps (for instance, by means of charts, graphs or coloured geographical areas on the zoomed-in map itself).

Chris Greenwood, MapMechanics' commercial director, explains: "Users viewing maps that are produced by GeoConcept Internet Server have been able to pan around and zoom in and out of them for a long time now, and see related data superimposed on them. But traditionally, the analysis would be performed in advance, and in effect, users would be calling up predetermined content.

"G-OLAP gives end users unprecedented power to make their own selections in real time, and call up maps that deliver current data on a live basis. They are presented with uniquely created maps meeting the needs of each enquiry."