Implementing Internet GIS with Java based Client/Server Environment

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Introduction
GIS is an emerging technology encompassing many disciplines namely geography, cartography,
photogrammetry, remote sensing, surveying, GPS technology, statistics and other disciplines
concerned with handling and analysing spatially referenced data. GIS is mainly comprised of data
handling tools for storage, retrieval, management and analysis of spatial data as well as solving
complex geographical problems. GIS can also be used for the generation of new information by the
user-defined combination of several existing information.


Server and Client side Architecture
There are two basic approaches for deploying GIS or any other complex, data-driven application on
the Internet; those are server-side and client-side applications. In a server-side Internet GIS
application, a Web browser is used to generate server requests and display the results. An Internet
GIS server usually combines a standard Web (HTTP) server and a GIS application server, and the
GIS databases and functionality reside completely on the server(s). A server-side GIS application can
be illustrated by a mapping application on any of the major Internet portals. Users type in the address
they are looking for (the request), which is transferred to a Web server. The Web server passes the
request to a GIS application server, which runs an address matching routine, generates a map
graphic, convert the graphic to Web format, wraps the image in HTML and sends it back to the Web
server, which then returns the response to the client as a standard Web page


Integration with Relational Database Management System (RDBMS)
Databases are becoming an increasingly important feature of GIS and an increasingly valuable asset.
Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) provides number of functions critical to the
effective operation of a GIS and it is developed to manage and share data in an orderly manner and
to ensure that the integrity of the database is maintained. Thus the value of user’s data can be
increased greatly by the use of a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). RDBMS
enables fast storage and retrieval of large amounts of information.