Geosoft mapping software for geophysics, geology, geochemistry
 

DAP Server 6.1 Release Notes

November 30, 2004

What's New in 6.1

About the DAP Server

Previous release notes


What's new in DAP Server 6.1

GIS Data Support

  • DAP v6.1.0 supports the native cataloging of ArcView SHP files and MapInfo TAB files natively
  • GIS data will be automatically windowed, reprojected and formatted for retrieval directly into Oasis montaj, ArcGIS or MapInfo, regardless of the data source
  • A Legend Editor is provided for administrators to establish a DAP rendering legend for GIS data sources

acQuire DAP

  • DAP can now catalog and deliver any exploration data stored in an acQuire database
  • Any acQuire enabled application will have access to DAP hosted acQuire data.  This removes the need for clients to maintain ODBC links directly to an acQuire database and takes advantage of DAP's ability to window, compress and stream data over a lower-bandwidth networks

New DAP Plug-ins/Client Applications

  • Geosoft plug-in for Windows Explorer
  • Geosoft plug-in for ArcGIS

Significant Enhancements

  • Updated DAP cataloging process to interactively set the types of datasets to catalog and supplementary metadata to use
  • Full support of supplementary metadata in MS Access, SQL Server or Oracle. Metadata database schema can be Single-Dataset, Survey or Survey-Category, or a combination of the three templates
  • The 'Get DAP Data' client interface allows users to set and adjust their 'Area of Interest' and coordinate system
  • System memory use has been expanded to use up to a maximum of 2Gb RAM
  • The Geosoft XML interface to DAP has been expanded significantly with the addition of coordinate system support, data rendering, metadata extraction and catalog extraction
  • The re-projection accuracy for very large regional datasets that require a significant change in shape has been improved significantly

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About the DAP Server

Geosoft DAP™ (Geosoft Data Access Protocol) is a family of Geosoft server and client technologies that provide for the cataloguing and distribution of spatial earth-science data to geoscientists over an Intranet or the Internet.

Data to be published through DAP is simply placed in a file system and organized in a way that makes sense to the data publisher.  Publishing services include metadata viewing, graphical data viewing, data extraction and data catalog queries. Data extraction provides for transfer of all or windowed parts of the data at an optimal resolution, in any format and in any coordinate system.

DAP supports any web client application, such as an ArcIMS client through Geosoft XML, or a MapServer application through OGC compliant WMS and Geosoft XML.  The "thick" clients such as Oasis montaj, ArcGIS, and MapInfo can be supported through plug-ins that uses the high performance TASK protocol.  Almost any data retrieval experience can be created through a .NET development that takes advantage of the Geosoft open GX Developer environment.

What is the DAP Server?

A Geosoft DAP Server comes with the following components:

  • Four core servers including:
  1. Geosoft DAP Catalog Server (DCS)
  2. Geosoft DAP Data Server (DDS)
  3. Geosoft DAP File Server (DFS)
  4. Geosoft DAP Map Server (DMS)
  • Three sample implementations of web servers that interact with the core servers to create a web client data discovery and delivery experience:
  1. ESRI ArcIMS example that uses the Geosoft DAP XML interface.
  2. MapServer example that uses the Geosoft DAP WMS interface, which is OGC compliant.
  3. ASP.NET example that uses Microsoft .NET and the Geosoft DAP XML interface to build a custom web page similar to the MapServer example.
  • Oasis montaj Geosoft DAP Administration client, which runs from within Geosoft Oasis montaj.
  • Geosoft public domain datasets that can be optionally installed to test the server application.
  • In addition, "thick" client applications that use the Geosoft high-performance TASK protocol to directly interact with Geosoft DAP servers are available directly from Geosoft.

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What does the DAP Server installation do?

Server Install:

  • Creates and configures DCS, DDS, DFS and DMS of Geosoft DAP server
  • Sets up and configures a working WMS server with a PHP engine and MapServer
  • Sets up and configures a working XML server
  • Sets up and configures a sample web server integrating with ArcIMS
  • Loads default datasets into the DAP server
  • Creates a new local user so that the DAP server can run within a secure context
  • Sets security permissions on created directories and files used by the DAP server
  • Checks for and uses a Geosoft DAP server license key
  • Provides all this in a step-by-step, interface driven installation package

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What data does the DAP Server support?

ArcView File Sets .SHP, .SHX, .DBF will be catalogued as spatially registered documents.  DAP will deliver selected documents to an Oasis client that will then display the data in a Geosoft map, or to an ArcGIS DAP client that can displays the SHP files directly.
MapInfo File Sets .TAB,.MAP,.ID,.DAT will be catalogued as spatially registered documents.  DAP will deliver selected document files to an Oasis client that will then display the data in a Geosoft map, or to an MapInfo DAP client that can displays the TAB files directly.
acQuire databases

Data stored in a corporate acQuire database can be cataloged and distributed to acQuire enabled client applications. acQuire surface point campaigning datasets using SEL files are now supported.

ESRI Geodatabase First level support for ESRI Geodatabases and ArcSDE by creating a data connector file.
Geosoft Grid Files All supported Geosoft grid types on a project basis.  Each grid file must be spatially located within a geographic or projected coordinate system.
Image Files All Geosoft supported image file formats.  Each image must be spatially located within a geographic or projected coordinate system.
Geosoft Maps Geosoft maps will be supported as spatially referenced documents.
Geosoft databases Geosoft GDB files will be support full windowing to selected area of interest.  GDB files must contain a designated X, Y coordinate channel pair in a defined projected to geographic coordinate system.
Geosoft HyperGrids Very large regional grids can be converted to Geosoft HyperMaps for more efficient windowing and delivery by DAP.  Administrator tools are provided to support the creation of HyperGrids.
Geosoft HyperXYZ Very large point attribute data (X, Y, attributes…) can be converted to Geosoft HyperXYZ format for efficient windowing and data delivery by DAP.  Administrator tools are provided to support the creation of HyperXYZ data from Geosoft GDB files.
Geosoft HyperMaps Specific large point and line GIS themes, such as drainage, political boundaries, claim boundaries can be converted to Geosoft HyperMaps for efficient windowing and distribution by DAP.  Administrator tools are provided for the creation of HyperMaps from a selected Geosoft map group.
Documents All document types can be catalogued with spatial references for delivery of the document files to DAP clients.
AutoCAD drawings AutoCAD drawings will not be directly supported. AutoCAD drawings can be converted to Geosoft MAP files or to GIS themes and distributed in these formats.
MS Access Databases MS Access databases will not be directly supported except as spatially located documents.  Data contained in an MS Access database can be imported into a Geosoft GDB file and converted to Geosoft HyperXYZ file for distribution.

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What system requirements are needed to run DAP Server?

Geosoft DAP is a multi-threaded server application that will take maximum advantage of multiple processors and available memory. The more processors and memory on the server, the better the performance will be. The requirements listed below are guidelines. Speed and performance of a DAP server will be dependant on the hardware configuration and the data serving demands of your site.

Minimum Requirements:

  • Windows 2000/XP (will run on a Workstation and Server Edition)
  • IIS 5.0 or above, or Apache v2.0.44 or above
  • 512 MB RAM
  • Sufficient amount of physical disk space to hold all data to be served.

Optimal Requirements:

  • Windows 2000 Server or Windows 2003 Server (Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition)
  • IIS 5.0 or above, or Apache v2.0.44 or above
  • 2 GB RAM
  • Dual processor (minimum 1.4 – 2 GHz in speed)

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