DAP Server 6.3 Release NotesApril 15, 2006What's New in 6.3About the DAP Server
Previous release notesWhat's new in DAP Server 6.3Geosoft DAP™ 6.3 is a major upgrade of Geosoft’s DAP server technology. Notable improvements and functions new to DAP 6.3 are provided below. Notable DAP 6.3 Enhancements Data SecurityAll data can now be secured on a user or group level. Users and groups (which are simply named groups of users) are assigned a security privilege for each dataset. There are four levels of data access:
For file systems, security is inherited from the parent catalog node (typically a parent directory). Security can also be established on a file-by-file basis. For a Geodatabase, the entire database will have the same level of security. Data CatalogThe most important difference from DAP 6.2 is the use of a data catalog file that contains almost all the information required to support the rapid browsing, searching and exploration of available data. The new catalog has been designed to efficiently handle up to 500,000 separate catalog entries. For each entry, the following information is maintained in the catalog:
The process of cataloguing data will cache the metadata, create the optimized visualizations, establish the data connection protocol and inherit or define appropriate security policies. The DAP Administrator will also work in command line mode which allows scheduling of catalog tasks using the standard scheduled task tools. Data EncryptionAll DAP Server-Client communication can be optionally encrypted to enhance network security. In DAP 6.2, this feature was only available as a customization. DAP 6.3 includes full 256-bit PKI encryption as a standard feature. More Data VisualizationsData visualization performance for browsing is significantly improved. DAP 6.3 also extends visualization support to Geosoft maps, acQuire datasets and documents. DAP DirectoriesDAP 6.3 uses a very different directory structure than 6.2. The single DAP data directory is no longer required as a DAP catalog can contain any number of separate file systems and any number of virtual nodes that are connected to different directory structures of your networked file system. The data cache directory is no longer used. Certain data types that create data caches for performance reasons will create the cache in the same directory as the data (in the case of file-based entries), or the data connector. The DAP data catalog and support files are now stored in a directory named “DAP Catalog”. Other than the “aoi_region.csv” file, which you can customize to suit your needs, all other files and directories are maintained by the DAP server and DAP administrator application. DAP AdministratorA new application named DAP Administrator is now used to administer DAP servers and manage DAP data catalogs. The DAP administrator includes enhanced DAP server auditing log. Oasis montaj is now only used for data preparation and data quality assurance. A new “DAP Prep” menu is available to all Oasis montaj users to help in the preparation of data for publishing on a DAP server. Metadata HandlingMetadata handling has been simplified with the addition of a Metadata template editor. This makes establishing SQL metadata connections more straightforward that directly writing SQL code. DAP Server InstallationThe DAP server installation is now very much simplified. A single DAP server will perform all functions – catalog services, search services, and data retrieval services. DAP v6.3 no longer includes the MapServer based web application, although a MapServer-based web server is supported and can still be used. Support for ESRI Geodatabases and ArcSDEThis version offers first level support for ESRI Geodatabases and ArcSDE Databases. To catalog ESRI Personal Geodatabases and/or ArcSDE Databases you must create a database connector file in the folder in which you want the data to appear to a data user. Using the DAP Administrator, select the folder that you want the data to appear, right-click and select Add / Personal Geodatabase Connection (or Add / ArcSDE Connection) and a connector file will be created in the selected folder. Text SearchingA comprehensive text search engine has been incorporated into DAP 6.3. All metadata will be included for text searching and more powerful text search queries are now supported including special characters and Boolean operators. acQuire Data PublishingDrilling and surface geochemical data stored in corporate acQuire databases are more easily made available to users through DAP. In particular, surface sample campaigns can be published from acQuire selection files that define exactly what a data administrator wants to make available to end-users. End-users can include Oasis montaj, ArcGIS and MapInfo with a very simplified interface that requires no knowledge of the use of acQuire. OGC WMS and Open InterfacesThe OGC WMS interface performance has been improved and generalised so that more WMS applications will be able to view data on DAP servers. An open interface for tile servers has also been optimised to allow browsing of data on global explorer applications. MapInfo Professional Plug-inThe MapInfo Professional plug-in now supports extraction of point datasets from acQuire databases. ESRI ArcGIS Plug-inThe ESRI plug-in has been improved with the addition of automatic translation of image formats to ERDAS format so that ArcGIS can view data natively rather than through the Plug-in technology. Support for Robinson client projections has been added. GEODAP and Web PublishingThe sample GEODAP .NET Web application has been improved with the addition of more data formats. In particular raster image formats (JPEG, BMP, PNG etc.) and documents types are now supported. Additional data types can be extracted including grids, TAB, SHP, HXYZ, HMAP, and HGD. DAP browser map and rendering of data typesGrids, raster images, maps, TAB, SHP HXYZ, HMAP, and GDBs are rendered using snapshot technique. Grids, raster images and HMAP switch to true rendering at high resolution. acQuire surface from SEL files are rendered using symbols.
About the DAP ServerGeosoft 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:
What does the DAP Server installation do?Server Install:
What data does the DAP Server support?
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:
Optimal Requirements:
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