Bridging Spatial and Tabular Data Using MapWinGIS ActiveX Control In A Natural Resource Monitoring Database
Miller S and Joly K. 2010. Bridging Spatial and Tabular Data Using MapWinGIS ActiveX Control In A Natural Resource Monitoring Database
Natural resource monitoring databases often consist of a mixture of tabular and spatial data. The presence of spatial data frequently complicates application development due to the paucity of Rapid Application Development tools specifically designed for spatial data. Developers are forced to choose between shifting the whole data management system into a GIS to solve the problem or cobbling together a ’home grown’ solution using traditional tabular data management tools. We soon discovered the MapWinGIS ActiveX GIS control. This tool consists of a programming object that can be added to a form and programmed using any language that supports ActiveX. The control can be embedded in a RAD environment such as Microsoft Access, in essence providing a built-in GIS that can be integrated with the back end data model. The MapWinGIS can be an effective substitute for a GIS in certain data models where the spatial entities are few and simple, data management tasks are straightforward, and where there are significant advantages to be gained through a tabular data model’s architecture and Rapid Application Development tools.
- Type
- Poster
- Authors
- Miller, Scott; Joly, Kyle
- Date of Issue
- 2010
- Units
- ARCN