Performance Enhancements
- Server side caching
- Client side caching
I’m all for anything that makes GeoMedia WebMap faster! This caching looks very promising. You can currently do some bare-bones caching in WebPub through one of the settings. However it doesn’t work when you enable dynamic resizing of the map to fit different resolutions and screen sizes. Since I almost always have that enabled, I can’t take advantage of the caching. Hopefully this setting doesn’t run into the same limitation.
Integration with External Applications
- Web Services integration to external applications –
Allows you to link the web client with other applications such as ERP systems or office applications like Microsoft Word or Excel - Uses the WCDI (Web Client Desktop Interface) Base Component –
The WCDI Base Component is a configurable Java Applet that allows access to local resources on the client computer - Includes base WCDL connector of which custom interfaces can be built upon
- WebMap Enterprise includes a WCDL connector for
- Microsoft Word
- Microsoft Excel
- Notepad
In today’s GIS environment, integration is the name of the game. These integration options sound very cool. Not sure how easy/hard they’ll be to integrate using GWME as opposed to writing your own custom code (not that I could do that). It would be great if they’d provide some examples showcasing this type of functionality. If it’s straightforward enough, I can definitely see folks using this type of functionality.
In closing, GeoMedia WebMap Enterprise (according to the slide show I have, was due out in Q2 (ending in June). Surmising from the lack of information on the web site (at least what I can’t find) it doesn’t look like that date was met. Currently, I don’t own GeoMedia WebMap let alone GeoMedia WebMap Professional. However I’m trying to get a copy as part of next year’s budget. For what I need initially, WebMap Standard with WebPub will work fine. However, with time, I can definitely see GWME being enough of a reason to at least seriously look at upgrading to GeoMedia WebMap Professional. One thing to note however – it will be curious to see if Intergraph maintains the relatively high price for GeoMedia WebMap Professional (around $20,000 for a "small license" if I recall correctly). Although you’re getting a lot more functionality for that price, there are plenty of competitive internet map servers on the market today. Not to mention that two very good ones are free (UMN and MapGuide Open Source). Additionally, although you won’t get anywhere near the functionality of GeoMedia WebMap Professional in one of the free search engine mapping applications, you still get quite a bit of functionality…and again…free.