2009 Esri Federal UC

Table of Contents Meeting Info GIS Portal Toolkit User Group Meeting Notes Overview of the user group Summary of prior meeting Resources available to users NOAA's Implementation of GPT Version 9.3 (NOAA) ESRI Overview of General PTK Updates and Plans for Next Releases (ESRI) Questions

Meeting Info

• What: Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI)/Geoportal Extension User Group
• When: Friday, February 20, 2009; 2:30 PM 3:30 PM; Room 204C

GIS Portal Toolkit User Group Meeting Notes

Introduction (EPA): kicked off the session with an overview of the user group, a summary of the prior meeting held at the International User Conference in August 2008, and an outline of GPT user group resources available to others

Overview of the user group

• We kicked this user group off last year at the 2008 ESRI FedUC
• We decided to meet semi-annually (can meet more frequently if needed)
• We identified some goals for our group:
  • Create a network of PTK users (and those interested in using PTK software) in order to increase knowledge and sharing among members
  • Provide a framework where users can learn from one another's implementations and share ideas on what works and does not work, lessons learned, and creative solutions.
  • Promote reuse of custom developments and user solutions
  • Provide collective input to ESRI on critical needs/enhancements
  • Obtain input from ESRI on next steps, planned enhancements, and updates.

Summary of prior meeting

Our last meeting was held at ESRI's International UC in August 2008. We focused on the plans for the next update for the GPT software (9.3)

Resources available to users

• Email addresses through our user group announcements
• Semi-Annual Meetings at the Federal UC and the International UC
• User Forum page at geoportal website
• Send questions to portal@esri.com

NOAA's Implementation of GPT Version 9.3 (NOAA)

Kim (NOAA) provided an overview of their GPT Implementation, called the NOAA Southeast and Caribbean Data Explorer. For additional information about the NOAA Southeast and Caribbean Data Explorer, see the presentation titled 'SEDART DE-fed uc.ppt'. Presentation Overview:

• Background
  • Southeast and Caribbean Regional Team SECART identified a need for a web-based gateway that allows users to search for regional data from various themes within a single interface
  • Goals include: Provide regional geospatial data to customers from a single location, All line/program offices involved in process, Create standardized approach to installation with COTS product, Compliant with IT security, Template for distribution, and Create standard metadata workflow process.
• Implementation
  • Architecture is different from the usual single-machine ESRI install; using direct connect to offload some of the orkload from the database server to machine 1.
  • NOAA's Topic Search categories: Not a standard feature in the GPT. Good jumping point for people unsure of NOAA org. structure or what data to search for. Based off of 8 NOAA themes. Drill down by general NOAA topic, then by line office or program office-useful for internal lines to view their offices' data/metadata.
• Presentation Questions
  • Does SECART also contain information that would meet the user needs of other Agencies? Answer: In this phase (phase 1), we are sticking with just the NOAA data. In phase 2, we will be reaching out to partners, and then we can work toward the broader community.
  • What is your QA process in terms of managing important search terms? Answer: The administrator does a lot of testing, targeting unique keywords. We have guidance documentation for things such as a well-defined title. We've tailored the search results to access the title, abstract, keywords and bounding box.
  • Are your live data services OGC-compliant? Answer: All of our data services have their OGC connectors to turn on.
  • Do you have problems with privacy and/or sharing? Answer: In general, no one wants to give up their data, we're just finding another way for folks to make their data available. The fisheries group does some regulations, they currently don't provide the information that is considered sensitive.
  • Are your categories based on keywords or a separate metadata attribute field? Answer: They've been tied to the ISO theme categories our categories map to the specific ISO themes. You can have multiple themes for a specific topic if a specific metadata record applies to a few different categories.
  • Are you generating KML files and can you display them in the map viewer? Answer: You cannot display them in the 9.3 version of the Map Viewer. Would be nice to have this. NOAA's data producers are making a lot of their data available in KML.
  • I just wanted to make a note about NOAA'limate portal; there are several line offices (NWS, NOS, etc) involved in an effort to develop a climate services portal. A key part of that is to develop records for the portal. The timing for this project is: March = primary release, September = public release,

ESRI Overview of General PTK Updates and Plans for Next Releases (ESRI)

Marten (ESRI) provided an overview of the plans for the next release of GPT. For additional details on the plans for the upcoming release, please see the presentation titled 'FedUC 2009 GPT Tech Workshop 0218' or access the technical workshop titled 'Discovery and Access of Geospatial Resources Using GIS Portal Toolkit' from the ESRI FedUC proceedings.

• Highlights of planned GPT Version 9.3.1 Features:
  • Unlike other ESRI products, GPT has only 1 development team that focuses on the current version. Other ESRI products have multiple development teams that work on specific releases.
  • We'll be expanding the documentation to include samples of how-to's for things like customizing, etc. On the ESRI support site you will see articles describing these options.
  • Platform support has been extended. Linux will be included.
  • The release of the GPT software is dependent on the release of ArcGIS Server 9.3.1
• Discovery enhancements
  • Access restrictions have been added for individual metadata records within the database. These include: Unrestricted (anyone can see the records as soon as they are approved), Public-protected (separates metadata into internal content & external content), Restricted (allows user to set up groups, which would provide access to particular documents based on which groups users are members of)
  • Expanded the REST and CSW API's to honor the access controls that EPA is implementing -
  • When you perform a search, you only get to see what you're allowed to see as an end-user.
  • Inline viewing of resources - Live data sources can be rendered within a viewer. The idea is that if you find something that is not a map service to look at, someone can build a tool/widget that knows how to deal with those types of services and they would be displayed using that tool.
  • Federated search - This has been a question from folks rather than limiting it to the harvesting approach. To date, the focus has been on harvesting as a mechanism to run the search. It has its limitations however (law of large numbers example). ESRI is implementing a way to direct search to another catalog (using CSW interface). This works based on the registration of services in the harvesting. The GPT will automatically recognize the catalogs and add them to the drop-down list to make them available. GMU is developing a CSW interface on top of Z39.50. Example of Library of Congress search.
  • Support for ontologies and thesaurus service integration - The service looks up synonyms and terms; the user tells the program how deep to go into the network of terms. Users can search for words within specific elements of the metadata record. In your definition of the schemas you define what those qualifiers would be. You can customize this so that it can be user-friendly.
  • Sitemaps will be included so that content will be findable in search engines
  • We're including the ability to save a draft metadata record.
• Licensing updates
  • GPT licensing has been formalized into a formal maintenance program. Working closely with the tech support division.
  • There will be a license fee for new users. If you are an existing user with maintenance, then you will get the update.
  • GPT will now be part of the GSA Schedule A and added to Master License Agreement

Questions

• I'm curious about storage options. Does GPT have the capability to store other objects such as dictionaries or schemas? Answer: The GPT does not store things; if they are accessible through a URL then you can find them
• Is there a potential for Portal tying into Web of Science or other portals? Answer: If those systems, databases, catalogs, etc. have some sort of interface that can be interacted with, Marten would love to learn about those.
• Question about licensing: Academics can't have Enterprise License Agreements; how would this work for the academic community? Answer: You could possibly use the Academic Site License. You may want to look into that and see if it will work for you.
• Update concerning the NAP standard: the NAP of the ISO standard is going through the process to become an ANSI standard. In the beginning of May, it will be published. Eventually it will replace the FGDC standard.

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