Glossary

ArcGIS Server. Esri's software that creates GIS services over the web for web-mapping applications.

Domain Name. The part of a URI or URL that specifies the Internet address of the web server. For example, in http://services.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/rest/services/, the domain name is services.arcgisonline.com.

Epoch Time. See Unix Time.

Fully Qualified URI/URL. A URI or URL that specifies all the parts of the domain name and is unambiguous in any context. For example, http://myserver.mycompany.com/myfolder/myfile.html. The following URL is not fully qualified: http://myserver/myfolder/myfile.html, and neither is this: http://localhost/myfolder/myfile.html. Relative URLs are also not fully qualified: myfolder/myfile.html.

GIS. Geographic Information System, a system that captures, analyzes or manages data that is linked to a location on a map.

IIS. Internet Information Services is Microsoft's web server software.

KML. Keyhole Markup Language - a schema for rendering geographic markup on web-based maps. Based on XML. See also: OGC.

Map. The maps referred to in this application are web-based maps, which are fundamentally different from paper-based maps in that they are both interactive and searchable. Web maps contain data in many forms, which can be searched, annotated, and used for analysis and decision-making.

Web maps are also referred to as basemaps and operational maps. Basemaps supply background and contextual information in layers. Basemaps usually contain information about features or structures that do not change often like highways, rivers, mountains, and borders. Operational maps often contain layers with additional data used for specific tasks like tracking, research, or analysis. The data in operational maps is usually within a specific area of interest, for example forestry, population, or earthquake incidents, and are used to highlight quantities, densities, or distribution. Operational layers are usually added to basemaps, which provide a contextual background for the operational information.

Map Service. A map service is how most maps are published over the Internet. Maps are generated by a map server using data from a GIS database. Well-known map services are provided by ArcGIS, Google Maps, Bing, and MapQuest but there are many others. Map services use Global Positioning System (GPS) data to describe the physical locations of features. Map services can be used by many different client applications. Tools and specifications such as Keyhole Markup Language (KML) and Open Spatial Consortium (OGC) have made it easier for applications to use map services by providing common languages and standards for rendering maps.

A dynamic map service is where the server draws maps on demand, which means that the map is re-drawn each time the user zooms or pans. A cached map service, is a set of tiled map images that are pre-rendered so that they display rapidly. Cached maps are created at specified scale levels and stored on a server (server-side cache) or locally. Cached maps can be a higher quality and use features like 3D and transparency.

Map Widget. A control that appears as an overlay on the map in the viewer. The Geocortex Viewer for HTML5 has a number of map widgets: Bookmarks, Scale Bar, Scale Input, Overview Map, Map Coordinates, and Time Slider map widgets. Do not confuse map widgets with the widgets in viewer configuration files.

Module. Are packages of functionality that can be independently developed, tested, and deployed. In many situations, modules are developed and maintained by separate teams. A typical application is built from multiple modules. Modules can be used to represent specific business functions. Modules also encapsulate common application infrastructure or services (for example, logging and exception management services) that can be reused across multiple applications. Most modules have one or more views and view models.

OGC. The Open Geospatial Consortium is an international organization that sets standards for geospatial services and content, data sharing and GIS data processing. They have issued over 30 standards including:

QR Code. A Quick Response Code is a matrix barcode that can be rapidly decoded. It is often used to encode URLs to a website. A mobile device with an integrated camera and QR Code software can scan the encoded URL and open the web page immediately.

Regions. Regions are logical placeholders defined within the application's UI (in the shell or within views) in which Views are displayed. Regions allow the layout of the application's UI to be updated without requiring changes to the application logic. Typically, <div> elements are used as regions to automatically display Views. However, any HTML element that can host content can be used as a region. Views can be displayed within a Region programmatically or automatically. Regions can be located by other components through the ViewManager.

REST. Representational State Transfer provides a simple, open web interface to services hosted by ArcGIS Server. All the resources and operations exposed by the REST API are accessible through a hierarchy of endpoints or Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) for each GIS service published with ArcGIS Server.

Shell. The Shell defines the overall layout and structure of the application. It is usually not aware of which modules it hosts. It usually implements common application services and infrastructure, but most of the application's functionality and content is implemented within the modules. The Shell also provides the top-level window or visual element that hosts the different UI components provided by the loaded modules.

String. A series of characters, consisting of letters, numbers or symbols. A string can also be empty or null (not assigned). A string is a very common data type.

Unix Time. The number of milliseconds since the Unix epoch: January 1, 1970 at midnight UTC. Unix time is a common way for software to store times internally. To convert between human-readable times and Unix time, use a converter like http://www.epochconverter.com/.

URI. URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers) identify and locate resources on a network. The network can be an intranet or the Internet. A URL such as http://sampleserver1.geocortex.com/arcgis/rest/services/ is one type of URI. A file path like ..\..\Resources\Styles\Common.css is another type of URI.

URL. URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) are also known as web addresses. They define the location of websites, web pages, and other resources on a network. For example, http://www.esri.com/ is a URL. The network can be an intranet (a local network) or the Internet.

URL Parameter. A string that you attach to the end of a URL to specify initial values and actions. For example, the HTML5 viewer's viewerConfigUri parameter is used to specify the location of the configuration file to load. The runWorkflow URL parameter runs the specified workflows when the viewer is launched. URL parameters are also known as HTTP query strings.

UTC. Closely related to Greenwich Mean Time, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard by which clocks and time are regulated. Viewed as a time zone, the United Kingdom is UTC+0, New York is UTC-05:00 (subtract 5 hours from UTC time), and the Netherlands is UTC+01:00 (add one hour to UTC time).

UTM. Universal Transverse Mercator geographic coordinate system. A transverse Mercator projection orients the equator north-south through the poles, providing a north-south swath with little distortion. The orientation of the cylinder onto which the map is projected, is changed slightly for each swath. This creates relatively undistorted regions. Each swath is called a UTM zone and is 6 degrees of longitude wide.

View Model. View models mediate between modules and views, exposing properties, commands, and other aspects of modules so they can be used in views.

View. Views are UI controls that encapsulate the UI for a particular feature or functional area of the application. Views are used in conjunction with the Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) or Model-View-Presenter (MVP) patterns, which are used to provide a clean separation of concerns between the application's presentation logic (UI) and business logic. Views encapsulate the UI and define user interaction behavior, allowing the View to be updated or replaced independently of the underlying application functionality. Views use data binding to interact with the View Model and presenter classes.

WFS. Web Feature Service: describes a service for the discovery, querying of, and operations for the transformation of data. See also: OGC.

Widget. An interactive element that is created and controlled through scripting. Any controls that is not native to HTML, or that is greatly enhanced by scripting, is a widget. For example, sliders, fly-out menus, tree systems, and drag-and-drop controls are widgets. Do not confuse the widgets in viewer configuration files with map widgets .

WMS. Web Map Service: a widely supported format for web-based maps and a standard issued by the OGC on the implementation of dynamic map services. See also: OGC.

WMTS. Web Map Tile Service: a standard for implementing servers to deliver tiled maps. See also: OGC.