New Oracle MapViewer blog

Welcome to my blog on Oracle MapViewer.

My name is Liujian (LJ) Qian and I'm the development manager of the MapViewer product.

Now, a brief introduction on MapViewer.

MapViewer is a web mapping product designed to work with Oracle's Spatial database technologies. It is a middle-tier component that runs inside Oracle's middleware, such as the WebLogic server. You can however deploy MapViewer to other J2EE containers such as JBoss or Tomcat.

We are currently finishing up the next major release of MapViewer which is 11g. As usual it will be released as part of Oracle's Fusion Middleware 11g product, which is currently scheduled for first half of CY 2009.

We are also preparing a new 10g patch for MapViewer which will be available through metalink and OTN.

On the backend, MapViewer connects to one or more Oracle databases where your spatial data are managed. On the frontend, MapViewer provides a comprehensive JavaScript/AJAX mapping API. MapViewer also provides Java and XML APIs. Inside each MapViewer middletire process there is a core rendering engine, a map tile server and a Feature of Interest (FOI) server.

So what distinguishes MapViewer from other online mapping server products? Here are a few that come to mind:

• SQL query driven data layers. A map produced by MapViewer may contain many layers (themes), and each theme is based on a SQL query. MapViewer places no restriction on what kind of query you can have. As long as the query returns spatial data (with or without regular attribute data), MapViewer will treat it as a valid theme and display it.
• Full support of Oracle Spatial database technologies: advanced spatial data models such as Topology, Network Data Model, GeoRaster. Full support of the concept of Workspace (for long transactions), Partitioning, as well as RAC (Real Application Cluster) and Label based security et al.
  
• A powerful desktop map authoring tool called Map Builder. Map Builder is a Java desktop application. You use it to connect to a database schema and it will discover all the spatial data stored in there. You can then create base maps, themes and rendering styles that suit your business mapping needs. Definitions of such metadata (including styles themselves) are all stored in the database and shared among all MapBuilder and MapViewer instances that connect to the same database schema.
  
• A very capable Web2.0 JavaScript mapping API that provides interactive draggable map as well as Feature of Interest (FOI) layers that are fully clickable with customizable info window.
• Full integration with many other Oracle products, such as BIEE and Oracle Apps. A native application development wizard is also being built right inside Oracle JDeveloper 11g.
• Takes full advantage of Oracle Middleware features, such as WebLogic's clustering and management functions.