Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI)

The Implementation Team worked with two ESRI products in 1996: MapObjects and the Spatial Data Engine (SDE).

Using ESRI MapObjects, we developed a new map browser, as a drop-in substitute for the WP's original map browser (based on code obtained from Xerox PARC). This exercise served two purposes:

1. In specifying the interface for a second map browser, and the ability to transparently switch between them, we generalized the WP's map browser interface, an important step toward ``disassembling'' the WP into a constellation of reconfigurable interface components.
2. Unlike the Xerox PARC map browser, which is not commercially available and which we are not permitted to redistribute, the MapObjects map browser uses readily available components, and thus facilitates the ``cloning'' of the WP at sites outside ADL's control.

Two Implementation Team engineers attended SDE version 2 training at ESRI. After conducting a preliminary evaluation of the product, we determined that it did not meet ADL's needs. Based partly on our feedback, ESRI has re-designed SDE; the new version 3 of the product appears to address several of our original concerns. In 1997 we hope to incorporate SDE in a Java-based vector map browser solution.