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TNT Products V6.3 Release Notes
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Release
Notes in PDF format ...
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Important reminder: TNTlite cannot be used to build HyperIndex stacks for use with any TNT product. |
Mass Distribution by Dealers.
More TNTlite 6.3 CDs have already been ordered for distribution by MicroImages’ dealers and clients than any previous version. MicroImages thanks you for helping others to obtain and use this product.
Indonesian universities and students will receive TNTlite from Citradata with their companion instruction book in Indonesian. Thai universities and students will receive TNTlite from EIT with their companion instruction book in Thai. Japanese and Korean universities and students will have access to TNTlite with a collection of Getting Started Booklets in those languages.
The GIS Team in Germany, a MicroImages Dealer, prepared and delivered their own German version CD of TNTlite 6.2 and plans one for V6.30. Their CD contains the German translation files for the TNT products (also available at microimages.com). It is reproduced as needed as a CDR and has an attractive "stick-on" full color label referencing the GIS Team as its source. It comes attached to a German installation card similar to those used by MicroImages for TNTlite delivery. It is accompanied by a multipage, colorful German promotional flier assembled from various MicroImages promotional materials. Kudos to the GIS Team!
Image Analysis in Geology.
The 3rd edition of Dr. Steve Drury’s popular hardcover book entitled Image Interpretation in Geology is being published by Blackwell Science in the fall of 2000, hopefully in time for the school year.
The chapters in this 3rd edition are:
Chapter 1: Electromagnetic Radiation and Materials
Chapter 2: Human Vision
Chapter 3: How Data are Collected
Chapter 4: Photogeology
Chapter 5: Digital Image Processing
Chapter 6: Thermal Images
Chapter 7: Radar Remote Sensing
Chapter 8: Non-image Data and Geographic Information Systems
Chapter 9: Geologic Applications of Image Data
Appendix A: Stereometry
Appendix B: Image Correction
Appendix C: Sources of Remotely Sensed Images
The TNTlite-sized geologically-oriented tutorial exercises he has prepared for replication onto the TNTlite CD included with this book are as follows:
Exercise 1: Displaying Image Data
Exercise 2: Working with Additive Primary Colours–Three Channel RGB Images
Exercise 3: Enhancement of RGB Images by Decorrelation
Exercise 4: Band Ratios
Exercise 5: Principal Component Analysis (PCA) Methods
Exercise 6: Spatial Frequency Filtering
Exercise 7: Georeferencing Images
Exercise 8: Digital Elevation Models
Exercise 9: Creating Reconnaissance Geological Maps from Landsat TM Data
Exercise 10: Spectral Mapping
Exercise 11: Fitting Surfaces to Point Data
MicroImages’ staff has worked closely with the author for more than a year to cooperate in the preparation of these exercises. All the exercises were tested carefully in the beta version of TNTlite before V6.30 was reproduced. These tests were performed using the author’s TNTlite sample datasets that will be reproduced on the CD containing V6.30 and included in this book.
The most important new capability in TNTatlas is that most of you will now be able to make and distribute them. The sections below on TNTlink 6.3: No Longer an Option and Price Changes discuss the details on why TNTlink may be available to you for use on your TNTmips to assemble HyperIndex stacks to distribute with the free TNTatlas on CDs, over your intranet, or via a TNTserver.
The following general improvements in all the TNT product operations were automatically added to TNTatlas. These improvements are detailed below in the major section on New Features for TNTmips and include:
• unlimited display resolution
• unlimited support of monitors
• improved network access to object
• much faster use of ODBC-linked tables
• faster operation of TableView
• translation into 6 new languages
Most of the activity impacting the TNTatlas product for this release has actually taken place in changes to the TNTserver and TNTclient and will be covered below in those sections. One new, important change was added specifically to prepare better HyperIndex stacks for use with TNTatlas and TNTserver.
HyperIndex Stacks.
As you construct a HyperIndex link, you can now specify the subportion of a linked object that will be displayed when it is selected by the navigation tool. When the size of the linked object is relatively large, neither opening at full view nor at full resolution may be appropriate due to the dramatic change in scale from the parent object. This feature allows the atlas designer to better control this type of navigation.
This new option is not the same as turning objects on and off according to scale, which is featured in the on-line Nebraska Statewide sample atlas. This new capability allows you to specify what portion of a larger linked object will be shown when it is first displayed by selection during navigation. The designated portion of the larger object will be automatically displayed by your navigation and will be centered on the coordinates of the point you select for navigation. The choices that can be set up in the HyperIndex link are 1/1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6, 1/7, or 1/8, and the maximum extent of the object. Full resolution can be also be selected so that 1 image cell is 1 screen pixel.
An example of this new feature can be seen when you navigate to the third or bottom level in the MERLIN on-line atlas. This level will automatically show 1/4 the area of the 7.5' USGS topographic map centered at the point you select in the SPOT image. The color raster of the entire area of each topographic map is linked to the parent SPOT image. However, displaying the entire map would provide a view of it that would be meaningless and unreadable until zoomed, which is, in effect, done automatically by this new option.
Loading TNTatlas 6.3 processes onto your hard drive (exclusive of any other products, data sets, illustrations, Word files, and so on) requires the following storage space in megabytes. for V6.20 for V6.30
PC using W95, W98, NT, or W2000 23 MB 24 MB
PC using LINUX (with Intel) kernel 2.0.36 23 MB 23 MB
Mac using MacOS 8.x or 9.x 42 MB** 43 MB**
SGI workstation via IRIX 28 MB 25 MB
Sun workstation via Solaris 2.x 24 MB 25 MB
IBM workstation via AIX 4.x (with PPC) 26 MB 28 MB
COMPAQ/DEC workstation via NT (with Alpha) 29 MB 27 MB
COMPAQ/DEC workstation via Tru64 UNIX (with Alpha) 27 MB 28 MB
** The Mac installed size includes the JAPAN1.OF font of 10.4 MB that is automatically installed. Delete this font if you do not require the use of Japanese.
TNTlink™ 6.3: No Longer an Option
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Many clients using TNTmips 6.3 who did not purchase TNTlink (option H10) now have it added to their system at no additional charge! |
The use of TNTlink to construct HyperIndex stacks for use with TNTatlas has suddenly become much more popular. This is in part due to sudden worldwide, low-cost availability of write-once CDR drives as a standard peripheral or as easy add-on units. Everyone you deal with also now has a CD drive on their desktop machine capable of reading the CDs you make. Another factor is the rapid growth of your access to, and need to organize, use, and deliver large collections of geodata, especially images. The most recent factor has been the introduction of the TNTserver that can be used to publish much larger TNTatlases for public use via the Internet. Alternately, using TNTserver, you can provide private, organization-wide geodata access via intranet or by way of a Virtual Private Network (VPN) carried on the Internet. You all have clients who are clamoring for access to more and more geodata.
TNTlink (former option H10) is a unique and powerful feature among the low-cost desktop GIS and IPS products. It can be used create HyperIndex stacks for use as TNTatlases to organize your project materials, distribute your products individually on CD in an organized structure for use in free TNTatlas, and publish them widely on the network via TNTserver. MicroImages has concluded that every one of our clients who are not using TNTlink would benefit significantly by its use and our future plans for its enhancements and extensions. A color plate is attached entitled We Give You the Tools to provide more information on how you can use this new capability.
Thus, all new purchases of TNTmips will provide, as standard, the capabilities formerly purchased separately as TNTlink. Furthermore, many existing systems not previously equipped with the TNTlink option will have it automatically when TNTmips 6.3 is installed. The details of how this change in the professional license of TNTmips is being handled are in the Price Changes section below.
TNTserver™ 2.0: Limited Use by Every Client
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All MicroImages clients using the professional version of TNTmips 6.3 will now have access to limited use of the TNTserver. As a result, you will now be concerned with the new features added to TNTserver 2.0. Attached to this MEMO are 3 color plates, each entitled Explore Sample Web Atlases. Each plate describes several sample and/or operational on-line atlases that you can try. When you browse these atlases, you may be at a TNTserver at atlas.microimages.com or linked to a TNTserver hosted at some other client’s server. Some operational atlases you can try that are hosted elsewhere (Europe and South Africa) are identified in red type on these color plates.
MicroImages benefits greatly from all our joint experiences in which we keep trying to make our geospatial software tools and your results more meaningful and acceptable to those not familiar with them. It is this kind of result that MicroImages believes can be accomplished with your new access to the TNTserver 2.0 and all the products that support it.
The section above outlines that you now probably have access to the ability to create your own HyperIndex stacks (atlases) and distribute them on CDs with the free TNTatlas software. MicroImages will also provide clients using the professional version of TNTmips 6.3 with drive space on our TNTserver to publish a public TNTatlas not to exceed 1 CD in size for 6 months. Extensions beyond 6 months will require that your TNTmips product is authorized for the current version and depend on the availability of space and your maintenance and improvement of your atlas.
Placing a TNTatlas on MicroImages’ TNTserver site provides you with an opportunity to expose the nature and quality of your work to your clients. Your atlas will be public and can be something you wish to use to promote your geospatial skills and capabilities to the general public. However, you may also choose to prepare an atlas targeted as a demonstration for a specific group or even an individual. MicroImages is hosting private atlases for dealers. These atlases generally have private content provided to the dealers by their clients who wish to experiment with the possible use of TNTserver on their intranet or Internet. MicroImages is willing to host your private TNTatlas for a short time for some special, logical reason. MicroImages will also host your larger TNTatlases for a fee.
Preparing a small TNTatlas for free publication at atlas.microimages.com benefits you in several diverse ways:
• You can use this as a parallel distribution channel for a TNTatlas you are distributing on CD.
• Your nation or rural area may have modem access to the Internet, but you may not have access to the higher bandwidth needed to maintain a responsive web site.
• You may wish to try out the TNTserver before you buy one or convince someone else to do so.
• It will be easier to get your first atlas up and going by starting out focusing only on the effort of assembling meaningful material in an attractive structure.
MicroImages’ hosting of your atlas allows you to concentrate on the on-line results without all the technical headaches of setting up both an NT- or W2000-based web server and TNTserver.
Please remember that our main site at microimages.com and our TNTserver at atlas.microimages.com have many visitors daily who may view your atlas. MicroImages will be advertising the TNT products on these sites. However, these advertisements will be low key links to more detailed information elsewhere on microimages.com. They will not suggest that you or your company necessarily recommends our products. As part of the integration of your atlas into the site’s structure, there will be one HTML page describing what your atlas is designed to do. This page will also provide a link back to your personal or company web site if you have one and provide your email address, other contact information, logo, and so on. In other words, your atlas and your introductory page will promote you and your interests.
Observing the Necessary Legalities.
As you probably know, the geodata in a published atlas is in the Project File structure and is not usable outside a TNT product. While the data can be manipulated and viewed through the TNTclient "porthole", it cannot be downloaded except as very small, lossy, compressed JPEG rasters. These pieces are unlikely to be useful for anything except their intended use for direct viewing or for screen snapshot printing. However, as you know from the popular press, no web site is absolutely safe, so please recognize that MicroImages cannot guarantee absolute security for a public or private atlas published on our TNTserver.
For our own protection, MicroImages reserves the right to reject or remove any client’s TNTatlas from our web site at any time without notice. This is a necessary condition in order for MicroImages to react to situations where a copyright, legal, or other public objection may be involved. When you provide a TNTatlas for MicroImages’ site, you will also be required to sign a short agreement whereby you state that none of the materials utilized were copyrighted or restricted from public use by law, license, or other restrictions.
Details of the server farm and RAID drive(s) that would be used for your TNTatlas are published with the atlases at atlas.microimages.com. Recently, MicroImages’ TNTserver farm was provided with its own separate, commercial DSL access (700 Kb to 1 megabit per second), and an additional, larger RAID drive ($2000 for 150 gigabytes) was added. Additional drive space and processing power can be easily added to atlas.microimages.com as needed, as this was part of the original design goals for the TNTserver.
The experimental, single-level Nebraska Statewide atlas now provides direct viewing of all of the more than 5000 digital orthophotos covering the state. To date, 41 of the 93 Nebraska county soil maps have been published in digital format by the Natural Resource Conservation Service (USDA/NRCS) in SSURGO format. This 40% of the state’s detailed digital soil maps has been imported into vector objects. The properties of each soil in each county were obtained in the MUIR database format from the USDA/NRCS, imported into 470 soil attribute fields distributed in 26 relational tables, and linked to the detailed soil polygons. These new vector layers are now included in the Nebraska Statewide atlas, and additional counties will be added as they become available in the SSURGO format. Temporarily, a separate single-level Statewide atlas is being assembled to provide access to all the 1/24,000, 1/100,000, and 1/250,000 USGS topographic maps of Nebraska in DRG format. Eventually, these 2 different statewide atlases may be integrated into 1.
Starting soon, MicroImages will begin a critical evaluation and gradual redesign of all of microimages.com. It will begin immediately with a redesign of the appearance and structure of the pages at atlas.microimages.com used to access all the TNTatlases we now host. The new structure will also be designed to accommodate easy addition of your atlas.
The best way to learn about many of the features, new and old, in V2.0 of the TNTclient and TNTserver is by reviewing the colorful pictorial MicroImages MEMO enclosed entitled Announcing TNTserver™ 2.0: How TNTserver Works with MERLIN, dated 1 May 2000. It provides materials covering all aspects of this new product available to you for limited use, for purchase, and for content use via one of the operating sites. It uses the large MERLIN atlas site at mdmerlin.net to demonstrate a public, institutional use of the TNTserver.
The following key features were added to finalize TNTserver 2.0 and are subsequent to those reported in the V6.20 MicroImages MEMO. The availability of these features may not be obvious to you as you consider your use of the TNTserver and review the separate, colorful MEMO.
Please note that TNTserver is a pure Windows application for NT or W2000. It does not use X or the Motif libraries in any way. TNTserver does use the new integrated Geospatial Rendering Engine (GRE). This new GRE can support requests from MI/X-based products or directly from Windows-based products.
Using W2000.
The TNTserver is operating now on W2000 as well as NT. For testing and comparison, 2 of the 4 Compaq servers ($500 each, no monitors needed) used for all the test atlases hosted at atlas.microimages.com now use W2000, and the others use NT. When you use any of these atlases, each successive request submitted via our TNTclient or TNTbrowser will be randomly assigned to any of the 4 Compaqs. The menu bar at the top line of the client window shows which Compaq computer responded as atlas1, atlas2, ... atlas4. Atlas1 and 2 are currently running NT, and Atlas3 and 4 are running W2000.
Support for TNTbrowser.
TNTserver has been modified to use a list of sites and atlases that can be accessed by the stand-alone equivalent of the TNTclient called the TNTbrowser. This new TNTbrowser product is described below in the section entitled TNTclient™ and TNTbrowser™.
Caching Layouts.
Layout caching was added to increase performance of the TNTserver as new graphical features were integrated, such as the creation of the graphical legend elements used in the LegendView approach explained below. Caching improves most of the server’s functions, including InfoTips, image generation, metadata display, pan and zoom, and others. Cached layouts in many cases require less than 1 second to compute a new view unless it has to retrieve information for the layer from a large vector object.
A layout is cached in memory the first time it is used, so only the first visitor to request that layout experiences a slower response. When a layout requires a series of legends, it must form all the possible legends that might be exposed or hidden. For example, a layout used in the Nebraska Statewide atlas requires about 100 seconds to open the first time but only .4 seconds when it is cached. There are about 354 layouts in the MERLIN atlas that average less than 1 MB each. The single NT platform serving the MERLIN atlas at mdmerlin.net has 1 gigabyte of memory and can indefinitely cache all these layouts.
The manager of a TNTserver can set the upper limit of the cache to be whatever maximizes performance on that platform. Most visitors to an atlas take the paths and layer combinations you have designed into your atlas to be convenient and obvious. These layouts will almost always be cached unless TNTserver has just been restarted. MicroImages is currently investigating how to force the TNTserver to require some popular and common layouts to stay in the cache. This would then permit the TNTserver site, when restarted, to be set up to automatically recompute and cache commonly used layouts.
The automatic caching now built into the TNTserver takes advantage of the memory you may wish to add to increase the performance of your TNTserver. Adding memory is one important way to accommodate more visitors to a TNTserver operating on a single platform. In contrast, when you visit atlas.microimages.com, you are using a server farm based upon several $500 computers, each with 64 MB of memory. Both approaches benefit from layout caching: the single server because it has more memory to use and the server farm because it has so little memory.
LegendView.
The first time a particular layout in your atlas is requested by a visitor to TNTserver, it generates, returns, and caches all the graphical legend elements needed to construct a LegendView. This includes any layer that might be viewed at that time whether it is currently selected by the visitor or the atlas designer. For example, your atlas may have layers turned off in a layout until the visitor exposes them.
These graphical legend elements are not created for your atlas’ hidden layers that cannot be exposed by the visitor. Hidden layers are used to include any object you wish to use as a reference layer in a particular atlas layout without confusing the visitor by adding them graphically to the view.
The Java client code receives all these elements and determines what to do with them. For example, the TNTclient and TNTbrowser show these legend elements in the layer list when the layer is checked off to be combined into the current view. The cache of legend elements is created for all layers in that layout that have been set in the atlas as potentially visible layers (for example, not set as hidden layers).
InfoTips.
The TNTserver now supports a request to return the tabular data describing a feature. TNTserver uses the same GRE as TNTatlas and all the other TNT products. As a result, this TNTserver provides the same features and results that can be achieved in TNTatlas, TNTmips, TNTview, ... when using DataTips. The information returned for the feature from the atlas is the same as for the familiar DataTips. However, the form of its viewing is not the same and is referred to as an InfoTip in the current TNTclient and TNTbrowser.
Same as DataTips.
When a visitor is in the InfoTip mode in a Java client, any mouse click in the current view sends the server a request for action using that coordinate position and a description of the current view. The server then assembles these predesigned responses into a string using the GRE. It then sends this string to the Java client for interpretation and display to the visitor.
Just as with other TNT products, this DataTip response viewed as an InfoTip might include combinations of:
• database fields from any layer, hidden or exposed, with suffixes and prefixes to explain them, such as trailing units
• computed fields where a field’s value is converted to new units
• computed fields using an equation and multiple fields to prepare a modeled result
• a memo field to insert descriptive, metadata, or warning messages
• a URL to be used to link to another web site
Using Hidden Layers.
Combining hidden layers and InfoTips provides tools that can incorporate geospatial analysis and meaningful display of all the different kinds of layer types in your atlas. By combining these kinds of TNT tools, your images, vectors, CAD, database, text, and URL links can be integrated into your atlas. The key is to design it so the layers can be combined and presented in a way that can be understood and used by your clients.
InfoTips and DataTips can contain computed fields derived on request for features in hidden layers. The element in a hidden layer is still located by the TNTserver using the coordinates of the point. The attributes of that specific element are used in an equation for a computed field to model some agronomic (see sample Precision Farming, NE atlas for Royal Bros. farms), economic (Peace Pipe Ranch, TX precision ranching atlas), or other condition for the selected element. These results for that specific point can then be revealed to the user via the InfoTips.
This strategy is very powerful compared to the approach of other competing on-line GIS products. They require that several layers be combined by the model to yield a new layer that is then overlaid, typically as color polygons. This layer(s) is then shown to the visitor, usually as a single layer over a simplified reference vector layer (for example, over roads, rivers, coastline, ...). These products do not even attempt to show the usually fractured, color-coded polygon results of their GIS analysis over an image (for example, a DOQQ) or more complex reference map (for example, a 7.5' topographic map). As a result, this approach provides a confusing, difficult to understand, exotic display without any recognizable, detailed image or map reference layer.
The public, management, consulting client, or other untrained user of your TNTatlas on CD or via the TNTserver is not experienced or patient when asked to view a complicated spaghetti mess rendering unfamiliar materials. Hidden layers hide the mess and provide the results while the visitor studies a familiar view of 1, 2, or 3 reference layers. It is also very important to note that the use of InfoTips for modeling geospatial analysis is much faster in a server setting with the potential of many simultaneous visitors. The InfoTips approach only computes the model for the single selected point. Think what would happen in the alternate product’s approach where some sort of combination of vector layers would have to be prepared every time each visitor requests a combination of layers to model a result.
Precision Ranching Example.
A simple scenario can be outlined illustrating the use of hidden and exposed layers in an on-line atlas used for ranch management. The ranch owner or manager views a recent black and white orthoimage of the ranch with an overlay of their pasture boundaries in red. These fenced management units are polygons that have attributes documenting such things as the most recent grazing history and the current cattle stocking level. The owner or manager is very familiar with their properties and can quickly grasp the information in, and manipulation of, this simple view.
Hidden layers are also present in the atlas to represent an image-derived biomass map or a sequence of maps, past aerial spraying patterns, and other spatial variables. Using the hidden layers and computed fields, several alternate management operations can be modeled, such as moving cattle between pastures or aerial spraying of an area for brush or weed control or for selective fertilization. It is then easy to show them how to probe around in a pasture using InfoTips (or DataTips in a CD TNTatlas) to view these results.
A sample of an on-line atlas prepared with these tools by Bert Wallace, the owner of the Peace Pipe Ranch, is already provided at atlas.microimages.com. Bert has been using TNTmips for 12 years in the actual precision management of his large Texas cattle ranch. For more about geospatial applications on the Peace Pipe Ranch, see microimages.com/atlasserver/ and
Help From Above: Brush control made easy with infrared photography. by Kevin P. Corbley. Beef. Volume 34, Number 10, June 1998. pp. 48-52.
Precision Farming Example.
A sample atlas is also available at atlas.microimages.com to illustrate the use of hidden layers and computed fields in the management, analysis, and application of precision farming data. Kevin Royal, leader of MicroImages’ support team, farms these acres just southeast of Lincoln together with other family members. Kevin has published several articles on his innovative ideas for the use of the CD-based TNTatlases and the TNTserver. All these papers can be downloaded from www.micro-images.com/papers/.
Dynamic Models.
The computed field models used for the InfoTips’ and DataTips’ viewable or hidden layers can even provide dynamic results. The attributes for these layers could be in tables stored in Oracle, updated and maintained by other systems, and accessed via ODBC links.
Navigate Directly to Specified Subareas.
In constructing a TNTatlas, you can now specify the subportion of a linked object that will be displayed when selected by the navigation tool. This new option is not the same as turning objects on and off according to scale, which is featured in the on-line Nebraska Statewide sample atlas. This new capability allows you to specify what portion of a larger linked object will be shown when it is first displayed by selection during navigation. The designated portion of the larger object will be automatically displayed by your navigation and will be centered on the coordinates of the point you select for navigation. The choices that can be set up in the HyperIndex link are 1/1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6, 1/7, or 1/8, and the maximum extent of the object. Full resolution can be also be selected so that 1 image cell is 1 screen pixel.
You would use this option for the first display of a larger object with content that would be too complicated or busy to be usable if displayed in its entirety. This is a typical situation where the object is a scan of a topographical map. When this kind of object is selected, automatically displaying 1/4 the area of the map centered on the point selected displays a readable map. Zooming out can still be used to display the entire map. The MERLIN TNTatlas at mdmerlin.net displays its topographic maps using this feature when you navigate into the map level.
Preset URL Links.
An atlas can now be designed to contain links to URLs. When the geographic area is selected, the TNTclient opens a second browser and sends you to that web page in the new browser. For example, you might be linked out to review the boat service facilities for a particular symbol, or all the McDonald’s restaurants within a polygon in a hidden vector layer. When that browser is closed or you select the TNTclient window, it is active and you can continue on just as before. You can then select another point or atlas action.
Use Multiple Navigation Links.
TNTserver now supports multiple navigation links by sending a list of any concurrent or overlapping links back to the client for display in a pop-in window. The visitor can then select which layer or navigation link they wish to follow. TNTserver now lets you design an atlas with multiple coincident objects or links at any level. A typical use would be to avoid the confusion in an atlas with many possible base layers. Using multiple links, the visitor can be asked to choose the appropriate base layer when that level is navigated to. A newer use, principally in TNTserver, would be to present a list of URL links to other web sites that provide other local information about the selected point such as the weather, a webcam view, accommodations, and so on.
Spatial URL Links.
It can be time-consuming to link individual URLs to index areas. As a result, an additional extension of this URL concept was added to allow for spatial URLs. These are URLs derived from a database attached to a hidden or viewable layer. When in the InfoTips panel, the selected point is sent to the server. The attribute fields or a computed field can be used to provide the components of the URL. This is composited into a string expression that is sent to the client that presents one or more for your selection within the InfoTips panel. If any URLs are returned, a drop down list containing them automatically appears at the top. The URL can also come back associated with meaningful text names for use in this list, such as "Local Weather", "Download a DOQQ", "Order an Image", "Order a Map", "Restaurant List", and so on. Choose something from the list and "GO", and a new browser will be started and the specific URL request sent through it to that site. When you close that browser, you are back into the TNTclient ready for a new step.
Download a DOQQ.
URLs can have parameter strings attached to them that cause actions to occur when a site is visited. The URL you compose in your atlas with computed fields, regular fields, memo fields, and text inserts can actually place an order or cause other specific results at a site.
This feature was refined so recently that it is not yet used in the MERLIN atlas or illustrated elsewhere. However, you can try it out in the latest version of the Nebraska Statewide atlas. This is a single-level atlas. Simply choose the InfoTips panel. Select any point in the view in Nebraska. When the InfoTips appear, you will see a drop down panel at the top giving you a choice of sites, the first of which is going to weather.com to get the current weather forecast for that specific area. These geographically specific local weather URLs are derived from a hidden polygon map of the U.S. postal zip code boundaries of Nebraska. Four additional choices appear, designated for the 7.5' Palmyra quadrangle as DOQ for Palmyra, NE part; DOQ for Palmyra, NW part; DOQ for Palmyra, SW part; and DOQ for Palmyra, SE part. Choosing any one of these will specify that you want to actually go to the site of the Nebraska Natural Resources Commission and immediately begin to download that specific Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quad (DOQQ) for the area viewed. These geographically specific DOQQ URLs are derived from a hidden vector layer containing polygons of all 7.5 minute map quadrangle boundaries of Nebraska.
Watermarks.
TNTserver now provides an option to embed a "logo" image into every view generated by each layout. Watermarks can be used to convey the origin of a view and its creator. Unless deliberately cropped out, it will appear in any screen capture of the view when it is inserted into a presentation product such as PowerPoint, a report preparation product, or a snapshot print. This logo image must be a 24-bit TNT RGB raster object. An 8-bit mask in a raster object can be specified for transparency effects. Any NULL values in the raster object containing the logo image are treated as fully transparent.
Control Panel.
A control panel applet has been created for use by the site manager to facilitate management of TNTserver. This control panel is used to set TNTserver parameters for its operation, including logo insertion, logging, threads, image management, and connection parameters. See the description of the administrative controls this panel provides in the on-line documentation at www.microimages.com/atlasserver/serverad-min.htm.
Site Logs.
TNTserver now generates statistics logs for its use in a format for detailed analysis in other programs. The report is in CSV (Comma Separated Values) format. The documentation for the format is available on-line at atlas.microimages.com in the TNTserver administration documentation file. The web site manager can use a spread sheet to import these files and then provide reports and graphs for the use of TNTserver for any interval desired. For example, these log files keep track of the use patterns of each user of the atlas. Each visitor is assigned a number when they first start a session. The TNTclient stores that number. As long as they keep the TNTclient window open, their activities will be recorded in these log files, including which objects and tools they use–in other words, a profile of each request they send from the client to the server.
Choose the Right Server for Your Job.
Make sure you choose the right kind of server for your anticipated on-line geospatial activity. Do you need one that manages and provides access to huge amounts of geospatial data? Does it have to efficiently analyze this geospatial data and provide results that can be understood by the first time user?
The Cadastral/Marketing Approach.
If your client’s definition of on-line GIS is to enter a name and then view a stick map of that party’s property and its description, then this kind of simple application can be added to TNTserver. However, outside the United States, this kind of cadastral information usually does not exist. If it does, its access is restricted. Even inside the United States, with the known exception of Maryland, this kind of information, if digitized, is in the individual possession of each city and county government. This land ownership geodata is not available statewide.
The "Where Am I?" Approach.
The design of the TNTserver is to focus first upon enterprise, institutional, cooperative, and similar applications–those that by their very nature require unique geoinformational systems employing geodata of all types. Since such systems will usually contain images, they can be huge. They will often be accessed by requests for information based upon observing the currently displayed map or image and choosing a point of further interest in it.
Earthquake Risk Example Atlas.
A good example of this kind of situation is the sample earthquake risk atlas being assembled by the European Commission’s SNAP Project. It is illustrated in the attached color plate entitled Earthquake Risk Analysis and can be explored at snapweb.org. This is just their initial test step, but it clearly indicates the kind of application suitable for those visitors who want to start with an overview of an area. Next, they want to examine more detailed maps, information, and their combinations, all of which might dynamically change at any moment.
Clearly prepared geospatial data and its wide-spread use and analysis can play a major role in this task. Careful geospatial planning and timely availability of special maps and images for rapid relief action can reduce the massive costs in lives and economic resources caused by earthquakes. Just a few obvious application areas are in nationwide seismic risk assessment, zoning, planning for damage mitigation, immediate updating of maps in the areas of events, providing access to pre- and post-event images, post-event response coordination, and so on.
This is typical of an activity that requires many individuals at many locations to have ready access to this kind of geospatial site and tools. However, it does not require that an individual be able to enter his name and view information about his property! At this point, it appears impossible to use the GIS engines of others to quickly implement these kinds of results at all, let alone by simply assembling a TNTatlas. If we are truly going to provide geospatial analysis in such beneficial applications, then we are going to have to look beyond, and convince others to look beyond, simple on-line GIS applications.
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You can now use TNTclient and TNTbrowser to access your own atlas |
The terms used to describe this rapidly evolving product have and will continue to change. MicroImages refers to you as its clients. Those working with servers refer to the external request programs–things like MI/X–as coming from a client. The Internet community uses the word client for such things as downloaded plugins, like TNTclient, TNTbrowser, and whatever comes next. All this is confusing.
For the present, TNTclient refers to the Java program that is automatically downloaded and started up from your browser when you select a site using a TNTserver. Depending upon the browser you are using, TNTclient may or may not be automatically cached in memory or on your hard drive. If it is, when you connect to a TNTserver and atlas again with your browser, it will be automatically loaded and used. This will reduce your connection time to an atlas to a few seconds. Unfortunately, whether or not caching is available and how it operates depend on many things. The specific level of the browser you are using may or may not support caching (for example, caching does not occur on the Mac). Furthermore, the assets of your computer (for example, memory) and how you have set up your browser (drive space or time limits used for caching) will determine if the TNTclient is still in your cache.
TNTbrowser was formerly referred to as the "stand-alone version" of the TNTclient. It is a complete Java program that you can obtain, keep on your hard drive, and start up at any time as a task. It does not start any browser and can connect over a network and use an atlas on a TNTserver. At the present time, TNTbrowser and TNTclient provide the same interface and tools when connected to the same TNTserver and atlas.
TNTbrowser provides an alternative to the requirement for frequent or constant downloading of the TNTclient. It should be used by those who know they will be periodically using an atlas. Since TNTbrowser is not a general purpose browser, it will not provide other web browser functions. One noticeable difference from TNTclient is that the TNTbrowser can provide a list of various atlases for connection. These atlases may be anywhere on the network. TNTbrowser is downloaded with this list so that it can automatically connect with the atlases at atlas.microimages.com. Atlases at other sites can also be directly connected via this locally maintained list. At the moment, MicroImages has links to all other public TNTservers, so the current list provided with the download of TNTbrowser contains the addresses of the other known public atlases.
Most of the Java code used in the TNTbrowser is the same as that in TNTclient, but the packaging is different. When TNTbrowser is downloaded, it is combined and integrated with a suitable web engin