Automatic Generation of Web-Based GIS/Database Applications

We have been developing web-based GIS/database (WebGD) applications that allow users to insert, query, update, and delete geographical features and the data associated with them from standard Web browsers. The code shared by these applications is organized as the WebGD framework. The behavior of the map interface of a WebGD application is defined by configuration files. We have built also the WebGD application generator (WebGD-Gen) that automatically produces those configuration files from the database metadata, including those in tables geometry_columns and spatial_ref_sys. WebGDGen can generate also Web scripts that interact with themap interface and the database. Thus theWebGD framework andWebGD-Gen can significantly reduce the development time and the maintenance cost of a complex Web-based GIS/database application.