Interesting discussion I'd be interested to know where you think Oracle Spatial sits in this and whether it is or can be adapted to be an alternative solution ?.
Some of our clients are moving away from SDE because it creates another layer above their Oracle databases and the complexity in maintaining and managing SDE. Good luck Rob Rowell Insight GIS [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.insightgis.com.au ph +61 3 6234 5833 fax +61 3 6234 5899 mob 0418 127 152 -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Eric Gagnon Sent: Monday, 16 October 2006 1:01 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; mapinfo list Subject: Re: [MI-L] Mapinfo capabilities Yes, I agree.. That's why I wanted to start this discussion.. I just hope everybody will give some feedback on this issue an somebody at MapInfo will here us. After all we are the Mapinfo users.. and some people in this list are real hardcore!! So I just hope that mapinfo won't let thes GIS sectors down and will be competitive in regards to other GIS companies that offer solutions in these sectors. Eric Eric Gagnon, B.Sc. Maptica www.maptica.com Doug Cubin wrote: > Hi Eric > Although I do use MapInfo a lot (I helped set up the UK User Group over 10 > years ago), I do find that I can only recommend ESRI products to my clients > when GIS is required for "corporate" use. This is primarily because of SDE > and not due to any desktop functionality. SDE (enhanced by products such as > ArcFM) handles multi-user environments very well - especially where editing > is required. Furthermore, with ESRI latest 9.2 release of ArcGIS, there is > now feature-level auditing built in to the geodatabase. Unfortunately, > MapInfo simply cant cater for this - which is a shame because I think > MapInfo is the best desktop GIS you can get. The problem with MapInfo is > that when you have many users (especially out in the field e.g. utility > engineers) then you have to programmatically cater for synchronisation. > There are a few tools out there, but nothing that really works seamlessly > with the database - and this is where SDE comes in. One of my larger > clients is a water utility with 6m+ customers and they do have some MapInfo > clients. This is fine as I just allow ArcIMS to deploy OGC WMS and WFS > services and one day WFS-T (ie. Transactions) will be deployed, but when it > comes to editing then an ESRI client is required. SDE off the shelf manages > the multi-user multi-department environment really well and it is > extraordinarily fast - searching through millions of spatial (pipeline) > records in milliseconds is no problem. > > An important note regarding AutoCAD is that by default they support SDE > editing. This means that within AutoCAD you can start up the SDE CadClient > menu that will give u full access read/write to SDE databases. This is a > very powerful feature particularly as the AutoCAD drawings themselves, > feature by feature, can be stored within the SDE database or as a BLOB of > DWG. Therefore SDE handles the whole AutoCAD editing process. Impressive. > > > Companies such as Miner and Miner http://www.miner.com/ have made full use > of the Geodatabase with the internal business rules, all based around SDE, > and developed a very powerful suite of products for the Utility corporate > infrastructure. > > There are several ways to go with this for MapInfo as far as I can see: > > 1. Develop rival product - rulebase support for Oracle/SQL Server Spatial > (how about PostGIS?) > This would be a layer that sits on top of SDO (much like SDE) and support > the business logic. All reading/writing would pass through this layer. > 2. Develop full SDE API/Geodatabase support. > If they don't want to create a rival product then MapInfo could simply the > SDE interface therefore opening up the utility market for third party > developers - just like Miner and Miner. > 3. Drive forward Open GIS Consortium > They could very aggressively drive the Transactional support for WFS map > services. MapInfo already has a very decent WMS/WFS client and if editing > was supported via OGC, then the backend could be SDE anyway. ArcIMS could > be deploying the data or another map server. > > Those are my thoughts on the matter! I am sure there are some products out > there that do support "municipal" or "corporate" infrastructure but I havent > seen many. To develop those products without an underlying intelligent > spatial database layer is very tricky - you have to cover all the bases > yourself: syncrhonisation, feature auditing, feature locking...... > > Cheers > > Doug > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Eric Gagnon > Sent: 12 October 2006 18:24 > To: mapinfo list > Subject: [MI-L] Mapinfo capabilities > > Hi, > > We see other companies bringing different GIS packages to infrastructure / > utility mapping. > Esri has solutions for this. > So does Intergraph and Autocad. > I keep seing marketing strategies offered by mapinfo but more going towards > business location. (marketing, banking, insurance, etc..). > I wonder if there's something, a MI add-on or a application that gives more > attention to industrial / municipal / infrastructure GIS. > > > I hope that somebody can shed some light on this. > > Eric > > -- > Eric Gagnon, B.Sc. > Maptica > www.maptica.com > > _______________________________________________ > MapInfo-L mailing list > MapInfo-L@lists.directionsmag.com > http://www.directionsmag.com/mailman/listinfo/mapinfo-l > > ______________________________________________ > This email has been scanned by Netintelligence > http://www.netintelligence.com/email > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.408 / Virus Database: 268.13.1/470 - Release Date: 10/10/2006 > > > _______________________________________________ MapInfo-L mailing list MapInfo-L@lists.directionsmag.com http://www.directionsmag.com/mailman/listinfo/mapinfo-l _______________________________________________ MapInfo-L mailing list MapInfo-L@lists.directionsmag.com http://www.directionsmag.com/mailman/listinfo/mapinfo-l
