The folks at Intergraph recently introduced a new search tool in GeoMedia that brings my ability to develop data maintenance workflows of this sort to a new level.  It is often the case that the most difficult part of a data maintenance or integration workflow is not in linking the records after you find the right place on the map, or in digitizing the geometry, but in actually searching and/or panning and zooming the map to where it needs to be to allow entry of the new spatial data record.

Here is an example… I have a spreadsheet that I acquired from the local power company that specifies locations (in non-standard English descriptions) for every light pole in my client’s city.  All that my client wants to do is create a GIS point feature that is attributed with the unique ID for each light pole from the spreadsheet and inherit the other attributes from the spreadsheet.  It is easy to digitize a point for each pole once you know where to put it.  The difficult part of the workflow is to turn this English descriptive location into a meaningful location on the map  for each record.

In the old paradigm, I would use the attribute query tool to predefine a SQL statement in which someone can search for a parcel or a street to help the person doing the data entry find the location of interest.  This was difficult for the user because in order to find anything at all, the user cannot do anything to the SQL that would mess it up – like forget to put the closing apostrophe at the end of the statement if it is a text field.  However, with the new search tool, (available in version 6.01.06.19), I can predefine a search, pin wildcards to each side of the user-input search term, and GeoMedia will provide an input box for the user to enter the search string.  The result is that it is easy for a person completely unversed in SQL to reliably execute a search query in GeoMedia against an available table or feature class.

This may seem pedestrian to GIS veterans, but I really think that this is a huge leap forward in the usability of GeoMedia workflows for folks less versed in database.  And let’s face it – it means that us GIS veterans have to do less of the drudgery of data creation.  So… create those workflows, pass them off to the interns, and go have yourself some shrimp cocktail.

For more details on exactly how to use the search tool, open up GeoMedia , go to Help –> GeoMedia Help Topics, and type ‘search’ on the index tab.

I first met Adam when he was with San Mateo County, CA and I was working with the City of San Jose. While I was with Intergraph, Adam served as the president of the Northern California Intergraph Geospatial User’s Community. Adam has been working with GeoMedia for many years (maybe even longer than me) and has a ton of knowledge about both Intergraph products like GeoMedia, GeoMedia Parcel Manager, GeoMedia Grid, and GeoMedia/Hansen interface. Additionally, he has a lot of experience with open source products like Geoserver, OpenLayers, and PostGIS. Finally, he’s been working with Oracle Locator/Spatial for a number of years.

I’ll let Adam tell you more in his own words. But needless to say, I’m very happy to have someone else post on the blog. If anybody else is interested in contributing to the blog, please email me and we’ll add you as well!

Hope to see you all there!

Vince really went over a lot of stuff and asked for a lot of feedback from the users. He took a lot of time to discuss Intergraph’s plans with the consolidation of the Intergraph GeoMedia, G/Tech, and CAD (computer aided dispatch) lines of products. I’ll get into much more detail over the days to come. However I can really say that Intergraph’s plans sound very interesting and very promising…if things go as planned.

Finally, I really want to commend Vince personally for coming out to the user’s group meeting. The NCIGUC was formed in September, 2001. However this is the first time we’ve actually had someone from Huntsville actually fly out and present. It really showed a dedication to the Bay Area users. Furthermore, Vince did his best to answer all questions (and there were plenty), take plenty of notes, and interact with the users. He wasn’t at all defensive and took feedback from the users. All in all, I really think it was a strong event.

BTW – congratulations to Leena Gautam for winning the free version of GeoMedia 6.1. The software is in the mail

Take a look at the meeting flyer, register for the meeting, and obtain more information at www.nciguc.org.

On a side note, I hope to get the Northern California Intergraph Geospatial User’s Community (NCIGUC) to host a 6.1 product launch. I’m thinking this would happen in early to mid March. I’ll post more on the product launch as January moves forward.

Also, please be sure to take the NCIGUC survey available online right now!

Will be covering a few more things this week including:

• New features in Oracle 11g
• Geocoding with GeoMedia
• Creating an MGE feature using GeoMedia Fusion’s Schema Remodeler

Finally, last, but not least. For those that are San Francisco Bay Area-based, there’s a couple of upcoming events I wanted to remind you of:

1) Thursday, July 26 is the next BAAAM Educational Meeting titled GIS in Transportation. Please go to the BAAMA web site for more information. This should be a fantastic meeting!

2) Wednesday, August 8 is the next Northern California Intergraph Geospatial User’s Community (NCIGUC) meeting. Please go to the NCIGUC web site for more information. This too should be great!