Bridging the Gap Between Unequal Partners

CONNECT. TRANSFORM. AUTOMATE.

Bridging the Gap Between Unequal Partners

Krischelle Love, GIS Technician San Jose Water Company

The Gap


many customers many needs many resources more land

same needs fewer resources

The Bridge


San Jose Water Company

!  140-mi2 service area !  2774 miles of water main !  230,000 connections !  350 employees

Canyon Lake Water Service Company

!  240-mi2 service area !  532 miles of water main !  10,000 connections !  40 employees

Beware the Bridge Troll


He’s demanding! If you want use of the bridge,

you must have…

!  enterprise GIS data maintained in an Oracle Spatial DB in California

!  a viewing application for everyone in Texas

!  a cloak of invisibility (a secure internal network for two-way data transfer)

Photo Credit: "Troll Under the Bridge" by keystricken http://www.flickr.com/photos/keystricken/183187363/

©Attribution-ShareAlike License

Danger: Bridge Out Ahead


Limitations

!  $$$ !  COTS unaffordable !  computers old & underpowered

!  Rural area with slow/limited internet connectivity

!  Security precautions further hamper our network connection (invisibility cloaks are heavy!)

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Bridge Over Troubled Water


Google Earth

+ FME

Building the Bridge


!  Oracle to KML !  KMLStyler !  LabelPointReplacer !  custom attribute display

!  Advantages !  Free viewer !  Street View available !  Automated with

FME Server

Bridge to Nowhere


!  Disadvantages !  Flat file " unmet need

!  Excluded layers to control file size

!  Secure file transfers failed often " stale data

!  Unfamiliar interface " discouraging experience !  Users accustomed to traditional GIS interface !  Limited interest in learning new ways of doing same things

!  Google Earth bulky and unreliable " few users

! Time for a new direction

QGIS + PostGIS + FME Server

The future is all about free & open source! (Plus, nobody needs money in the 24th century.)


Bridge of the Future

Making it so


Oracle (enterprise data)

Customized interface with a single plugin

FME Server

PostGIS (CA copy)

PostGIS (TX copy)

Engage!


!  Add other sources !  Join customer

database

!  Add fields !  Hyperlinks

(site specific) !  Symbol rotations

!  Beautify line geometry !  Generalizer !  Appealing look !  Faster loading

Adds value without clutter in the enterprise database!

Still automated with FME Server!

Bridging the Gap


!  Users get access to…

!  Engineering as-builts !  Tax assessor data !  Quick customer info

!  Added value for users without ever leaving the map

All at virtually no cost!

We’ll Cross That Bridge When it Comes


!  The future is full of possibilities…

!  Interface can evolve with users’ needs

!  Data from other sources can be added

!  Other business needs can be met !  e.g., data entry directly by CLWSC staff to track leak

reports, customer complaints, and more

!  Growing staff ≠ growing expense

!  Future unknowns are no sweat with FME

Water Under the Bridge


!  In summary…

!  Google Earth was the right solution for a while, now it’s QGIS/PostGIS

!  FOSS is unpredictable !  Business needs may will change !  FME is the key that unlocks whatever the future

may hold !  FME Server is the caretaker that lets us pay

attention to other things!

Thank You!


!  Questions? Ask me at [email protected]!

!  For more information: !  Quantum GIS: qgis.org !  PostGIS: postgis.net

!  For a deep dive into customizing QGIS using Python: !  API to modify existing QGIS interface: qgis.org/api !  Qt Designer to develop new interface:

qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/designer-manual.html !  PyQt to talk Python to Qt (and avoid coding in C++):

wiki.python.org/moin/PyQt !  QGIS Plugin Builder to get new interface into QGIS:

hub.qgis.org/projects/plugin-builder

Technology

Bridging the Gap Between Unequal Partners