If
you have a PC connected to the web running Windows, with Manifold IMS you can create
cool web pages that publish mapping and geographic information systems
(GIS) data to intranets or to the Internet. Here's
all you need:
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A
PC running Windows - Just about any modern PIII, PIV,
Celeron, Athlon or Duron will do.
-
Windows
Internet Information Server (IIS) 5.0 or greater, or other HTML
server - If you have
a modern Windows package like Windows 2003, Windows XP Pro or Windows 2000 you
already have IIS. You can even use the Personal Web Server that's
provided free with many Windows versions.
-
A
full-time connection to the web - If you have a DSL line,
Cable Modem or T1 line with your own IP address (almost always
assigned with full time links like DSL or cable modems), you're all
set!
-
Manifold
System Release 6.00 - Manifold is the coolest mapping and
geographic information system (GIS) ever created. It includes Manifold
IMS as a seamlessly integrated component.
OR
-
Use a commercial
Service - A variety of commercial hosting services, like www.mapserving.com
or www.rainiermap.com
now support Manifold IMS websites! You'll still need Manifold
System to create your project but if you do not have a full time
Internet connection or do not want to operate your own web server
you can use a commercial provider to host your Manifold IMS web
site.
Manifold
System Release 6.00 is the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) authoring environment for creating intense maps or CAD
diagrams and filling them with data from databases.
Manifold
can read over 80 different mapping, image, CAD, satellite, terrain
elevation and database formats. That lets you take advantage of
the millions of files that can be downloaded free from the Web so you
can get exactly the data and maps you want. Manifold has amazing
editing tools that let you edit and format your maps for spectacular
presentations.
Once
you've created your product you can create a web page for it using File
- Export - Web Page. That automatically creates a world-class web
page based on the options you picked. No need to write any
programming code or to edit any HTML or .asp scripts! Visitors to your page will be able to browse the map, pan, zoom and use
the controls you specified when creating the page. If you included
queries in your project, users will be able to launch queries, specify
parameters and see the results in tables. Map server projects that
take weeks of programming labor with old-fashioned map servers will take
you only a few mouse clicks!
Manifold IMS even works
perfectly with Microsoft's ASP .NET environment and with the
latest generation of Microsoft .NET servers. Manifold IMS even
includes dedicated templates to create web sites for ASP .NET servers.
Manifold IMS Sample Sites
These sites show the Manifold Internet Map
Server, which is included in Manifold System Release 6.00
Professional
Edition. Manifold IMS provides a high performance web mapping
solution that's powerful enough for organizations yet affordable by
individuals. Manifold IMS works with standard web browsers and requires no
plug ins or costly middleware! Manifold IMS automatically creates web
sites from Manifold projects using a variety of templates. The example
sites show the use of three different templates:
High compatibility template - This template
creates a site that will work with older, "4.x" style browsers from
Microsoft, Netscape, Mozilla and Opera. The sites use more austere style
with text link menus instead of command buttons. Tables created by the Find
tool and queries will pop open in a new browser window. Pan by clicking
near the edges of the map. Two sites show the standard template.
Mexico - A map of
Mexico with layers using zoom ranges to control which layers come on upon zoom in. Shows labels as a layer.
Surface with Vector Layers (at left) - Montara Mountain SDTS DEM surface overlayed on a base map of the San Francisco Bay region, with roads and hydrography layers. Zoom in to see the surface. This generates detailed images (due to the surface... same as raster images) that do not compress well and so the image served to your browser may be over 150K in size. If you have a slow Internet link it could take a while for the image to be downloaded. Note how much faster the mexico example is ("sparse" images compress well and so are smaller) even though it too is a large image size.
Standard
template - This template creates attractive sites designed for
newer "5.x" browsers including Microsoft IE, Netscape, Mozilla and
Opera. It provides a point and click Info tool as well as a
prettier, tool-based interface. Pan by selecting the Center tool and then
clicking anywhere near the edge of the map.
Theater - Architectural plans for the TSB Theater in Plymouth, New Zealand taken from
.dxf files. A smaller window, but showing how one can use Manifold IMS to publish CAD drawings.
Standard
template with frames - A very fast and convenient template for newer
"5.x" browsers that reports the results of queries, Find and
the Info button in tables that appear below the main map display.
With or without frames, the standard template is a good choice for high
performance intranet use and internet web sites aimed at more sophisticated
users who want greater interactivity with the data sets.
107th Congressional Districts (at right)
- A practical application that shows
Congressional districts in the United States for the 107th Congress with many
IMS features such as a legend, a query and Info and Find
tools. Zoom in to see ever more detailed city names. Click on the Info
tool and then click on a district to see the name of the representative and
their web site. Try entering Barton in the Find box to see a
bizarrely "Gerrymandered" district. The Query pane
is set up with a query that will list all representatives in a particular
state. Enter the state's two letter postal code and press Query to
see the representatives, sorted by last name.
Web Site
Programming Examples
Manifold.net provides programming
examples for IMS that show how simple programming can be used to create
custom sites.
Webcities
- The site at left provides an example of programmatic use of Manifold IMS to
create web pages. It was created without use of a template by scripting in
Javascript in the .asp files used. Two new toolbar buttons
are added. Click the Zoom to Cities button and then click near a
city dot to get information (lat/lon location) on that city. Click on the Zoom
to Query button and click anywhere in the map to find all cities within the
given distance of the clicked point. A table with hyperlinks to the
city appears for all cities within range.
Locations
- This site demonstrates the use of a linked drawing and database code to create
point objects at user clicked locations. Users can add a point by clicking with
a new locations tool. The code is kept as simple as possible so that it is
clear what is going on. Once the linked drawing grows to 200 locations the
oldest 100 locations are removed. Linked
drawings are drawings that are automatically created from external database
tables, so you can control what appears in the map by simply changing values in
your database management system's tables.
Navigation
- Shows the combined use of server-side and client-side code to
implement zoom box functionality and custom scaling. Also
demonstrates how to switch themes by toggling map layers.
Zoom ranges allow new layers (roads, rivers, cities) to come into view
when zooming in.
OverviewMap
- Demonstrates how to create and use an overview map for navigation in
the main map. Shows various techniques to re-center and re-scale
the map view. Includes use of user-specified locations using
coordinate conversion on the fly to specify desired views. Also shows
how to organize labels in layers so that more important layers are given
priority.
Geocoding
- Demonstrates how to use the Manifold geocoding engine from IMS. This requires
installation of the Manifold 6.00 Geocoding Data product on the IMS
machine as well as Manifold 6.00. To
keep the example easily downloadable it does not contain complete
streets for the US but rather just pans to show town names. Only
the main cities have labels on them. The example allows entering
addresses either as a single, concatenated line or as separate street
address, city, state and zip fields. Entering just a zip code is a handy
way of looking up a zip code.
It has reasonable
error return despite being a tutorial example. For instance, if a
visitor enters an address of "1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington,
DC" into the single line address box it will return an alternative
match using the correct street name of "1600 Pennsylvania Ave
NW".
AltFuelStations
- A fully-developed website that can be used as a "dealer
locator" or other facilities location web site. Demonstrates
how to use a query to locate facilities within the desired distance of a
user-supplied zip code. It finds alternative fuel stations (liquid
natural gas, electricity charge points, etc) within Texas. Try
looking up all stations within 5 miles of zip code 75202 and it will
show the stations and provide a table list that includes hyperlinks to
display a local map (using MapQuest). The web site is easily maintained
without stopping the web server because any changes desired can be made
to the .mdb file that provides the stations list. The example
uses very simple background maps, which of course could be made more
elaborate if desired. Other Texas zip
codes to try (with varying distances from 5 to 50 miles) are 77057, 79331, 75013, and 75248.
MultiMap -This example web site demonstrates the use of IMS with multiple .map files. Click
on any state to drill down into a regional map that shows counties. Within a
regional map, click the Info tool and then click on a county to get
demographic info for that county. You can also use the Info tool at the main US
level to get demographic info on a state. Counties within regional maps
are colored by population, with more densely populated counties in lighter
colors.
Manifold
IMS Benefits
Manifold
IMS is the map server that is built into Manifold System.
It's an integral part of the product with no need to install or
configure any additional software, no need to configure services and no
need to make exotic changes in your IIS installation. It works
perfectly, automatically every time.
Manifold
IMS provides a high performance web mapping solution that's powerful
enough for organizations yet affordable by individuals. Manifold
IMS works with standard web browsers and requires no plug ins and
no costly middleware!
Old-Fashioned
Map Servers waste Time and Money
The
old-fashioned approach to map servers is to sell you a map server that's
a separate application. You still need to buy a GIS to prepare
your data and to create elegant maps...all the map server does is
publish them to the web. This has several major disadvantages:
-
Buying
two applications costs too much! Imagine... after spending
hundreds or thousands of dollars for a map server, you still have to
buy a GIS for hundreds or thousands of dollars more.
-
All
of the old-fashioned map servers have radically different user
interfaces and methods than whatever professional quality GIS you'll
need to prepare the project. That means you have to master two
different, highly complex worlds: once to create your project and
once to publish it. No way!
-
Old
fashioned map servers require a lot of programming to publish even
simple maps. Why get stuck in a software development campaign
just to publish a GIS project to the web?
-
Integrating
projects between the GIS and the map server can be a real nightmare,
even if the two are sold by different groups within the same
company. If problems arise, who do you call? You know
the drill - the map server vendor will blame the GIS and the GIS
vendor blames the other guy - business as usual!
-
Many
traditional map servers originate in UNIX and (despite their high
prices) use low performance architectures more reminiscent of
student hacking than professional commercial sites. Using
bloated middleware, CGI scripts and dis-integrated UNIX code fails
to take advantage of the high performance world of commercial Microsoft
Internet Information Servers.
-
Old-fashioned
map servers use UNIX-oriented, non-Microsoft languages for
scripting. That can be a big obstacle when you are ready to
integrate your web pages with enterprise Microsoft servers and new
technology like .NET.
Manifold
IMS Saves Time, Money and Hassles through Integration
Manifold
IMS is the same program as Manifold System, the world's coolest GIS
ever. The map server is built into the same program used to
create map projects interactively. That has several major benefits:
-
One
low-cost package does it all. $245 delivers everything
you need to create breathtaking displays and to publish them
to the web.
-
Learn
one system instead of many: Because Manifold is the editing and
development environment as well as the map serving program, you only
need to learn one user interface and one set of methods.
Excellent!
-
No
programming required! Enjoy using Manifold's highly WYSIWIG
(what you see is what you get) visual interface to create cool maps
and then publish them with a few mouse clicks. Now that's
a real time and money saver.
-
Get built in, integrated
US street address-awareness using Manifold 6.00's built-in US street
address geocoder. It's easy to create web sites that can
accept zip codes or even complete street addresses to better locate
dealers or other information. [Geocoding is a low cost option for
Manifold System].
-
One
system means the same vendor guarantees that your Manifold project
will be perfectly published via Manifold IMS. It's an easy
guarantee to make since the same program creates the project and
publishes it.
-
Manifold
IMS features incredibly tight, sophisticated architecture crafted by
the Microsoft technology experts at manifold.net. It's
dedicated to a pure performance solution that's optimized
exclusively for Microsoft Internet Information Server.
-
For
those customers who would like to program for greater customization,
Manifold's own native scripting language is Microsoft ActiveX
scripting using VBscript or Jscript (javascript) using the exact
same Microsoft scripting engines that customize Microsoft's own
high-end enterprise servers and .NET servers. Manifold's use
of Microsoft's own code is your assurance of perfect compatibility
with present and future Microsoft technology.
Manifold
IMS for Maximum Performance and Security
Manifold
IMS delivers blistering hot performance through sophisticated features
that are tightly integrated with Microsoft Internet Information
Server. Features include
-
Sophisticated
.asp pages for higher performance than ho-hum CGI scripts.
-
High
security: no user write permissions required in Internet publication
directories.
-
Run
session state free for faster performance.
-
Run
using High isolation for bulletproof IIS reliability.
-
Perfect
support for object pooling for automatic scaling and high speed.
-
Sophisticated
memory management to take advantage of the modern era of cheap RAM
for maximum performance.
-
Rocket-fast
use of .png for 10% to 15% faster throughput than dumb old .gif
images.
-
Seamless
compatibility with the latest generation of Microsoft "lock
down" tools for fully-armored, high security web site
operations.
-
Full
support for SSL encrypted operations for enhanced security.
-
Perfect
integration with Personal Web Server and Internet Information Server
5 and greater, including full support for IIS in Windows XP as well as
Windows 2000.
-
Perfect integration with
ASP .NET, including dedicated ASP .NET web site templates and
tested performance with Microsoft's new .NET servers.
Think of
it this way: if you are considering some other map server besides
Manifold, you'll still need a sophisticated, professional GIS to prepare
the mapping projects that will be served by that map server. Why
not use Manifold as the GIS?
If
you get Manifold System for your GIS, you'll be able to grab data from
over 80 different GIS, image and database formats for your projects and
you'll have the most complete and most sophisticated arsenal of GIS
tools ever assembled in a single package. Manifold provides ten
times the capabilities of old-fashioned GIS packages yet costs only one
tenth as much. You'll also have the
world's easiest to use Internet map server as well.
So,
even if you are considering another map server, start with Manifold
System as your GIS and see how far you can go. Give yourself the
chance to see just how spectacular Manifold IMS is before funding an
alternative. It could well be you decide that not only is Manifold
the coolest GIS to prepare your map projects it's also the perfect
solution to publish them as well!
Welcome
to manifold, the makers of the Manifold Internet Map Server. 
