Abstract

Separation of Powers: Redesigning the National Atlas Map Maker Structure
Track: Application Development
Author(s): Debbie Reusser, Rachel Nehmer

The National Atlas of the United States© Map Maker is a web map engine developed with Esri MapObjects 2.4 and ArcIMS 9.2. When first released in 1994, the Map Maker displayed eight map layers and the application was written to load, render and customize output of queried attributes for each layer. Since then, The National Atlas content has grown to over 2200 layers and the code base for the map engine had become extremely difficult and time consuming to manage.

A new modularized design structure separates the data from the application. A new database management design allows geographic content to be added to the Map Maker through web-based data entry forms. Additional coding is no longer necessary for adding new data to the Map Maker. This significantly reduces source code management and recompiling requirements.

Debbie Reusser
USGS - Western Fisheries Research Center
2111 SE Marine Science Drive
Newport , Oregon 97365
United States
Phone: 541-867-4045
E-mail: dreusser@usgs.gov

Rachel Nehmer
USGS
2111 SE Marine Science Drive
Newport , Oregon 97365
United States
Phone: (541)867-5041
E-mail: Nehmer.Rachel@epa.gov