DISCLAIMER The evaluations and findings within this paper are based on readily available information within project documentation, installation, and other resources found online. There may be cases where features or functionality of a solution were not recorded because the information was not located or was considered unclear. Evaluation tools were created for a high-level assessment to determine if a web GIS application project had potential to fulfill user requirements based on the needs expressed by our clients. Differences in features and

functionality between applications makes it difficult to place them into firm categories, and in many cases, they straddle categories. The authors take responsibility for any errors in our assessments and are open to feedback from the communities or vendors who support and maintain

these projects if there is a need for clarification. Your feedback can be sent to gist-admin@itos.uga.edu.

A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB

MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS

Prepared by ITOS under Cooperative Agreement AID-

OFDA-A-16-000055, submitted to USAID April 2019

Carol Kraemer and Dr. Karen A. Payne

Graphics designed by Jay Norton

CONTENTS

ABSTRACT 1

INTRODUCTION 1

METHODOLOGY 3

WEB GIS APPLICATION PROJECTS 3

COMMERCIAL / PROPRIETARY: ESRI ARCGIS ONLINE AND ENTERPRISE 10.5 4

OPEN SOURCE: BOUNDLESS SUITE 4.9.1 4

OPEN SOURCE: GEONODE 2.8 5

OPEN SOURCE: DEEGREE3 3.3.2 (OSGEO-LIVE DVD 11.0) 5

OPEN SOURCE: GEOMAJAS 2.4.0 (OSGEO-LIVE DVD 11.0) 5

INSTALLATION OF OPEN SOURCE WEB GIS APPLICATIONS 6

VISUAL MODEL: WEB GIS APPLICATION FEATURES GROUPED BY FUNCTIONALITY 6

FUNCTIONALITY COMPARISON MATRIX 7

SUMMARY 9

BOUNDLESS AND BACKGROUND 9

ASSESSING ALTERNATIVE OPEN SOURCE WEB GIS APPLICATIONS 9

RESULTS AND OBSERVATIONS FROM EVALUATION 10

OPERATING SYSTEMS 10

SERVICES 11

USER MANAGEMENT 11

DATA STORE 12

DATA FORMATS 12

VISUALIZATION AND INTERACTION 13

TASKS AND TOOLS 13

CACHING 14

SUPPORT 14

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS 15

CONFIGURING AND CUSTOMIZING FEATURES AND FUNCTIONALITY 15

APPENDIX A 16

ADDITIONAL OPEN SOURCE PROJECTS OF INTEREST 16

APPENDIX B 19

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 20

WORKS CITED 20

REFERENCE MATERIAL 22

1 | A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS USAID.GOV

ABSTRACT

Esri commercial software products have been the most widely used tools used by GIS professionals to

create geospatial data and services. Because of how these products and components are packaged (or

bundled), it can be difficult to see what is happening “under the hood” as well as identify the

components needed, or not needed, in order to meet user requirements. This in turn can make the

process of evaluating other solutions, particularly those from open source communities, confusing and

intimidating. To assist with evaluating open source options and compare against each other as well as

current proprietary solutions, we created a visual model to break down the components, features, and

functionalities of a web GIS application based on client requirements. To the extent possible, this model

was stripped of proprietary language to be a more objective evaluation tool. From the model, a

functionality comparison matrix was created to show solution evaluations side-by-side. The tools and

evaluations are intended to not only provide GIS professionals with a method for assessing the many

options available to them, but also empowers them with a better understanding of the components

found in web GIS applications.

INTRODUCTION

The exposure to GIS products for many spatial professionals is limited to the Esri ecosystem. For those

who are open source curious, alternatives to Esri continue to grow, with a variety of projects spanning a

wide range of maturity and levels of user adoption. Sifting through the available choices and setting them

up for evaluation is time consuming and can include a considerable amount of trial and error. These

challenges can make branching into two very dynamically changing GIS ecosystems -- while keeping up

with work and other demands -- not practical, feasible, or achievable.

The following criteria based on our users’ requirements were used to develop our evaluation tools:

• Allow cross-sharing of data and services between members across installations or instances of

particular solutions (what Esri refers to as organizational accounts).

The need expressed here is that there be settings which would allow members to share between one another

even if they belong to independent instances of the solution, as is possible with ArcGIS Online (AGOL).1

• Roles and privileges similar to AGOL/Enterprise.

This would include user-, group-, and item-based permission settings which would cover public, private, and

anonymous content sharing within an instance of the solution. This allows or denies users (or roles) permission

to edit maps, services and data.

1 Kelly Gerrow-Wilcox. Sharing and Collaboration across ArcGIS Online Organizations., 2018. Print.

USAID.GOV A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS | 2

• Free and open source.

Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) tends to speak more toward providing “freedom” to users

rather than free of cost.2 In this case, we focused on software that was not only freely available, but also free

of cost. This does not and should not imply that the solution comes without any costs to the user as there are

certainly other considerations such as equipment, other required software, and the professional

knowledge/support to develop, train, use, and maintain any solution.

• Compatible with a Linux environment.

There are many cloud-based services available, however we were interested in deployable solutions for our use

cases. Though all solutions discussed in this paper were compatible with Windows and Linux environments,

when necessary, testing environments were set up within Linux virtual machines to remain consistent with the

request for free and open source.

• Active projects that are supported commercially and/or by a community.

An open source project was considered active if there was evidence of software releases, updates, or commits

within the last 6 months to year (from the start of research). The commits are trackable on the platform

where the software is developed. In this case, all projects in this paper can be found on GitHub.

We created a method to evaluate open source GIS solutions based on common needs of users working

with web mapping and enterprise solutions. Proprietary language was avoided where at all possible in

order to objectively review those solutions not adopting the same language. This evaluation is presented

as a narrative (this report) and two tools. The two tools created were:

• A visual model of a web GIS application breaking out the components, features, and functionalities, as

well as their potential relationships to each other, into seven main groups: Operating System,

Visualization and Interaction, Data Store, Services, Tasks and Tools, User Management, and Support.

• A functionality comparison matrix based on the visual model to present evaluated solutions side by

side.

Our goals for this paper and the assessment tools discussed are to help GIS users gain a

better understanding of the individual components found in web GIS solutions as well as

how they connect and interact to provide the users with the ability to create their own

assessments driven by their specific needs. The tools created provide a high-level assessment and

can be expanded to further map out the features and functionalities of solutions in more detail. The

evaluation methods presented are to assist GIS professionals with assessing their current Esri products

to better match with their needs, perhaps reducing the resources and costs associated with supporting

2 FLOSS and FOSS, unknown , May 2018 <https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/floss-and-foss.en.html>.

3 | A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS USAID.GOV

bundled components, allow for mixing and matching between Esri and open source products, or

assisting with a smoother transition to open source solutions.

The tools and methods presented are meant to narrow down the pool of open source (or proprietary)

web GIS applications and their components based on their functional similarities with ArcGIS

Online/Enterprise.

METHODOLOGY

When reviewing the categories of functionality for Esri and open source products, it became clear that

there would be challenges with matching between them, especially when coming from an Esri-centric

background. Though we have an advanced understanding of Esri products, it was difficult determining

how their products and their components connected, particularly those offered as a service. The desire

was to break those services down into components that were easier to identify in open source

products. The question became “What is necessary for a web GIS to work for our needs?”

Several resources provided insight and inspiration for creating this method to assess web GIS

applications, including the ArcGIS Enterprise Functionality Matrix3 and their framework for

deploying web GIS applications4. In addition to the Esri resources, our visualization also drew inspiration

from Gábor Farkas’ publication Application of Open-Source Web Mapping Libraries for

Building Massive Web GIS Clients5. Using these as a starting point, we designed a more

comprehensive model. In addition, the work of Laurent Jégou (2016)6,7, Gábor Farkas (2017)8, and the

North Carolina Geographic Information Coordinating Council GIS Technical Advisory Committee

(2017)9 provided inspiration for our assessment tools.

WEB GIS APPLICATION PROJECTS

The following web GIS application solutions were used in our evaluation. Additional open source

projects that were considered but not evaluated for this paper can be found in Appendix A.

3 10.5 ArcGIS Enterprise Functionality Matrix EsriPrint. 4 A framework for deploying web GIS applications—Documentation (10.5) ArcGIS Enterprise, Esri, April, 2018

<https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/server/10.5/create-web-apps/windows/a-framework-for-deploying-web-gis-

applications.htm>. 5 Gábor Farkas. "Applicability of Open-Source Web Mapping Libraries for Building Massive Web GIS Clients."

Journal of Geographical Systems 19.3 (2017)6 EconLit. Web. 6 Laurent Jégou. Fig6 Applications OpenSource et gratuites de WebMapping., 2016b. Print. 7 Laurent Jégou. Fig 10., 2016a. Web. 8 Farkas. : 273-95. 9 Open Source GIS Software: A Guide for Understanding Current GIS Software Solutions North Carolina Geographic

Information Coordinating Council GIS Technical Advisory Committee, 2017. Print.

USAID.GOV A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS | 4

COMMERCIAL / PROPRIETARY: ESRI ARCGIS ONLINE AND ENTERPRISE 10.5

Esri: https://www.esri.com

• Web Mapping Platform

ArcGIS Online (AGOL) and Enterprise provide web GIS functionality. AGOL is an Esri managed service

and Enterprise is hosted by the client (either on-site or in a supported cloud service). For comparison

purposes in this review we compared Enterprise (Advanced) functionality with open source web GIS

solutions.

OPEN SOURCE: BOUNDLESS SUITE 4.9.1

BoundlessGeo: https://boundlessgeo.com/

GitHub – boundlessgeo/suite: https://github.com/boundlessgeo/suite

• Geospatial Content Management System

Boundless Suite (formerly OpenGeo Suite) utilizes Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo)

projects to create a solution that looks and feels much like Esri AGOL/Enterprise. Suite provides data

and user management as well as tools for visualizing, editing, and sharing data in a variety of formats. It

has been developed using the GeoNode project (including GeoServer) with many contributions shared

by their own development team. The intent of this product is to give a single deployable web GIS

solution with the separate open source components “pre-wired” to work, reducing the need for host

development tasks before implementation. Boundless Suite has transitioned to a commercial product

called Boundless Server and can now only be accessed through support subscriptions.

5 | A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS USAID.GOV

OPEN SOURCE: GEONODE 2.8

GeoNode: https://www.get-it.it/index.html#team

• Geospatial Content Management System

GeoNode, like Boundless Suite, utilizes other OSGeo open source projects and standards, such as

GeoServer, for data and user management making it similar to the look and feel of AGOL/Enterprise. It

is intended to be flexible and allow developers to extend, modify, or integrate with other compatible

applications. For example, GeoServer has extensions, such as Vector Tiles, on their website that can be

added to the GeoNode instance to produce and store geojson, topojson or mapbox-vector tiles (using

the GeoWebCache embedded with GeoServer) for use in web mapping services and applications.

OPEN SOURCE: DEEGREE3 3.3.2 (OSGEO-LIVE DVD 11.0)

deegree3: https://www.deegree.org/

• Geospatial data management server for web mapping

deegree is a data management server for geospatial data. It includes data visualization, catalog services,

and other open standard services. It is like GeoServer, MapServer or GeoNetwork projects and can be

viewed as a geospatial “engine” or data catalog application.

OPEN SOURCE: GEOMAJAS 2.4.0 (OSGEO-LIVE DVD 11.0)

Geomajas: http://www.geomajas.org/

• Modular components of web GIS applications

Geomajas comes with core features but focuses more on a modular approach in order to create a

custom application built to client specifications. The application is built using Google Web Toolkit

(GWT) technology but also provides a pure JavaScript API plugin for the Geomajas client. Between the

GWT and JavaScript API, this allows developers to customize their build with widgets and plugins (core,

supported, and unsupported), like geometry editing, geocoding, PDF printing, and others.

USAID.GOV A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS | 6

INSTALLATION OF OPEN SOURCE WEB GIS APPLICATIONS

Though not originally intended to be within the scope of this effort, it was decided that installation of

some projects would assist with the review process in order to clarify items found in the application

documentation or those not found but suspected of being included within applications. For this,

VirtualBox10 was used to create and manage Linux virtual machines (VMs) that would support the

applications.

Additionally, The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo)11 provides a DVD called OSGeo-Live

11.012 which includes many of the projects found on their website within a bootable Linux desktop

environment. It was a time saving tool if the project of interest made it onto the DVD, however, the

versions included were not always up to date. For our review, the OSGeo-Live DVD was made into its

own VM instance instead of creating a bootable DVD or USB.

GeoNode, deegree, and Geomajas were included in OSGeo-Live, however, for this review we choose

to install a full, independent instance of GeoNode on a separate virtual machine.

VISUAL MODEL: WEB GIS APPLICATION FEATURES GROUPED BY FUNCTIONALITY

The process of creating a comparison matrix in a standard spreadsheet did not allow for the organic

flow, arrangements, and relationships of a connected system of components working together to create

a solution. We used the open source mind mapping software XMind13 to map out the connections

between components and their functionalities. The model was then enhanced further using graphic

design tools.

For application evaluations, the model was used as a visual guide when reviewing documentation for

each of the projects highlighted in this report. As a high-level assessment tool, the Web GIS Application

Model has been designed to provide either “yes,” “no,” or “unknown/unclear” answers for each element

within the model.

10 Oracle VM VirtualBox, , April 2018 <https://www.virtualbox.org/>. 11 Homepage - OSGeo, , May 2018 <https://www.osgeo.org/>. 12 OSGeo Live 11.0 Contents — OSGeo Live 11.0 Documentation, , Jul 31, 2018

<https://live.osgeo.org/en/overview/overview.html>. 13 XMind - Mind Mapping Software, , May 11, 2018 <https://www.xmind.net/>.

7 | A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS USAID.GOV

Figure 1: Visual Model of a Web GIS Application (See Appendix B for larger view)

FUNCTIONALITY COMPARISON MATRIX

The functionality comparison matrix provides the results of the assessments for products using the

visual model:

• Green: Yes, the application provides support for that functionality.

• Yellow: Unknown/unclear, requiring further research to determine the level of functionality

support.

• Red: No, the application does not support that functionality.

VISUAL MODEL OF A

WEB GIS APPLICATION

USAID.GOV A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS | 8

This could be used on its own, however, it lacks the dimension of relationships between these

functionalities and components. Further discussion about the individual sections shown in the overview

graphic below can be found in the Summary.

Figure 2: Functionality Comparison Matrix Overview (See the Summary for a detailed view of each section)

FUNCTIONALITY COMPARISON MATRIX

9 | A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS USAID.GOV

SUMMARY

BOUNDLESS AND BACKGROUND

We began evaluating an instance of Boundless Suite 4.9.1 within a virtual Linux machine. However, on

May 21, 2018, a new product called Boundless Server (Standard and Enterprise) was introduced. All

references to Suite on the vendor website, BoundlessGeo14, were replaced with Server. Server is now a

commercial product and not included in this review. While Suite was free and open source, Server is

only available to those purchasing support subscription contracts through BoundlessGeo.

Though a version of Boundless Suite is still available on GitHub15, the roadmap for it is unclear. Based on

discussions with BoundlessGeo representatives, it does not appear that their development team will

continue to support and maintain the GitHub project. There is recent activity by developers within the

project, however, it is also unclear if members of the open source community are willing to take on

long-term ownership and continue to support the product.

These changes by BoundlessGeo in addition to the information provided by them made it necessary for

us to explore other open source web GIS applications for a possible solution that met our client’s

needs. BoundlessGeo remains a prominent sponsor and supporter of the open source community.

ASSESSING ALTERNATIVE OPEN SOURCE WEB GIS APPLICATIONS

Side-by-side comparisons of various open source web GIS applications or methods for easily comparing

their features and functionalities were either not found, did not cover our applications of interest, or

had outdated information. We needed the ability to create our own assessments based on current

information available. In addition to documentation, there were numerous blog postings and other

forums discussing the topic of web GIS software. OSGeo and other community resources, like Open

Hub16, and Wikipedia17, as well as publications, presentations, and instructional materials all provided

valuable insight as we began exploring open source, but they could only get us so far.

The way open source projects were defined, either by reviewers, websites, or project developers,

sometimes added confusion when attempting to choose potential solutions. There is no consensus

across the developer and GIS communities on how to refer to web mapping packages. As a general rule,

ArcGIS Server, GeoServer, and MapServer are all considered “engines” that can drive a web mapping

application with extended functionality, like online analytics. Engines tend to be separate from enterprise

databases that house GIS, imagery, and other data supporting web mapping. Other applications build on

14 Boundless Geospatial Software & Open Source GIS Software, , March 2018 <https://boundlessgeo.com/>. 15 GitHub - Boundless, , Mar 2018 <https://github.com/boundlessgeo>. 16 Open Hub, the open source network, , May 2018 <https://www.openhub.net/>. 17 List of geographic information systems software, , May 2018

<https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_geographic_information_systems_software&oldid=872304579>

.

USAID.GOV A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS | 10

top of the GIS engines to provide visualization (i.e. OpenLayers) and metadata (i.e. GeoNetwork,

deegree) services.

Our methods provide GIS professionals with a way to easily create their own assessments of current or

future web GIS application offerings based on their needs for a solution.

RESULTS AND OBSERVATIONS FROM EVALUATION

Below are the sections from the Functionality Comparison Matrix broken out with the results and

observation highlights of our evaluation for the web GIS application solutions we selected for our

review.

OPERATING SYSTEMS

Figure 3: Functionality Comparison Matrix - Operating Systems

• All projects reviewed have installation instructions for Linux and Windows; we only installed Linux

versions.

• Geomajas and deegree are based on Java technology and therefore compatible with any platform that

supports Java runtime environment, which also supports Unix-based systems like Solaris.

• We did not evaluate if the choice of operating system either positively or negatively affected any of

the highlighted projects and their functionalities.

Our evaluations focused on Linux installations although all projects we assessed also included

instructions for installing on Windows operating systems. Based on the nature of most open source

solutions, it was not surprising to discover through our research that developers are more likely to

develop applications within a Linux environment and later create a Windows version. There could

potentially be differences in functionality behaviors between operating systems for a project, but it was

beyond the scope of our research to investigate further.

11 | A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS USAID.GOV

SERVICES

Figure 4: Functionality Comparison Matrix - Services

• All solutions had options for cloud and local deployments.

• Open source solutions were not using the latest versions of components and updating them

separately could present challenges.

Deployment recommendations varied depending on the use. In most cases, installation could be done

using a single executable with components packaged together. The open source projects evaluated

utilized various other open source projects (also found on the OSGeo website) as components. For

example, GeoServer, PostGIS, GeoWebCache, and pycsw. The components found in the applications

were often not the latest available. It was not clear in documentation when or if it would be possible to

update these components separately though it is assumed that this would not be recommended and that

a user should wait for the next version of the web GIS application. GeoNode provided Docker

installations for production environments which would require more advanced IT/development

experience in order to set up the components and functionalities needed for the solution and was

outside of the scope for our research. Documentation was an issue for deegree when evaluating their

tile services. It is possible that it exists, is a customization (plugins or extensions), or is part of the

roadmap for the future of deegree that might have been overlooked during the evaluation. In some

cases, like with tile services, the functionality is possible with the installation of extensions or plugins.

USER MANAGEMENT

Figure 5: Functionality Comparison Matrix - User Management

• Open source solutions had limited options if user and content management are priorities.

• Some rely solely on the operating system’s built-in domain user/group management.

• Esri was unique in its ability to create custom roles/privileges and allowing access to members

outside of an organization. None of the evaluated open source solutions seemed to have this feature.

USAID.GOV A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS | 12

While reviewing readily available documentation and other resources, the open source applications did

not have as many user and content management features as found in Esri products.

GeoNode/Boundless’ user management options have the most in common with Esri after assessing roles

and permissions (privileges). However, if customizations are required, it is not clear how difficult that

would be or if it can be done at all. Geomajas and deegree had the most limited user management

features that were mostly restricted to the operating system user login permissions controlled by a

systems administrator, such as active domain (active directory) user/group management.

DATA STORE

Figure 6: Functionality Comparison Matrix - Data Store

Projects using GeoServer, like GeoNode and Boundless Suite, may or may not allow non-geospatial files

to be stored. It seems like that could be possible, but the documentation was not readily found. This is

unlike AGOL, which allows essentially any file type be stored (PDF, PPT, DOC, XLS, etc.) because of

the way it is set up. For example, AGOL uses Azure SQL to store geospatial data formats, while all

other format types are stored in AWS S3. There could be ways to leverage these storage services with

open source applications, but more information would need to be sought out.

DATA FORMATS

Figure 7: Functionality Comparison Matrix - Data Formats

• Examples of other data include formats such as PDFs, DOCs, KMLs, DXFs, etc.

• In some cases, plugins or extensions were needed to support additional data formats.

All solutions we reviewed included support for common raster and vector data formats. More research

would be needed to build a comprehensive list of the data formats for each product if a specific format

13 | A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS USAID.GOV

was required. GeoNode and Geomajas had plugin/extensions to support additional data formats not

included in the core installations.

VISUALIZATION AND INTERACTION

Figure 8: Functionality Comparison Matrix - Visualization and Interaction

• Esri was the only solution having preconfigured web map applications.

• OpenLayers makes snapping while editing possible but, based on documentation alone, it’s not clear if

those products using OpenLayers have implemented that functionality.

Visualization capabilities varied quite a bit between the projects. Boundless Suite and GeoNode provide

the most Esri-like experience, which may be important or necessary if attempting to migrate to an open

source solution. Geomajas and deegree have a steeper learning curve in comparison and require greater

development experience in order to customize the interface and/or functionality. The evaluation tools

were useful in this section by showing a clearer distinction between deegree and the other solutions.

Deegree has limited visualization and editing capabilities, however, this could still be a useful tool if the

goal is to distribute data, making it a catalog service like GeoNetwork (See Appendix A).

TASKS AND TOOLS

Figure 9: Functionality Comparison Matrix - Tasks and Tools

• GeoServer (GeoNode and Boundless Suite) has a printing module that can be installed as an

extension.

• GeoServer supports updating a feature layer using a replace action.

• Simplification might be possible indirectly using PostGIS.

• Those projects that mentioned querying languages used SQL except for Geomajas which used CQL.

USAID.GOV A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS | 14

Though it was found that GeoServer can print PDFs and update feature layers, it was not tested in

either GeoNode or Boundless Suite. The documentation for deegree did not provide adequate

information for this section. This may mean that it does not support any of these functionalities. More

investigation through vendor and community support would be necessary. PostGIS layers can be added

through GeoServer and there are algorithms available within PostGIS, also an open source project, to

simplify topology.18,19 This may provide an indirect method for simplification for projects using

GeoServer and would need to be explored further.

CACHING

Figure 10: Functionality Comparison Matrix - Caching

For this high-level review, the projects evaluated support some or all caching functionalities with

deegree being the only exception which lacked specific documentation.

SUPPORT

Figure 11: Functionality Comparison Matrix - Support

18 ST_SimplifyPreserveTopology, , Dec 10, 2018 <https://postgis.net/docs/ST_SimplifyPreserveTopology.html>. 19 Adding a Postgis layer — GeoNode 2.8 documentation, , Jun 2018

<http://docs.geonode.org/en/master/tutorials/advanced/adv_data_mgmt/adding_data/postgis_lay.html>.

15 | A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS USAID.GOV

• We do not recommend relying solely on the open source community (i.e. mailing lists, forums, etc.)

for application support.

• Commercial support is often available through vendors who contribute to open source projects.

The price of ‘free’ software is often the expertise needed to install, customize and support it. It is

common within the open source development community for commercial vendors to support the

development of open source projects by dedicating paid staff time to help create open source code that

is then available through open software repositories. In turn, the vendor’s business model is to recoup

some of their investment by selling support packages for the software. The vendors often do this while

simultaneously allowing their employees to contribute on the community in other ways. Specifically,

developers are part of the open source community and provide answers to questions through project

mailing lists and comments on development platforms like Git-Hub.

It is tempting for cash-strapped organizations to try and use the free support options available through

the open source community for their projects and infrastructure development. However. relying solely

on community support introduces problems. Response times and quality of responses to questions can

vary considerably. Paid support through a vendor may be the only option for some GIS users who are

not or do not have developers on their teams. If a team decides to not invest in commercial support,

they will require one or more members with development skills to install and maintain the open source

solutions highlighted in this report. These developers may also need to create additional documentation

and training for users, particularly for customized builds of projects.

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

Installation was not part of the scope for this assessment, however, it is worth noting that in many, if

not all, cases mentioned above, it was necessary to have some development experience and skills. The

installation documentation, even when written very well, was sometimes found to be outdated making it

necessary tweak the process to get an application to work. Though efforts were made to reach out to

communities and vendors, response times varied. When vendors never responded to some of our

inquires, confidence was lost in the support and maintenance of the project. Depending on the skilled

resources available, ease of installation and customization could be additional factors to consider when

choosing a solution.

CONFIGURING AND CUSTOMIZING FEATURES AND FUNCTIONALITY

The open source applications selected all discuss configuring and customizing their products in varying

detail. Customizations range from simple web interface branding (“skinning”) to installation of plugins or

modules to increase functionalities and features.

GeoNode and Boundless Suite use GeoServer for user and data management, however, the version

packaged within these projects is not the latest version. It’s unclear through the available documentation

if updating the GeoServer version or installing plugins provided on their website may interfere with

other components within the applications. GeoNode has instructions for configuring GeoNetwork and

deegree as an alternative catalog services (CSW or catalog service for the web).

USAID.GOV A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS | 16

Geomajas project applications come with limited core functionalities with the ability to add to them

through supported and unsupported plugins found on their website. It is unclear how intuitive plugin

installation is as it was not within the scope of our research.

Customization for deegree is done through XML files though it is not completely clear what kind of

plugins or extensions are available, if at all.

It should be noted that customization of applications will make them more challenging to upgrade,

requiring more need for vendor support and/or skilled developers.

APPENDIX A

ADDITIONAL OPEN SOURCE PROJECTS OF INTEREST

The following projects were not installed and fully reviewed but are discussed in the summary section

when they are relevant. They are not presented in the functionality comparison matrix. We chose to

mention them to give the reader a broader sense of the open source geospatial landscape.

GET-IT 4.0.0

GET-IT: https://www.get-it.it/index.html

• Geospatial Content Management System

GET-IT is based on GeoNode and combines traditional geospatial data formats with sensor observation

services. Like GeoNode, it utilizes the GeoServer backend for user and data management. The demo on

their website has portions of GET-IT in Italian and it was decided to attempt an installation to better

assess all features. Even with documentation, we were unable to install on a Linux virtual machine and

get all components working. A future version may not have these issues.

17 | A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS USAID.GOV

QGIS ENTERPRISE 15.03

QGIS Enterprise: https://qgisenterprise.com/qgis-enterprise/

QGIS Server:

https://docs.qgis.org/2.14/en/docs/user_manual/working_with_ogc/ogc_server_support.html

• Geospatial Infrastructure Solution with desktop, server, and web client

QGIS Desktop and Server have been available as free and open source projects for some time and have

an active community of users and developers. Enterprise is a complete, commercial solution that

combines desktop and server with the inclusion of a web client. This solution is offered through a

vendor and appears to be only available through purchase. We could not find enough documentation, a

demo, or a trial download to assess this project.

GEONETWORK 3.4.3

GeoNetwork: https://geonetwork-opensource.org/

• Catalog application

GeoNetwork is a data catalog application for geospatial information. GeoNetwork published metadata

conforms to Catalog Service for the Web (CSW) standards, which are consumable not only in other

GeoNetwork instances, or nodes, but other open source projects like GeoNode. GeoNetwork has a

web interface that also includes an interactive map viewer using OpenLayers 3. It connects to catalog

services for searching and editing metadata content. Projects like GeoNode do not come packaged with

USAID.GOV A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS | 18

GeoNetwork but, based on documentation, do have the capability to use it in place of their default

CSWs or connect to it. We were unable to discover any comprehensive web GIS projects integrating

GeoNetwork into their solutions, nor could we find documentation to assist with that search. However,

that information may be available by contacting GeoNetwork directly.

19 | A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS USAID.GOV

APPENDIX B

VISUAL MODEL OF A WEB

GIS APPLICATION

USAID.GOV A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS | 20

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Made possible with generous support of the American People, in cooperation with the UN Office for

the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

WORKS CITED

10.5 ArcGIS Enterprise Functionality Matrix. EsriPrint.

"Adding a Postgis layer — GeoNode 2.8 documentation." Web. Jun 2018

<http://docs.geonode.org/en/master/tutorials/advanced/adv_data_mgmt/adding_data/postgis

_lay.html>.

"Boundless Geospatial Software & Open Source GIS Software." Web. March 2018

<https://boundlessgeo.com/>.

Farkas, Gábor. "Applicability of Open-Source Web Mapping Libraries for Building Massive Web GIS

Clients." Journal of Geographical Systems 19.3 (2017): 273-95. EconLit. Web.

"A framework for deploying web GIS applications—Documentation (10.5) ArcGIS Enterprise." Web.

April, 2018 <https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/server/10.5/create-web-apps/windows/a-

framework-for-deploying-web-gis-applications.htm>.

Gerrow-Wilcox, Kelly. Sharing and Collaboration Across ArcGIS Online Organizations., 2018. Print.

"GitHub - Boundless." Web. Mar 2018 <https://github.com/boundlessgeo>.

"Homepage - OSGeo." Web. May 2018 <https://www.osgeo.org/>.

Jégou, Laurent. Fig 10., 2016a. Web.

---. Fig6 Applications OpenSource Et Gratuites De WebMapping., 2016b. Print.

21 | A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS USAID.GOV

"List of geographic information systems software." Web. May 2018

<https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_geographic_information_systems_software

&oldid=872304579>.

"Open Hub, the open source network." Web. May 2018 <https://www.openhub.net/>.

Open Source GIS Software: A Guide for Understanding Current GIS Software Solutions. North Carolina

Geographic Information Coordinating Council GIS Technical Advisory Committee, 2017. Print.

"Oracle VM VirtualBox." Web. April 2018 <https://www.virtualbox.org/>.

"OSGeo Live 11.0 Contents — OSGeo Live 11.0 Documentation." Web. Jul 31, 2018

<https://live.osgeo.org/en/overview/overview.html>.

"ST_SimplifyPreserveTopology." Web. Dec 10, 2018

<https://postgis.net/docs/ST_SimplifyPreserveTopology.html>.

Stallman, Richard. "FLOSS and FOSS." unknown Web. May 2018

<https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/floss-and-foss.en.html>.

"XMind - Mind Mapping Software." Web. May 11, 2018 <https://www.xmind.net/>.

USAID.GOV A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS | 22

REFERENCE MATERIAL

"About GeoNode — GeoNode 2.8

documentation." http://docs.geonode.org/en/latest/about.html. Web. May 2018

<http://docs.geonode.org/en/latest/about.html>.

Boundless Suite 4.9.1 GIS Software Now Available in Boundless Connect., 2017. Print.

"Boundless Suite User Manual — Boundless Suite 4.9.1 User

Manual."file://///os.uga.edu/Data/common/ckraemer/boundless_manuals/Boundless%20Suite

%204.9.1%20User%20Manual/connect.boundlessgeo.com/docs/suite/enterprise/latest/index.h

tml. Web. Mar 2018

<file://///os.uga.edu/Data/common/ckraemer/boundless_manuals/Boundless%20Suite%204.9

.1%20User%20Manual/connect.boundlessgeo.com/docs/suite/enterprise/latest/index.html>.

Chris Whitmore. Sharing Content Privately between Organizations. Esri, 2016. Web. Dec 5, 2018.

"Client GWT 2.3.0 | Geomajas." http://www.geomajas.org/client-gwt/2-3-0. Web. Jun 2018

<http://www.geomajas.org/client-gwt/2-3-0>.

"deegree Webservices — deegree webservices 3.3.20

documentation." http://download.deegree.org/documentation/3.3.20/html/. Web. May 2018

<http://download.deegree.org/documentation/3.3.20/html/>.

Dominic Stubbins. Architecting the ArcGIS Platform - Technical - Esri UK Annual Conference 2017.,

2017. Print.

"FAQ | Geomajas." http://www.geomajas.org/faq/1. Web. Jun 2108

<http://www.geomajas.org/faq/1>.

23 | A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS USAID.GOV

"A framework for deploying web GIS applications—Documentation (10.5) ArcGIS Enterprise." Web.

April, 2018 <https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/server/10.5/create-web-apps/windows/a-

framework-for-deploying-web-gis-applications.htm>.

"Geomajas." http://www.geomajas.org/. Web. Jun 2018 <http://www.geomajas.org/>.

"Geomajas - OSGeo." OSGeo. Web. Jun 2018 <https://www.osgeo.org/projects/geomajas/>.

"Geomajas Javascript API plug-in

guide." http://files.geomajas.org/maven/trunk/geomajas/geomajas-plugin-javascript-api-

documentation/html/master.html. Web. Jun 2018

<http://files.geomajas.org/maven/trunk/geomajas/geomajas-plugin-javascript-api-

documentation/html/master.html>.

GeoNode Analysis and User Research: Analysis Report + Strategy Recommendations., 2016. Print.

"GET-IT - Install IT." http://www.get-it.it/detailsHowDoIUseIt.html#InstallIT. Web. Dec 4, 2018

<http://www.get-it.it/detailsHowDoIUseIt.html#InstallIT>.

"GET-IT StarterKit Demo 2." http://demo2.get-it.it/. Web. Jun 2018 <http://demo2.get-it.it/>.

"Getting started with Geomajas." http://files.geomajas.org/maven/trunk/geomajas/docbook-

gettingstarted/html/master.html#ConfigureArchetype. Web. Jun 2018

<http://files.geomajas.org/maven/trunk/geomajas/docbook-

gettingstarted/html/master.html#ConfigureArchetype>.

"GitHub - deegree." https://github.com/deegree. Web. Jun 2018 <https://github.com/deegree>.

"GitHub - Geomajas." https://github.com/geomajas/. Web. Jun 2018

<https://github.com/geomajas/>.

"GitHub - GeoNode." https://github.com/GeoNode. Web. May 2018 <https://github.com/GeoNode>.

USAID.GOV A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS | 24

Heede, Philip, and Scott MacDonald. ArcGIS Enterprise in the Cloud., 2018. Print.

"Home — GeoNetwork opensource." https://geonetwork-opensource.org/. Web. June 2018

<https://geonetwork-opensource.org/>.

Jafari Salim, Mehrdad. "The Analysis of Open Source Software and Data for Establishment of GIS

Services Throughout the Network in a Mapping Organization at National Or International Level."

Politecnico di Torino, 2014. Web.

Modern Playbook for GIS Cloud Migration. Boundless Spatial, Inc, 2018. Print.

Open Source GIS Software: A Guide for Understanding Current GIS Software Solutions. North

Carolina Geographic Information Coordinating Council GIS Technical Advisory Committee,

2017. Print.

"OSGeo - GET-IT - Geoinformation Enabling ToolkIT starterkit®." OSGeo. Web. Jun 2018

<https://www.osgeo.org/projects/get-it/>.

"QGIS as OGC Data

Server." https://docs.qgis.org/2.14/en/docs/user_manual/working_with_ogc/ogc_server_suppo

rt.html. Web. Jun 2018

<https://docs.qgis.org/2.14/en/docs/user_manual/working_with_ogc/ogc_server_support.html

>.

"QGIS Enterprise." https://qgisenterprise.com/en/qgis-enterprise/. Web. Jun 2018

<https://qgisenterprise.com/en/qgis-enterprise/>.

"Vector tiles tutorial — GeoServer 2.15.x User

Manual." https://docs.geoserver.org/latest/en/user/extensions/vectortiles/tutorial.html. Web.

May 2018 <https://docs.geoserver.org/latest/en/user/extensions/vectortiles/tutorial.html>.

25 | A REVIEW OF OPEN SOURCE GIS WEB MAPPING AND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS USAID.GOV

"Vector Tiles — GeoServer 2.15.x User

Manual." https://docs.geoserver.org/latest/en/user/extensions/vectortiles/index.html. Web.

May 2018 <https://docs.geoserver.org/latest/en/user/extensions/vectortiles/index.html>.