HydroQual – Database with Interactive Maps for Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce

“IntraWeb made it possible for us to create a website with a Geographic Information System (GIS), interactive pie-charts, and database query tools that displays data for 250,000 lots in New York City. We have planned this sort of site before, but never felt confident that our technology would allow it without a massive investment of time. With IntraWeb, we were able to translate the plan into action within ten days.”

Gary Ostroff, P.E.
Vice President – CommunityCartography [ComCarto]
Senior Project Manager – HydroQual, Inc.

CommunityCartography / HydroQual

ComCarto is a ‘child’ enterprise of HydroQual, Inc., a well established environmental science and engineering consulting firm. ComCarto focuses on providing GIS and GIS related database services to the NYC area.

Situation

ComCarto and HydroQual both provide web-access to spatial databases using GIS technology. Our earlier projects employed Internet Map Server (IMS) technology supplied by another vendor. These efforts suffered from high license costs, frequent bugs, sluggish performance, and complex programming requirements. Serving maps over the Web required us to develop additional skills in ASP, Java, HTML, and network administration that taxed our resources. The costs involved were prohibitive, especially since many of our customers are without large budgets. For our application which would provide online access to the complete real estate and US Census database of Brooklyn, NY, we needed something better. We also wanted to add some pizzazz to the application by doing things that are never done with GIS on the web, such as making statistical charts interactive.

Solution

ComCarto and HydroQual have developed a new toolbox for Web application development that includes:

  • IntraWeb
  • TatukGIS Developers Kernel
  • Delphi
  • Steema TeeCharts

Using the TatukGIS object library, we are able to create simple and very fast GIS applications that function as stand-alone tools. Using ADO technology, we can integrate database technology to our map applications with ease. Now, with IntraWeb, we are able to serve these same applications over the web, with minimal changes to the code. Trouble shooting is also simpler, since we can ‘bench test’ the application first as a local, stand-alone tool, then port it to the Web. This new approach has vastly decreased development time and cost for our projects, and it leverages the programming skills we have developed in Delphi into a powerful Web development skill set.

Impact

The iBrooklyn Premium data page was created in less than ten days, and it performs extremely well. Modifying it is quite easy, and it has gotten very favorable reviews. We are planning to implement it as a password protected subscription service shortly. As a result of our success with this, we are now applying IntraWeb techniques to all of our Web development efforts whether they have GIS as part of them or not. Even proprietary simulation routines developed by HydroQual can be put on the web for approved users!

Technology

Tools: IntraWeb, Delphi, Windows Server, Steema TeeCharts, ADO
Other Tools Evaluated: ASP, ESRI ArcIMS
Number of Users: not tabulated
Number of Developers: 2
Time to Develop: 10 days

Screenshots

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