Proceedings of the 14th International Conference
on Automation & Computing, Brunel University,
West London, UK, 6 September 2008
Study on SOA-Orient WebGIS Framework
Hao Li12, Joan Lu2, Binjing Cai1, Shaowen Yao1
2
School of software, Yunnan University, Kunming, China
2
School of Computing and Engineering, University of Huddersfield,U.K.
Lihao707@ynu.edu.cn, j.lu@hud.ac.uk, bjcai117@gmail.com, yaosw@ynu.edu.cn
Abstract: With the development and popularization of the
Internet, WebGIS gradually entered into people's daily lives,
their functions are no longer simple browse and download
online map. SOA SOA is a kind of software development
architecture designed for on demand. To a certain extent, SOA
could eliminate the current bottlenecks about regarding data
sharing and interoperability bottlenecks existing in WebGIS
systems. This paper introduces the basic ideas of SOA to
WebGIS design and construction. The SOA-Orient WebGIS is
studied and designed from various aspect including the
conceptual framework, layers model and the realization of the
framework, and other aspects of the WebGIS framework, and a
prototype system is designed and implemented. It preliminarily
verifies that the feasibility and effectiveness of the framework.
It is also a useful exploration of the development of Service
WebGIS.
Keywords: WebGIS SOA Web Service Architecture
1、 INTRODUCTION
With the popularity of the Internet, traditional GIS has
evolved from the stand-alone ‘information islands’ into the
network marine [1]. Besides simple online map browsing and
downloading functions, WebGIS functions have been
enriched, such as data servicing and processing functions.
Although WebGIS solves the shared problem of maps, it
has slight help with the implementation of interoperation of
space data and service. Current WebGIS systems have the
following limitations: 1. Unable to implement interoperation
of isometric space data; 2. Unable to implement cross-
platform function; 3. Hard to develop, debug and maintain[2].
Due to these issues, it limits the interoperability of WebGIS.
In this case, users’ investment cannot be protected. It is
unacceptable for large and medium-sized GIS applications,
and unable to meet the development requirements of GIS.
The appearance of SOA architecture, which is based on
Web service and standard protocols of World Wide Web,
makes the solution of problems mentioned above possible[3].
SOA is short for Service-Oriented Architecture. With a loose
coupling of web services and well-accepted standards (such
as XML and SOAP), SOA groups and automates the business
process, and makes it share information with difference
systems. Within SOA, IT systems are package as service,
therefore they become easy to be employed and incorporated
in the real business process.
We focus on how to employ SOA architecture to solve
problems in the integration of traditional GIS systems, to
accomplish the integration of existing applications, with
powerful interoperability and analysis ability, and to expand
functionality of existing systems. This paper discusses the
framework of SOA-Orient WebGIS, and addresses initial
verification of this framework that is implemented in an
application system developed by Web Service technology
based on XML.
I. RELATED TECHNOLOGIES AND THEORIES
2.1 WebGIS Technology
Since the first GIS system, the Canada Geographical
System, was developed, GIS has developed for more than 40
years [4]. Software is core part of GIS. From the view of
software architecture, the development of GIS experienced
several phrases: integrated GIS, modular GIS, cored GIS,
component-based GIS and WebGIS.
In the early stage of development of GIS, in order to satisfy
some special requirements, a large amount of different GIS
function modules were produced. With the changes of
requirements, researchers and developers had to integrate
those dispersed functional modules into integrated GIS with
multiple functions. Later, in order to make the process of
development faster, people tried to separate GIS into a
serious of independent functional modules and then develop
them individually, to make them work together on the same
environment of infrastructure. This is called the modular GIS
phase. However, both integrated GIS and modular GIS are
difficult to be seamlessly and efficiently integrated with
management information systems (MIS) or other professional
application systems. In the context, the concept of cored GIS
was proposed, and its principle is to encapsulate GIS
functions as dynamic linking libraries. Different applications
could be integrated via access to their interfaces.
With the development of component technologies such as
COM/DCOM, and CORBA technologies, different
components can be regrouped with great flexibility, and they
all have visual user interface and well-defined, easily-used
standard interfaces. Component-based GIS had developed
well. Combining the advantages of the modular GIS and the
cored GIS, component-based GIS separates GIS functions
into different functional components. The components
communicate with other systems via standard communication
interfaces, and the communication problems among
heterogeneous systems had been solved.
The development of Internet technologies inspired the
development of Web GIS. Web GIS is a combination of GIS
technologies and Internet technologies. GIS become popular
after being developed on the Internet. Users can assess spatial
data, produce special graphics and do various spatial query
and analysis on the World Wide Web by Web GIS
technologies.
2.2 SOA Architecture
Services-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a software
architecture where functionality is grouped around business
processes and packaged as interoperable services. Within
well-defined interfaces and contracts among services, SOA
connects different functional units (also called service)
together of applications. The aim is a loose coupling of
services with operating systems, programming languages and
other technologies which underlie applications [5].
SOA is a sort of 3-layered architecture, mainly containing
three logical parts: Service Consumer, SOA Infrastructure
and Service Producer. Service is core of SOA. The consumer
consumes service that produced by the service producer via
SOA infrastructure.
Fig.1.SOA Model
Service is a basic element of SOA. In SOA systems, there
are a group of entities: service provider, service consumer,
service registrar, service terms, service agents and service
contract. These entities explain how to provide and consume
service, and indicate that application systems based on SOA
are definitely distributed. Thus, the key technologies of SOA
are service related technologies and technologies employed in
distributed systems.
Service-related technologies include Web Service
Description Language (WSDL), Universal Description
Discovery and Integration (UDDI), service management
technology, service communication, application and
development technologies and etc. Basic technologies of
distributed systems contain security management, reliable
transmission, and event management technologies, system
reliability technology and distributed system management
technology, and etc. The description and implementation of
all technologies employed in distributed system are based on
XML, and implementation may be different in terms of
different system architecture.
2.3 Combination of WebGIS and SOA
GIS can be applied for large amount of data exchange and
operation. Somebody thinks that GIS does not fit for SOA
model. A quantity of Web-based GIS application systems and
the OGC standards prove that SOA can solve problems of
GIS interoperability. The combination based on SOA model
between GIS system and other business systems makes it
possible for those business systems to access existing GIS
data, service and application. It expands functionality of the
business systems, and improves their accuracy, efficiency and
productivity. For instance, an ERP tool is employed by
technical staff working in government to deal with spills of
chemicals. Under the scenario, the GIS service can be
accessed and employed by the ERP tool to inform the
technical staff how to rush to the scene of the leakage event
faster and more efficiently. In this case, GIS service extends
the functionality of the ERP system.
SOA is a sort of software development system architecture
applying to various environments, and it can eliminate the
bottleneck in sharing WebGIS data and operations. Via
combination with SOA, WebGIS can package the software
resources on the internet as GIS Web Service, to implement
loosely coupled heterogeneous systems that could share and
interoperate data.
Technically, the service-orient GIS is a method rather than
a concrete technology. It focuses on how to convert various
GIS application and services into standard GIS services, to
meet different requirements. Web service is a main method of
realizing SOA, but not the only way. If a client wants to use a
GIS service which is on the internet, first she could look for
what she needs at the service registrars, such UDDI, and then
receives the service interface description. The client could
send request to service provider according to the service
description that she receives. Then the service provider
processes the request and sends back the response to the
clients. The whole process is shown in figure 2.
Fig.2. GIS Web Service Sequential Process
OGC and ISO/TC211 standards [6] address geographical
information service patterns and standards for special
information sharing and interoperability, and from views of
computing, information, engineer and technical, OGC and
ISO/TC211 standards detail and specify geographical
information service patterns and specification. Service-orient
GIS has become the trend of development of GIS. Service-
orient GIS is a GIS technical architecture based on service-
orient software engineering method. Serving GIS can be
platform-crossed, network-crossed and language-crossed, and
be able to integrate other services on other servers together.
Servicing GIS can be employed in various SOA architectures,
and integrate with other heterogeneous IT business systems
seamlessly. It makes application developers be able to
develop agile and efficient application systems faster.
II. SOA BASED WEBGIS ARCHITECTURE
3.1Conceptual Framework
SOA-orient WebGIS conceptual architecture is mainly
composed of three parts: GIS Web Service Provider, GIS
Web Service Consumer and GIS Web Service Agent, within
operations of release, search, and requests/responses. The
architecture is shown as follows:
Fig.3. SOA-Orient WebGIS Conceptual Architecture [7]
GIS Web Service Provider identify, divide, implement and
package GIS functions as individual service entities, and
provide related descriptive information such as service
function, interface and parameters. Then, the service provider
will register the service at the GIS Web Service Agent.
The GIS Web Service Agent is for service registration,
service search and service location.
GIS Web Service Consumers could request for what they
need at the GIS Web Agents. At GIS Web Service Agents,
they could query services, get services description, find
services where they are, and call and employ services
according to the specifications of the interfaces and
parameters in service description.
In the conceptual framework, interfaces and protocols
are well-defined and different roles communicate with each
other via service entities. Service consumers can get what
they need without knowing the developing languages and
logic for realizing services; meanwhile, updating for existing
service entities could be accomplished without affecting other
entities. New service entities could be plugged in easily and
then work instantly. Functions of systems are expanded and
the construction method and ways to employ data have been
altered, which could solve problems of WebGIS data sharing
and interoperability, and problems of platform-crossed
interoperability of heterogeneous systems.
3.2 SOA-Orient WebGIS Architecture Implementation
Framework
The SOA-Orient WebGIS implementation framework is
shown in figure 5 below:
The architecture consists of three parts: service consumers,
SOA infrastructure and service providers.
Service consumers are entities that use service. It could be
windows applications （ including ‘fat-clients’ and ‘thin-
client’）, web browsers, mobile devices, request service and
Portler, and etc. Service consumers have three kinds of roles,
that is, common users, IT architecture workers/developers
and GIS specialists/analyzers.
Fig.4. SOA-Orient WebGIS Implementation Framework
SOA infrastructure consists of application, service support
and service. The three parts combined together to implement
functions that includes service registration, service
identification, service management and service employment.
On the application layer, several technologies such as JSP,
Servlet, serving as a service support/service coordinator, are
used to support various clients such as fat-client application,
Web application and mobile application. Service support
contains directory service, security service, service
management, process service and semantic service, and
assists other services. Service layer is not only basic GIS
services, but includes non-GIS services; it can not only
provide data-centric services, but also process-centric
services as well.
Service providers are entities that provide services. Besides
providing various kinds of data, they can render services for
search engines, enterprise application servers and etc.
From the view of application level, the framework consists
of, from top to bottom, data layer, service layer, application
layer and clients.
3.2.1 Persistent Layer
In the persistent layer, the databases include spatial data
and other types of data. It provides functions as inserting,
updating, and maintenance. With an adapter, it can support
various types of data, such as Shape File files, common data,
PostGIS data. Data access components can be implemented
by any data access technology, such as geotools and JDBC.
Data sources are on different terminal computers on the
network. Data users are easy to know the physical data
structure and the methods to implement functions.
Heterogeneous data can be share and, via data transforming
service, GML data can be accessed, so as to seamlessly
integration heterogeneous data and multi-source data. Data
management and data application are separated. Data
management and maintenance are implemented and
manipulated by developers. It is useful for ensure data
security, consistency and system stability.
 3.2.2 GIS Service Layer
Above persist layer is service layer. Via this layer, Clients
can access space data or other data, and receive services such
as GIS services, directory services, and registration services,
transact and secure services, and other services. Basic GIS
services offered by the service layer contain Web Mapping
Service (WMS), Web Feature Service (WFS), Data Access
Service, GIS function service and space data exchange
service.
3.2.3 Application Layer
The application layer is the core of the whole system. For
clients, it offers functions such as data processing and space
analysis, and it acts as a coordinator between service support
and service. Application servers can call Web service via
SOAP protocol, or OGC WFS/WMS interfaces from other
servers such Geoserver, to receive services and access data.
Fig.5. SOA-Orient WebGIS Software System Architecture
3.2.4 GIS Clients
4.1 The Design and Implementation of Non-
The development of large-sized software has to take the Geographical Data Related Web Service
demand of supporting various hardware environments into
consideration on demand. In the framework, the GIS clients Non-geographical data web services are used to process
can support different hardware. Without clients, all GWS non-geographical information, including common business
modules become useless. There are three types of clients: process and four basic types of database operations. In our
desktop GIS (including commercial products and customized system, we employ one web service to correspond to each
application), common web browsers (such as IE and Mozilla) module. AlarmInfo Service represents the alarm system
and mobile devices (such as PDAs and mobile phones). Users module, including inserting, updating, searching, displaying
can customize their own clients. For example, user can ask and deleting operations of alarm information. PropInfo
that the desktop GIS to be implemented by special extensive Service stands for the property information processing and
technologies, such as AML of AriGIS, COM and MapBasic displaying module, including inserting, updating, searching,
of Mapinfo. Web browser is developed by Javascript. displaying and deleting operations of static, dynamic and
pressure information of the pumping station. Search Service
4 DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF SOA-ORIENT WEBGIS is corresponding to the search engine used for multi-sourcing
On the basis of the framework discussed above, we search.
designed and develop an application system.

Kunming pressure pumping station management system

includes an alarm system, a network dynamic pressure
detection system, a pumping station dynamic information
detection system and a GIS application system for sharing
and interoperating pumping station space data. Considering
that the management system is core to the operation, Fig.6. Design of Non-Geographical Data Related Web Service
management and maintenance of the whole pumping station,
we need to integrate those legacy systems such as the From above，we have the service that is used to access to
detection and alarm system. We tentatively designed and alarm information, shown as follow:
implement the system on the basis of the SOA-Orient
WebGIS Framework. The system has developed on the
Netbean 6.0, with Java language and geotools which are
open-sourcing GIS tools.

During the design phrase, we divide operations on space

data into GIS Web services of proper size, according to the
graphical functions, such as zoom-in/zoom-out function and
property information function. We also designed and package
related data and business request as web services according to Fig.7. Alarm Information Access Service, GetAlarmService
business requirements. Clients can receive the services that
they need by submitting requests to web servers. The system According to the WSDL description file, corresponding
architecture is show as follow: java classes can be generated on Netbean platform. Then, we
wrote codes in those classes.
 Fig.8. GetAlarmService Class
4.2 The Design and Implementation of GIS-Related
Web Service
GIS-related web services are design to process
geographical information, including displaying and
processing maps, and operating (insert, delete, modify, and
search) geographical information. We packaged all requests
for GIS services as web services. In figure 9, there are some
basic operations on geographical information. The part to the
left of the dotted line represents WMS services, while the
right part presents WFS services.
Fig.9. Design of GIS-Related Web Service
They are operations, which are zoomIn/zoomOut operation,
DragPan operation, measurement operation, information
retriving operation (GetFeature, RectangleSel, PolygonSel,
CircleSel), and MapScaleBar operation.
4.3 Design and Implementation of Basic GIS Web Services
This part is for packaging and designing of OGC. Our
system contains WFS protocols that are used to provide
geographical data and WMS protocols that are used to depict
and describe maps, and other assistant protocols.
WSF provides interfaces, such as: GetCapabilities that can
receive services, DescribeFeatureType that describe
properties and features, Transaction that manages and
processes transactions, and LockFeature that is used to lock
feature.
WMF is mainly used for processing and mapping
geographical information. In this system, it provides services,
such as GetMap operation that is employed to access grid
graphics from datasources.
Figure 10 shows the implementation of WFS and WMS.
Fig.10. Design of WFS And WMS Service
WSDL description of WFS is shown as follow:
Fig.11.WSDL description of WFS
WSDL description of WMS is shown as follows:
Fig.12.WSDL description of WMS
After being published, clients can uses those Web services
as using common Java classes. Figure 13 shows the views
when the system is working.
Fig.13.A Picture of the Running System
III. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
This paper introduces SOA concepts into the construction
of WebGIS systems. We designed SOA-orient WebGIS
framework and developed prototype system. Users can
request different kinds of clients that they need. It proves
that, SOA-orient WebGIS framework is helpful to
development of WebGIS application systems. The design
and implementation of the framework is to be improved in
future, combining with semantic Web and Web 2.0
technologies, which will greatly improve system’s agility
and efficiency.
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