Jennifer Lana, GISPGIS ManagerCobb County, GAOctober 3, 2012

Cobb County uses ‘Workflow Modeling’ for Purpose Driven Web & Mobile GIS Solutions

Let’s go back in time……

An short historical view of Web-GIS viewers and GIS at Cobb County

• Early 2000s, Map Servers arrive…..• Esri’s ArcIMS (anybody remember ArcView IMS or MapObjects IMS?)

• MapGuide, GeoMedia• UMM Mapserver

People: “Let’s put desktop GIS apps to the web!”

‘ArcView on the Web’…..Not that there’s anything wrong with that

The GIS-centric Model for Deploying Web-GIS2004Cobb County’s First On-line web-based

viewer: Geocortex IMF (ArcIMS based) One viewer serving Multiple Needs

- Loads of functionality…- Layers everywhere… nested, visible, invisible, active- Buttons, tools and icons galore….

Deploying web-based Spatial Applications2008:Implemented Adobe Flex – Started

development in 2007- New Look and Feel with custom tools- Staff knowledge for programming and customizing software

limited to only to one developer, brought in a departmental programmer later

- Limited capabilities for enabling mobile applications and user reporting features

*User Feedback was not positive - The Flex Viewer was an experienced GIS user viewer.

We want our MTV… ‘Classic’ web map stays alive2 GIS web-viewers at Cobb County

6

2009 - Historic Floods hit Cobb County• Over 200 roads closed at one time• Multiple agencies reported road closures• No Road Closure reporting criteria• Needed a better way

2010 - JuneMet with DOT to get requirements

• Purpose specific (Road Status Information System - RSIS)

• Multi Editors

• Web based

• Reflect DOT road closure workflow

• Daily Operations

• Emergency Operations

2010Research• In conducting research for web-based road

closure applications• ‘Classic’ Web-Map Provider (Latitude

Geographics) had developed an app similar to what we were looking for in Texas.

• Required us to upgrade from IMF to Essentials

Deployed August 19th, 2010 intime for the grand opening ofCobb’s Traffic Management Center

In mid-2011 Cobb had 3 GIS web viewers available for use

• ‘Classic’ (Geocortex IMF)• Flex• Geocortex Essentials - Silverlight

Maintenance & staff nightmare

• First: removed Adobe viewer from external and internal web-sites with very few user complaints.

• Put 1 ½ month notice that ‘Classic’ was being disabled on public facing web-site. When we disabled viewer, we received a lot of user feedback… – “Where did MY viewer go”. – “I am going to report you to the county manager…”– “We are going to sue the county for taking away our GIS…”

LOTS of Customer Service and training occurred for internal and external users during the first few months of transition.

Time to Streamline GIS at Cobb

Where Cobb is today: “Workflow Modeling” Solutions for Purpose Built GIS

QUICKLY realize the advantages of Geocortex Essentials:

Using the desktop Workflow Designer, our administrators can chain together sets of activities (small units of work) which comprise a workflow.

• Reads/Writes Workflow files• Drag and drop• Powerful toolbox• Simulator to trial and test

workflows• Supports custom activities• Build forms on the fly• User Friendly• Do NOT need several high

level programmers for success

• Compatible with HTML5 technology

Workflows Are Cross-Platform

Build a workflow once–Use it in your internal web maps–Run it in your mobile applications

• Cobb is using HTML5–Reuse it in a future technology

Cobb Case Study: Mailing Labels

• Situation: A rezoning application has been submitted at a particular address by a Cobb city. Notify the adjacent county residents so that they may submit feedback.

• Tasks:– Search for an address (Geocode)– Find all parcels which are within 1000ft (Buffer,

Spatial Intersection)– Generate a Mailing Label Report for the

discovered parcels (Reporting)*Make this available on MULTIPLE interfaces

Enterprise Thinking

• Department• Citizen• Manager

CORE GIS Team

Request for tool/analysisLinking them all

makes for a better solution(Internal & External Solution)

Workflow Designed & Tested

GIS Web Viewer

Mobile Maps

Internal Custom GIS WebViewers

WORKFLOW

Workflow Designer

Activiti

es

Configu

red

Workfl

ow

Steps

SelectedActivity StepProperties

Variables, Arguments and Imports

Workflow Simulator

Help

• Geocortex Workflow is built on Windows Workflow Foundation (WF4)

• Workflow designer works like Report Designer, but outputs XAML (workflow) files

• Once created, use Essentials Manager to publish Workflow XAML to make available on REST interface

• Essentials Viewer calls for workflow, then XAML is retrieved and provided to user

Creating a Workflow

WorkflowDesigner

EssentialsManager

Essentials REST

Essentials Viewer

Activity Examples

A rich selection of activities allows for endless possibilities

Related ActivitiesEssentials Activities

Benefits• Improved Efficiency – eliminate manual steps for users – shortens development time for new functionality

• Better process control

• Enable sophisticated functionality in simple applications

• Business Process Improvement

• Share / Reuse workflows in other applications

• Easily updated

• Cross Platform - Silverlight, Mobile, HTML5

Using Geocortex Workflow

The majority of business processes involving GIS operations can be modeled, streamlined and automated via workflows.

Does the business process…….

• Require tasks which are done routinely by an individual multiple times per day?

• Span multiple days, involving many individuals or departments?

• Involve some interaction with a map, and/or some GIS analysis or processing?

Define a collection of smaller tasks which, when chained together, create the process

What We’ve Learned:

Live Examples