Glossary and Acronyms

The following is a glossary of terms and acronyms that are frequently used in iShare and/or Astun materials.

Term	Context(s)	Explanation
ADS	Web Services	Astun Data Services is a service which provides a range of geographic data as web services for consumption as Base mapping within web mapping and desktop GIS applications.
ADFS	iShare GIS / Cloud	Active Directory Federation Services is a Single Sign-On (SSO) solution created by Microsoft. As a component of Windows Server operating systems, it provides users with authenticated access to applications that are not capable of using Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA) through Active Directory (AD). ADFS is used at Astun to provide iShare in the Cloud customers single sign authentication integrated with the customer corporate Activce Directory.
Astun	General	Anagram of the surname of Mike Saunt. The name of the company and group of people who are passionate about geo, open and excellent customer service.
AWS	Web Services	Amazon Web Services is a cloud computing environment provided by Amazon. Astun use AWS for all cloud hosting such as iShare in the Cloud and Astun Data Services.
Basemap	iShare GIS, iShare Maps	A Basemap is the main underlying mapping such as OS MasterMap, Aerial Photography etc.
CSW	Data	Catalogue Service for the Web. This is a web service like WFS or WMS but for accessing Metadata rather than Spatial data.
Data Share	Data Storage	Data Share is the iShare data harvesting engine providing live and scheduled access to a multitude of data sources including spatial data warehouses, standard databases, standard geo file formats, spreadsheets and RSS Feeds.
Datasource	Data Storage	A Datasource is a name given to the connection set up to a database from a server. The name is commonly used when creating a query to the database.
DSN	Data Connection	A Data Source Name is the name that applications use to request a connection to an ODBC Data Source. In other words, it is a symbolic name that represents the ODBC connection. It stores the connection details like database name, directory, database driver, UserID, password, etc. when making a connection to the ODBC.
FeatureServer	Open Source Tools	FeatureServer is an implementation of a RESTful Geographic Feature Service. Using standard HTTP methods, you can fetch a representation of a feature or a collection of features, add new data to the service, or delete data from the service. Is it s used by iShare GIS to enable Feature Editing.
Filter	iShare GIS	Applying a Filter to a Layer allows you to select to display only a sub-set of the data.
Gazetteer	Data	A Gazetteer contains a list of names of places (addresses), usually with some extra information. In iShare these are used for Location Lookups.
GEMINI	Standards	UK GEMINI (GEo-spatial Metadata INteroperability InItiative) is a specification for a set of metadata elements for describing geospatial data resources.
GeoServer	Open Source Tools	GeoServer is a OGC compliant implementation of a number of open standards such as Web Feature Service (WFS) and Web Map Service (WMS).
GeoNetwork	Open Source Tools	GeoNetwork is a catalog application to manage spatially referenced resources. It provides powerful metadata editing and search functions as well as an interactive web map viewer. It is currently used in numerous Spatial Data Infrastructure initiatives across the world.
Geospatial	Data	Geospatial means relating to or denoting data that is associated with a particular location.
Instance	iShare GIS	An Instance is a Virtual Server in AWS (Amazon Web Services) in the Cloud.
INSPIRE	Standards	INSPIRE is an EU directive requiring the publication of geospatial information related to the environment.
iShare	Astun Products	iShare is Astun's web GIS platform. It consists of a number of different modules, such as iShare GIS, iShare Maps, iShare Studio, Logger, My Alerts, Publisher and Spatial Data Warehouse.
iShare in the Cloud	Astun Products	iShare in the Cloud is a managed service provided by Astun whereby iShare is hosted and maintained in the AWS Cloud as an alternative delivery model to on-premise deployment.
iShare GIS	Astun Products	iShare GIS is an intranet GIS platform that offers much of the desktop functionality that most GIS users require, enabling migration from a desktop to the browser solution for the majority of an organisation’s users, including data editors.
iShare Maps	Astun Products	iShare Maps is a public facing internet application which includes a map portal, a property or area centric report page, embeddable maps for use within web pages and location based searches generating textual lists and find my nearest results.
iShare Spotlight	Astun Products	iShare Spotlight is an application that allows a GIS user to configure an interactive map, with layers of your GIS data and publish it in an iFrame embedded in your website or webform.
Job	iShare Studio	A Workflow Job is a collection of Tasks that are required to create / update information in the Data Share database which may then be used within iShare or Embedded maps etc.
Lambda	Cloud	AWS Lambda lets you run code without provisioning or managing servers. You pay only for the compute time you consume - there is no charge when your code is not running. iShare GIS V5.8 makes use of this.
Lite Map	iShare Maps	A Lite Map is an interactive map that can be embedded in any web page. It also allows for the display of a Feature List or to include points from a GeoRSS feed.
Logger	Astun Products	Logger is an iShare module that enables citizens to locate on a map and report broken street lamps, abandoned cars, fly tipping, graffiti etc. and insert these reports into a CRM or other workflow.
MapProxy	Open Source Tools	MapProxy is an open source proxy for geospatial data. It caches, accelerates and transforms data from existing map services and serves any desktop or web GIS client.
MapServer	Open Source Tools	MapServer is an Open Source platform for publishing spatial data and interactive mapping applications to the web.
Map Source	iShare GIS	A Map Source describes a map that can be retrieved from a remote map server.
Metadata	Data	Metadata means "data about data" and is defined as the data providing information about one or more aspects of that data. It is used to summarise basic information about your data which can make searching and working with specific data easier.
My House	iShare Maps	My House is part of iShare Maps and provides information related to the entered address and its surrounding area enhanced with a small embedded map.
My Maps	iShare Maps	My Maps is part of iShare Maps and provides the user with fast, ‘slippy maps’ centred on the selected property within a bold, fresh and intuitive interface.
My Nearest	iShare Maps	My Nearest is part of iShare Maps and provides information related to services, events or entities near to the entered address location further enhanced by a small embedded map.
My Alerts	iShare Maps	My Alerts is part of iShare Maps and enables a member of the public to sign up to a Local Authority alert service that automatically sends an email when any council related service event happens within a predefined distance from their house.
ODBC	Data Connection	Open DataBase Connectivity is a standard Application Programming Interface (API) for accessing DataBase Management Systems (DBMS).
OmniSearch	iShare GIS	This is the box in iShare GIS which will search for matching Layers and Metadata.
OpenLayers	Open Source Tools	OpenLayers is an open source JavaScript library for displaying map data in web browsers as slippy maps. It provides an API for building rich web-based geographic applications such as iShare.
OGC	Standards	The Open Geospatial Consortium is an international not for profit organisation committed to making quality open standards for the global geospatial community.
OGC Layer	Data	OGC Layers are layers which are built on OGC Standards including WMS & WFS.
OSGeo	Open Source	The Open Source Geospatial Foundation is a non-profit non-governmental organisation whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open geospatial technologies and data.
OWS	Web Services	An all encompassing reference to various OGC web services including (but not limited to) WMS, WFS, WMTS etc.
PostGIS	Open Source Tools	PostGIS is an extension to PostgreSQL that provides spatial objects for the PostgreSQL database, allowing storage and query of information about location and mapping.
PostgreSQL	Open Source Tools	PostgreSQL is a general purpose and object-relational database management system, the most advanced open source database system.
Profile	iShare GIS	A Profile is basically a Map Source which contains a specific set of maps. You could create different Profiles for particular groups of users. You can also limit access to a Profile (or Map Source) by applying Roles. Once you have applied a Role to a Map Source then, only users who are a member of that role will be able to see that Map Source
PSMA	General Industry	The Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA) is a collective agreement between Ordnance Survey and the government. Its licence lets public sector organisations in England and Wales access and share OS digital mapping.
Publisher	Astun Products	Publisher is an iShare module that enables a Council to publish any of its back office data via its website.
Python	Programming	Python is an interpreted high-level programming language for general-purpose programming.
QGIS	Open Source Tools	QGIS is a free and open-source cross-platform desktop geographic information system application that supports viewing, editing, and analysis of geospatial data.
Roles	iShare GIS	In order to ensure that only the correct people can view information via a MapSource, iShare has the concept of Roles. Roles are configured through Studio and assigned to MapSources as required. Only those users that are members of one or more of the roles in a MapSource will be permitted to query the data using that MapSource.
Schema	Database	A database schema is a way to logically group objects such as tables, views, stored procedures etc.
SLD	Styling	A Style Layer Descriptor addresses the need for users and software to be able to control the visual portrayal of the geospatial data. The ability to define styling rules requires a styling language that the client and server can both understand.
Snapshot	Cloud	A snapshot is a copy of the virtual machine's (VM) disk file at a given point in time. Snapshots provide a change log for the virtual disk and are used to restore a VM to a particular point in time. This is most useful when you want to preserve the state of the virtual machine so you can return to the same state repeatedly.
Studio	Astun Products	Studio is the Administration console for iShare.
Studio ETL	Astun Products	Studio ETL is a slimmed-down version of iShare Studio with just the Data Share and Workflow modules, primarily intended to sit on the Internal Server, to Extract, Transform & Load (ETL) data to and from the iShare Cloud.
SDW	Data Storage	Spatial Data Warehouse is an iShare module developed on PostGIS that enables the sharing of spatial data at multiple levels across an enterprise and beyond.
Solo Map	iShare Maps	A Solo Map is a map that can be embedded within any web page. Whilst similar to a Lite Map, it also has the ability to display various panels for functions such as Find Address, Find Nearest etc.
Tilecache	Data	Tile caching is a very effective way to make your map and image services run faster. When you create a tilecache, the server draws the entire map at several different scales and stores copies of the map images. The server can then distribute these images whenever someone asks for a map. It's much quicker for the server to return a cached image than to draw the map each time someone requests it.
VPC	Cloud	The Amazon Virtual Private Cloud is a logically isolated section of the AWS Cloud where you can launch AWS resources in a virtual network that you define. iShare in the Cloud customers are all provisioned with a virtual private cloud specific to them rather than sharing resources with other Astun customers.
VPN	Cloud	The Virtual Private Network is a hardware-based connection between your Amazon VPC and your local network.
Workflow	iShare Studio	A workflow is a sequence of operations. In the case of iShare workflows consist of Jobs, which are a collection of Tasks, that may be scheduled to run automatically or on an ad-hoc basis to provide data to iShare. These are configured in the Workflow Manager in iShare Studio.
Workspace	iShare GIS & iShare Maps	Using Workspaces is a way of serving information to two or more separate iShare sites using a single centralised iShare installation. Workspaces would also be used if you wish to have a separate site for different Languages e.g. English and Welsh.
WFS	Web Services / Standards	A Web Feature Service is a standard created by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) for creating, modifying and exchanging vector format geographic information on the Internet using HTTP. A WFS encodes and transfers information in Geography Markup Language (GML), a subset of XML.
WMS	Web Services / Standards	A Web Map Service is a standard created by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) for transforming your data into a map (image).
WMTS	Web Services / Standards	A Web Map Tile Service is a standard protocol for serving pre-rendered or run-time computed georeferenced map tiles over the Internet. The specification was developed and first published by the Open Geospatial Consortium in 2010.
WPS	Web Services / Standards	Web Processing Service is a standard created by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) which provides rules for standardising how inputs and outputs (requests and responses) for invoking geospatial processing services, such as polygon overlay, as a web service. The WPS standard defines how a client can request the execution of a process, and how the output from the process is handled.