Glossary and Acronyms

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

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. 

APGB

Data

Aerial Photography for Great Britain comprises aerial photography and height data (DTM and DEM/DSM), for government.

Astun

General

Anagram of the surname of Mike Saunt, the founder and owner of Astun Technology.  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.

DBeaver

Open Source Tools

DBeaver Community is a free cross-platform database tool that supports all popular SQL databases including PostgreSQL. Some users prefer it over PgAdmin.

DEM

Data

A Digital Elevation Model (DEM), also know as a Digital Surface Model (DSM) is a 3D representation of elevation data to represent terrain or overlaying objects.

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.

DTM

Data

A Digital Terrain Model (DTM) is a digital representation of the terrain or ground surface of a specific area or location.

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.

GDAL

Open Source Tools

GDAL is a translator library for raster and vector geospatial data formats that is released under an MIT style Open Source License by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation.

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

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. 

OS

General Industry

Ordnance Survey (OS) are a Government Agency.  As GB's National Mapping Service they provide location data and intelligence to PSGA members and others.

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.

PgAdmin

Open Source Tools

PgAdmin is an Open Source administration and development platform for PostgreSQL.

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

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

PSGA

General Industry

The Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA) 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.

PSMA

General Industry

The Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA) is a now superseded collective agreement between Ordnance Survey and the government. Its licence let public sector organisations in England and Wales access and share OS digital mapping.  Replaced by the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA)

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 AddressFind Nearest etc.

Spotlight

iShare Maps

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.

Task

iShare Studio

A Workflow Task is a discrete function required to create / update information in the Data Share database which may then be used within iShare or Embedded maps etc.. They can exist as unassigned tasks or be combined with other tasks to form a Workflow Job.

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.