STEMgis Publicist - Overview

The STEMgis Publicist is a tool that allows data gatherers/owners to publish their data (e.g. on CD-ROM) complete with a temporal GIS visualization and analysis tool for distribution/sale to clients or other interested parties. STEMgis Publicist creates an installable version of a STEMgis database and a free version of the STEMgis Viewer, called STEMgis FreeView. The files created by STEMgis Publicist, form a 'virtual publication', which can be written to appropriate media for distribution, e.g. a CD-ROM, ZIP disk, DVD or FTP site. The publication can be copied, distributed or sold as many times as required, without any further payment to Discovery Software Ltd.

The STEMgis Publicist allows you to customize the virtual publication in the following ways:

• design a splash screen for the copy of FreeView on the distribution media you create,
• add web links that will appear in the help menu of FreeView,
• specify whether a shortcut for FreeView should be added to the user's desktop,
• define the appearance of any banner text that will appear in the map window of FreeView,
• define a fixed map projection for the publication,
• set up to three levels of security (public, level 1 and level 2) for data retrieval from the published STEMgis database,
• specify a default map file that will appear in the FreeView map window,
• specify a default STEMgis workspace file which opens up default layers within STEMgis FreeView when it is executed,
• add user written documentation and presentations to the published project.

STEMgis FreeView, a slightly cut-down version of the STEMgis Viewer, is included automatically in the publication. FreeView includes all the temporal and spatial retrieval, visualization, graphing and animation features of the STEMgis Viewer, but is limited in the following ways:

• FreeView cannot be used to open other STEMgis databases unless the user has the appropriate password and the STEMgis database is installed correctly.
• STEMgis Publicist allows one pre-defined map projection to be specified for inclusion in the publication. FreeView also allows an 'unprojected' view, which displays the data in latitude/longitude co-ordinates.
• The Draw Vector Tool and the various analysis tools are not included in FreeView.
• The Interpolation Tool in FreeView is restricted to a maximum interpolated grid size is 256 x 256 pixels, as against 4096 x 4096 pixels in the STEMgis Viewer.
• A number of the vector and raster analysis tools and import facilities are disabled.

Note: All STEMgis databases are created using the STEMgis Manager.

Follow the step by step guide to creating a virtual STEMgis publication