Visual Fusion, from IDV Solutions, a Microsoft Gold ISV Partner, provides a platform for managing many types of geospatial content and for creating applications that display enterprise data and Web feeds on a Virtual Earth map.  Visual Fusion brings location intelligence to SharePoint, creating a platform to build highly visual composite applications.

It solves the problem of uniting data from incompatible sources and systems, and it allows users without DBA or GIS expertise to quickly build mash-ups, while providing the tools for IT professionals to build robust applications.

Organizations in fields as diverse as border security and natural gas production currently use Visual Fusion to visualize their data in meaningful ways, so that users can make better informed decisions in less time.

Visual Fusion and SharePoint

Visual Fusion exploits SharePoint infrastructure for site building, user authentication, search, and content management.  On top of these, IDV has layered custom Web parts and the ability to geo-enable SharePoint content.

Visual Fusion Experience (VFX), the client component of Visual Fusion Suite, is a browser-based rich Internet application (RIA), implemented on a SharePoint site using Web parts. A JavaScript API allows developers to customize and extend this interface.

Visual Fusion Server (VFS) is implemented as a set of SharePoint Features and packaged as a SharePoint Solution. It includes data connectors, a styling engine, and tools for data filtering.

Together, VFS and VFX allow enterprises to:

• Manage and integrate content
• Build applications
• Deliver a feature-rich user experience.

Managing geospatial content

Geospatial data can come in many formats (.shp, GeoRSS, KML and more), from multiple sources (Web feeds, GIS departments, enterprise databases and workgroup spreadsheets). Many enterprises lack a convenient way to share these among work areas or to combine them with other data.

Using SharePoint to manage this diverse content makes it available throughout the enterprise. Visual Fusion Server supplies SharePoint templates for creating custom lists and libraries. These templates include Visual Fusion’s geocoding function; for items with a valid address but no latitude and longitude, VFS automatically retrieves the coordinates from Web services. Through MOSS Excel services, Visual Fusion extends this content management and geocoding functionality to data in Excel spreadsheets.

VFS automatically retrieves coordinates from Web services.

Custom libraries built from the Visual Fusion templates house GeoRSS, KML and .shp files; custom lists house links to GeoRSS, KML or WMS Web feeds. Users can apply the VFS templates and geocoding retroactively to existing SharePoint lists and libraries.

VFS libraries house GeoRSS, KML and Shapefiles.

VFS can also connect to data sources outside SharePoint. Connectors are available to access data through the Business Data Catalog, and to connect to SQL Server, Oracle, ArcSDE and MapPoint databases. Developers can also write their own connectors using the Visual Fusion SDK.

Building applications

Visual Fusion applications are built in SharePoint sites, using custom Web parts. One of these, the Composer, is a drag-and-drop interface for adding data layers to an application and styling them. The Composer discovers and lists all the available data layers, in SharePoint and outside it. A user can drag these layers into a hierarchy, creating groups that expand and collapse, and selecting colors, icons, line styles and other visual attributes.

The user can also enter a URL directly into the Composer to create a layer for a GeoRSS or WMS feed. Using the Composer, the layer hierarchy for a new application can be composed from existing data sources in as little as 20 minutes.

The Composer lets users build applications by dragging layers into a hierarchy.

Site administrators and similar users can customize applications further by editing configuration files. Options that they can configure include filters, data transformations, and style rules.

If an enterprise has needs beyond the out-of-the box VFS features, developers can use the SDK to write custom data connectors, request handlers, filters, style rules, and geocoders.

This application, created with the Visual Fusion SDK, generates contour lines on the fly
from a set of points where the elevation was measured.

The RIA interface

The end user interface, Visual Fusion Experience, is a rich internet application composed of two Web parts, a map viewer and a layer control.

Visual Fusion Experience is a rich internet application composed of Web parts.

Map Viewer

The map viewer provides users with a set of tools that include:

• pan and zoom
• location search
• time zone viewer
• distance measure
• latitude and longitude display for the cursor position
• inset map for overviews and close-ups
• timeline viewer
• spatial query tool
• drawing tools

The timeline tool filters databases and Web feeds based on time and date. It’s an interactive filter that lets users step through days, months or other time periods, watching the data on the map change over time.

The interactive timeline filters data based on date and time.

The spatial query tool lets end users draw an area on the map, and send all the data points within that area to a form or other Web part. Using the drawing tools, end users can annotate the map with points, lines, and polygons, include metadata for each item, and then save this annotation in SharePoint.

The map viewer is configured through the SharePoint user interface, and any of these tools can be disabled at any time through the Web part configuration.

Layer Control

End users turn map layers off and on using the layer control. Like the map viewer, this Web part includes a set of tools that are configurable through the SharePoint UI:

• The Enterprise Search tool uses a custom search scope, and displays search results as data points on the map.
• A configurable set of buttons lets the end user enter URLs directly into the layer control to display GeoRSS, KML or WMS feeds along with the existing data layers.

The layer control also incorporates a details panel, which can be configured to display more information about any data point, line, or polygon that a user selects on the map. The content and formatting of this details panel can be stored in a calculated column in SharePoint.

The Details Panel can be configured to display more information about items on the map.

Extending the interface

Developers can extend this user interface further. Through the JavaScript API, the map viewer and layer control can be configured to communicate with third-party Web parts. For example, a developer can configure the interface so that clicking on a map item causes data or charts associated with the item to display in a third Web part. Or an application can be set up so that, when the end user selects a map region with the spatial query tool, the map viewer launches a request and sends the query results to a data grid or form Web part.

Leveraging SharePoint Capabilities

The underlying SharePoint infrastructure makes it possible to create new Visual Fusion applications quickly. It also makes it easy to create multiple applications that leverage the same data sources. SharePoint features that Visual Fusion uses include:

• Excel Services, for creating map layers from spreadsheets
• Search, including enterprise search scopes
• BDC, for connecting to data sources
• Role-based authentication for security down to the list item level
• List and library templates for content management
• Web parts for a flexible user interface

For more information about Visual Fusion, go to www.idvsolutions.com