uDig

Element Architecture Tool Suite (EATS)
Technology Reference

uDig

Original Author: joe.vansteen

Created: Wednesday, March 5, 2014 - 18:35

Last Changed: Saturday, March 8, 2014 - 12:51

Document ID: AF-EATS-TRUDIG-010

Version: 01.00.001.364

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Introduction

This book consists of notes taken about uDig as I go through the process of a self-tutorial to learn the uDig application system as a geospatial application framework. In that regard it is similar to the Eclipse volume within this series. As I develop the book content, I will attempt to lean toward instructions for novice users. However, at this point I do not have a specific user profile in mind. These are mainly the notes which I find useful as I learn how to accomplish tasks with uDig that I feel will be useful later when I want to come back and do similar tasks after having been away from the system for some time.

This is not  intended to become a comprehensive technical reference for either uDig or GIS map making. Rather it is meant to be a quick refresher for features and functions which I have found useful to annotate for familiarity as I am learning the application; and it is meant as documentation for how uDig is incorporated in EATS as that process evolves. For a more comprehensive information about uDig capabilities and features, including how-to information, please inspect the uDig User Guide or the uDig Developer Guide. For information regarding general information on creating and styling GIS maps, please inspect Making Maps Pretty.

My choice of uDig for this exercise is that I want to incorporate a GIS viewer, editor and analysis component within the EATS framework. In that regard I began searching for open source tooling which might provide some or all of the necessary infrastructure functionality. During the initial analysis and prototyping efforts for EATS I had reviewed a number of open source GIS tools. After narrowing my target environment to a Java-based platform I initially selected the JUMP framework for prototyping a GIS component. It appeared at that time to be the easiest open source GIS platform to understand and use as a bootstrapping facility. However, once the decision was made to orient toward Eclipse as a foundation framework, the choice of GIS tooling changed from a JUMP variant to uDig. In fact, the availability of uDig reinforced the Eclipse decision.