Components of the Geoportal Extension
Overview
The ESRI ArcGIS Server Geoportal extension is a fully functioning web site with a set of application components that allow the publication, discovery and use of standards-based metadata documents describing geographic datasets and services. An in-depth understanding of the Geoportal extension components is not required to install or use the Geoportal extension; however, understanding its components will help your organization as it customizes the Geoportal to meet its needs. The following diagram is a design overview of the major functional components and end points associated with an implementation of the Geoportal extension.
The primary focus of the application is to allow for the publication of metadata documents, the discovery of these documents through a variety of search protocols, and enabling the use of the underlying services and datasets by binding to external client applications through known protocols.
The application manages a catalog of metadata documents describing geographic datasets and services based upon known XML metadata standards. The following standards are all recognized and supported by default: ISO 19115/19139 (datasets), ISO 19119/19139 (services), Dublin Core, and FGDC. The following standards based profiles are also recognized and supported by default: North American Profile and INSPIRE. These standards and profiles can be enabled, disabled, or extended upon through configuration. A relational database serves as the primary store for documents, and a searchable index is implemented allowing for discovery.
The primary application is a web site built using JavaServer Faces (JSF) technology. The website provides pages allowing for catalog maintenance, publication, and searching. See Geoportal Web App File Organization for details about the pages in the website web application. The website also exposes several service endpoints allowing external client access to the catalog:
- CS-W 2.0.2 Discovery service endpoint - exposes an OGC Catalog Service end point allowing query access into the catalog by CS-W compliant clients
- REST Services endpoint - exposes a query end point that can return GeoRSS, KML, ATOM, JSON, HTML, and HTML fragment responses to compliant clients (e.g. browsers, content management systems, ArcGIS Explorer, Google Earth …)
- OpenSearch endpoint - exposes an end point allowing query access into the catalog by OpenSearch compliant clients
ArcGIS Server has the capability to provide geographic services to external clients by exposing ArcGIS Server, OGC WMS, OGC WFS, OGC WCS and KML end points. The Geoportal extension Data Download Service is a configurable geoprocessing service that can be deployed within an ArcGIS Server, and is capable of executing data download requests submitted by a compatible client (e.g. the Geoportal extension website itself is a client of this service).
ArcGIS Desktop is a powerful GIS desktop system that is capable of consuming ArcGIS Server services, ArcIMS services, OGC WMS services, OGC WFS services and OGC WCS services. The Geoportal extension CSW Client gives ArcGIS Desktop users the ability to query CSW compliant catalogs. The Geoportal extension Publish Client gives ArcGIS Desktop users the ability to recursively publish metadata documents contained within folders or geo-databases to the Geoportal extension metadata catalog.