Meta Miner

Meta Miner is a cost effective solution for creating a Metadata Clearinghouse Gateway - Meta Miner is a gateway application providing the ability to perform distributed searching of remote data servers using the Z39.50 protocol. 

Test the Meta Miner Clearinghouse!

Overview

The Meta Miner Information Gateway provides organizations a cost effective solution to create their own data clearinghouse. Meta Miner can simultaneously search one or more physically distributed servers with a single query and return the result set as a single set of merged search results.

Meta Miner can be used as stand-alone application or as an integrated component of our Web Enterprise Suite, an integrated suite of applications that provide Web mapping, cataloging, discovery, retrieval, delivery and e-commerce services.

Meta Miner

Meta Miner Z39.50

With Meta Miner Z39.50, agencies and organizations can create their own information clearinghouse. The application includes a Z39.50 client that provides intuitive search specification fields, a clearinghouse server registration module and clearinghouse server searching. The client look, feel and operation is fully customizable and supports XML processing.

Features

• A Web-based metadata server registration module that maintains server metadata in an relational database.
• Meta Miner can simultaneously search servers that subscribe to different profiles.
• The ability to merge different result sets from servers with different profiles.
• Perform a pre-search of metadata maintained in the clearinghouse to enable users to discover servers of interest prior to conducting the search.
• A HTML-based administrative interface for maintaining server registration metadata.
• A comprehensive install script that includes options for installing and configuring the Meta Miner gateway server software; populating the relational database and installing the Meta Miner Administrative interface.
• Operation on UNIX and Windows NT/2000 platforms.
• A HTML-based clearinghouse search client that was developed using the GFM PHTML engine for fast SQL-access querying and retrieval. Options exist for modifying the look-and-feel and operation of the client. Options are provided for searching the clearinghouse server registration database to enable the user to identify database servers of interest.
• Full support for XML processing.
• Support for many Z39.50 profiles. The administrative interface provides for the definition of profile-specific parameters.
• Support for simultaneous distributed searching of clearinghouse servers that subscribe to different clearinghouse profiles.

A Scalable Solution

When integrated with Web Enterprise Suite components, GFM and Map Manager, the following additional clearinghouse capabilities are provided:

User Profiles - User profiles that maintain information such as user access, contact, address and order and delivery details.

Save Search Criteria - The ability to save search criteria for future reuse.

Standing Requests - The ability to create a standing request based upon the current search specification. The GFM back-end systems will then perform the specified search periodically, and notify the user when database "hits" occur.

Online Order - Users can interactively order selected metadata records. The full metadata record including the user contact information is e-mailed to the metadata distribution contact. Facilities also exist for connecting orders into the back-end product preparation and delivery systems for on-line automated delivery.

Interactive Mapping Interface - The Meta Miner search and result processing may be interfaced with the Map Manager Internet mapping client. Facilities are provided for interactively specifying the area of interest, overlaying browse imagery, overlaying footprints and for browsing result sets within the Internet mapping client window.

It’s Never Been Easier

Now it’s easier than ever to publish your GIS data on the web. Set-up user profiles with custom layers, queries, and more. With Meta Miner, implementing distributed data search and retrieval couldn't be easier.

Meta Miner is a component of Compusult’s Web Enterprise Suite; a set of Internet-based applications and toolkits that support Web mapping, information cataloging, discovery, retrieval and delivery services.

Meta Miner is also a contributor to the Open Geospatial Consortium Catalogue Services Interoperability initiative.