technology

The design of Mimuv responds to the specific need to centralize data in order to guarantee better management and, at the same time, and to offer the service to the widest number of users possible, without requiring clients to install or configure the applications. Bearing this in mind, Mimuv was developed with a client-server architecture: the server part is based on the Linux operating system with a Java and Javascript platform, the client part is a web mapping application.
The data base, for both the traditional alpha-numeric and the mapping data, resides in an Oracle 10g database management instance. Oracle provides native support for the spatial data using the Ogc (Open geospatial consortium) standards and includes various functions that range from storage to modification, from validation to spatial searches. The data is usually saved in a vectorial format.
The mapping data is used by Mimuv in two ways: one direct, in which the information is handled directly by the source code of the application and makes it possible to execute a multiplicity of operations; and one indirect, which uses a dedicated library to show data in the form of a map within the browser. The library is basically a rasterizer, which reads the cartographic elements from Oracle in vectorial form, stylized and converted to the bitmap format. The excerpt of the map is then sent to the browser as an image without requiring the installation of specific plug-ins. Users can access Mimuv through the web interface, from any computer with Internet access. To provide greater functionality and interactivity, Ajax technology and Javascript programming was used extensively to make the user experience of the web pages similar to using a desktop application. The interface makes it possible not only to search, add, modify and consult the data but also to browse through the maps on the map excerpt. The events themselves, the fundamental cartographic objects that the Mimuv process revolves around, can be drawn and modified directly on the map.