Plug-In GIS Based On ArcGIS Engine: Research And Implementation

With the development and wide utilize of Geographical Information System (GIS), the scale and complexity of GIS software have expanded to an unexpected high level at unprecedented rates in the last several decades. Although it can achieve some benefits (e.g., modularized functions and compact platform) by using the traditional design pattern, the GIS software still suffers from some drawbacks, such as the difficulty to handle the heterogeneous data from multi-source, the hamper of implementing new functions and so on.By providing GIS plug-ins, the ability of the GIS software can be extended without changing its main framework. Plug-in is a type of software module that is developed to improve and update the functions of its host system, and the technology of plug-in facilitates the reuse of GIS functions and rapid integration of GIS software. There are mainly two ways of developing plug-ins of development. One is script plug-in, and the other is component plug-in which also includes two different ways: pre-made interface plug-ins and custom plug-ins. ArcGIS Engine is a complete library of embeddable GIS components for developers to build custom applications. Using ArcGIS Engine, we can embed GIS functions into existing applications and build focused custom applications that deliver advanced GIS systems to many users. Developing GIS plug-in host system with ArcGIS Engine can take advantage of its library to make plug-ins with powerful GIS functions and reduce the cost of the development.Currently, increasing number of GIS software has the ability to support the development of plug-in by using the plug-in technology, but most of them have some problems, such as hard difficulty, not very flexibility and high costs. At the same time, fewer researches focus on using the mode of custom interface to develop plug-in GIS software. This thesis researches the develop mode of plug-in by using custom interface and ArcGIS Engine. On this basis a GIS platform of plug-in by using the mode of custom interface is developed, which is based on ArcGIS Engine. Furthermore, the plug-in for sunlight analysis based on 3-D environment is developed and integrated into the platform, which makes it available for the application in urban planning.There are three contributions in this research: 1) Proposed the approach by using custom interface to develop plug-in GIS platform based on ArcGIS Engine, for the improvement of realizing convenient software reuse and fast integration.2) Developed the plug-in GIS platform, which is used in 3-D application area.3) Implemented the sunlight analysis plug-in, which will expand the application in urban planning area.