Design And Implementation Of FLEX Clients And REST Services Architecture Jinggangshan Red Tourism System

WebGIS (Web Geographical Information System) is a kind of technique that combinesthe internet technology and the geographical information system. The emergence of WebGIShas changed the consistent system structure of GIS, i.e. the C/S (Client/Server) system structure,and has facilitated the socialization and popularization of GIS. At the initial stage, WebGIS usedHTML (Hypertext Markup Language) to develop user interface, which led to many defectssuch as the unsmooth display of graphics of the system client-side, the weak interactivecapacity and the worst user experience. Apart from this, the system also adopted the complexheavyweight SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) protocol to invoke GIS services. As aresult of these, the exploiting process became complex and the late maintenance was difficult.With the renewal development of technology, the emergence of RIA (Rich Internet Application)technology and REST (Representational State Transfer) technology has remedied the shortagesand defects. Nowadays, it is a common practice to combine these two technologies to exploitWebGIS in GIS field.Flex is one of RIA application plug-ins pushed off by Adobe. It has functions ofcross-platform, cross-browser and rich user experience. REST is a new style of Web service inwhich all information are treated as resources. It uses the only URL labeled server to provide allresources while the client-side can manipulate the specific resource through these URL. TheArcGIS Server of ESRI is an outstanding kind of WebGIS server-side software. On the basis ofFlex and REST technologies, the exploitation of ArcGIS Server combines the powerful effectsFlex has on ArcGIS and the lightweight advantages of REST service invocation. The WebGISsystem there developed not only has beautiful interface, strong interaction and convenientdeployment, but also simplifies the complexity of exploiting process greatly as well asimproves the scalability of the system. Thus, it has a promising future.In this thesis, analysis will be made on the technical features and advantages of Flex,REST and ArcGIS Server. Besides, I will also make a study on the principles and methods ofArcGIS Server REST API and ArcGIS API for Flex. Details on WebGIS system design andimplementation based on Flex and REST will also be discussed in this thesis. I will take theexample of Jing Gangshan red tourism as the specific application of the exploitation of WebGISsystem with Flex and REST technologies; What’s more, the WebGIS system takes ArcGISServer10as the GIS server to provide GIS service and the Flex client-side invokes ArcGISServer through REST API, which fulfills the functions of map roam, map zoom, geographicsurvey, layer control, map elements finding and path analysis. Seen from the actual exploiting effects, the system operates smoothly with a clearinterface. It is more advantageous than the traditional WebGIS based on HTML not only oneffects and speeds, but also on aspects of multi-media integrating, layer controlling, etc.. What’smore, the lightweight service invocation style makes the exploiting process more efficient andsimplified. Thus, this kind of exploiting method has a very promising developmental prospect.