Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

  1. Does IMF for ArcIMS include a license for ArcIMS?
  2. Can I upgrade from a Small Business Edition to an Enterprise Edition?
  3. Is support and maintenance included in the licence price?
  4. Do I need to be a software developer to customise IMF?<
  5. How can I find out more about customisation of IMF?
  6. Can I have a trial version of the software?
  7. Is the IMF User Community very active?
  8. Can I install IMF myself?
  9. What about data sources - does it matter if my data is coming from ArcSDE or Oracle Spatial?
  10. Can I integrate an address search function using my LLPG Address Gazetteer?
  11. What browsers is IMF compatible with?
  12. What operating systems and web servers is IMF compatible with?
  13. What other software does IMF require?
  14. How is IMF structured?
  15. How does IMFcompare with LocalView from ESRI(UK)?

Q1. Does IMF for ArcIMS include a license for ArcIMS?

No, you need to purchase the ArcIMS software separately from an ESRI Inc. reseller.

Q2. Can I upgrade from a Small Business Edition to an Enterprise Edition?

Yes, if you recognise you need to provide multiple web mapping applications then you can upgrade by paying the price difference. However the Small Business Edition is really only appropriate for small organisations.

Q3. Is support and maintenance included in the licence price?

Maintenance for Year 1 is included in the price. Maintenance for Year 2 onwards is chargeable. The maintenance agreement includes access to peer support through the user forum. Telephone and email support backed by an SLA can be purchased from GeoWise for an additional fee.

Q4. Do I need to be a software developer to customise IMF?

No. IMF has been designed to be customised by relatively technical staff such as GIS officers but software programming skills are not necessary. Simple XML configuration files allow the IMF administrator to control most aspects of the site. Functions can also be modified with knowledge of Java Server Pages (JSP) script.

Q5. How can I find out more about customisation of IMF?

You can view the example IMF configuration files provided on this site. If you email us we can send you details for the On-line IMF Developers Guide. Once you have purchased a licence you can access the IMF Resource Centre.

Q6. Can I have a trial version of the software?

Yes, time limited evaluation licenses are available on request. This is an excellent way to see for yourself just how easy it is to customise IMF. Alternatively, if you have a public ArcIMS server, Moximedia have a demonstration site that can show you your own data. If you contact us we can arrange a more tailored demo, using UK national grid, simple interface, etc.

Q7. Is the IMF User Community very active?

The IMF user community has a very active international user forum. New ideas are raised on a regular (daily) basis and, if appropriate, these are incorporated into the product. This means everyone gets to benefit from good new ideas.

Q8. Can I install IMF myself?

IMF is relatively straightforward to set up. Organisations that have system administration staff generally install the product themselves. Otherwise we would recommend a consultant come on site for between 1 and 2 days to lead you through this process and, more significantly, to provide training in basic customisation and on-going administration of the product. This can be an invaluable jump start to supporting and maintaining IMF.

Q9. What about data sources - does it matter if my data is coming from ArcSDE or Oracle Spatial?

No, IMF-ArcIMS works through ESRI ArcIMS and therefore if ArcIMS supports your data source then IMF will also work fine with it.

Q10. Can I integrate an address search function using my LLPG Address Gazetteer?

Yes, depending on your LLPG product it is relatively straightforward to integrate an address search function. GeoWise IMF includes a simple UK address gazetteer. This can easily be customised to use a datasource of your choice, including an LLPG, using a direct database connection, a periodic snapshot of the database or a connection to a web service.

Q11. What browsers is IMF compatible with?

Supported browser clients include:

  • Internet Explorer v4.0+
  • Netscape v4.0+
  • Mozilla v1.2+
  • Firefox
  • Safari (macintosh)

It works best with Internet Explorer v5.0 or higher.

Q12. What operating systems and web servers is IMF compatible with?

GeoWise IMF is a platform independent pure Java / JSP application.

It runs on a variety of web servers and servlet engines on Windows, UNIX or Linux servers, including the following:

  • Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS)
  • Sun One (formerly iPlanet)
  • Apache HTTP server
  • Oracle OC4J
  • Oracle 9iAS
  • Apache Tomcat
  • ServletExec
  • Resin

Q13. What other software does IMF require?

It requires Java v1.4+ and Java Advanced Imaging (JAI) to be installed on the web server as well as a servlet engine. If you are installing it on your ArcIMS server, you already have everything that you need. The Java J2SE SDK is recommended over a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installation.

Q14. How is IMF structured?

The IMF application contains a package of Java classes that manage the application properties and communication to the spatial web servers. The classes also contain routines to handle projections and geoprocessing of geometric shapes such as buffer, intersection, etc.

Most of the routines that the user interacts with are implemented as JSP scripts. The JSP scripts use object-oriented methods of the Java class objects to manage the user's session. The JSP approach was chosen to make it easier for IMF licensees to learn from the core scripts and copy or modify them to create new functionality.

For more details on the structure of an individual IMF application/website, please see the customisation page

Q15. How does IMFcompare with LocalView from ESRI(UK)?

  • Like LocalView, IMF can be implemented extremely quickly.
  • Like LocalView, IMF can be used by local government in the UK to help deliver various priority service and transformation outcomes.
  • Unlike LocalView, IMF is a generic application framework that can be used for achieving priority outcomes.and many other applications
  • Unlike LocalView, IMF includes a huge range of off the shelf functionality that customers can choose whether or not to include in specific applications.