Application Extensions and Custom Formats

From Fmepedia

Q) Does the FME GeoMedia Data Server support Custom Formats?

A) Yes.

Q) Does the FME Provider for MapGuide support Custom Formats?

A) Yes. Custom formats can be made accessible from within FME Provider for MapGuide. A good example is to automatically reproject data from a source coordinate system to a destination coordinate system, such as LL84. Another use would be to reformat attributes such as combine multiple columns into one or applying a code lookup to get a description instead.

However, please remember that currently all custom formats are treated as file formats and have their results cached. We are currently working on registering custom formats in such a way so that those with database sources are not cached but rather run 'live'.

The trick using custom formats in MapGuide is that you will need to manually copy any .fds you create into FME's datasources folder.

Here are the steps for setting up a universal reproject data source for MapGuide:

1. Run Workbench and choose File - New and then Custom Format
2. Choose your desired source format and file. Check any settings parameters you might want available from within mapguide then push OK.
3. Once the workspace is set up, set the reader setting for coordinate system to 'read from source' and the destination coord system to LL84 or whatever you want it to be in MapGuide.
4. Note the path of the .fds file. It will most likely be saved at: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\FME\Formats
5. Copy the .fds file from the path in (4) to: C:\Program Files\FME\datasources or wherever you installed the FME that extends MapGuide.

Note that if you have any problems with the custom format workspace, you can always turn on Destination - Redirect to Visualizer and then run the translation from within Workbench to verify what is happening to the data output.

Thats it. Now your custom data source should just work from within MapGuide. You will probably need to restart your mapguide server and then recreate any FME data sources that you want to point to this LL84 custom format. You should then be able to use MapGuide Author to add data using your new custom format data source, and the data should be reprojected to match your basemap in MapGuide.

Q) Does the ArcGIS Server support Custom Formats?

A) Yes, with these steps...

On client computer

1. Copy the source dataset into a shared folder.
2. Start ArcCatalog, Add Interop connection.
3. Make a new custom format which refers to the source dataset using UNC path (\\<computer>\<dataset>)
4. In workspace, add an AttributeCreator or GeometryCoercer to make it easier to distinguish it from the normal format.
5. Save the workspace. The fds file goes to <user>\FME\Formats
6. Create a Data Interop connection using the custom format.
7. Copy the fds file into a shared folder.
8. Start ArcMap, and add the layer in Data Interop connection.
9. Verify this layer is custom format by using identify tool.
10. Save this map using Full path (File -> Document Properties -> Data source options)
11. In ArcCatalog, make a folder connection to the shared folder in UNC path (\\<computer>\<path>)
12. Publish the map from the folder connection. (You can't see it yet)

On ArcGIS Server

1. Set the server system environment variable (Variable: FME_SHARED_RESOURCE_DIR, Value: \\<computer>\<path>)

On client computer

1. Delete the published map service from ArcCatalog.
2. Re-publish the map, then you are able to see it.