GIS testing available online
GIS testing now available online
Geographic Information System developers can now test and validate their software compatibility online thanks to the launch of the Compliance and Interoperability Test and Evaluation website.
The new CITE service will provide automated testing and validation against standards for exchanging data with other GIS software:
GIS is used in both the public and private sectors for land development, minerals exploration, environmental management, pipeline planning and many other surveying and mapping based applications.
Data is combined from traditional techniques, such as surveying and mapping, with aerial and satellite photography. This is eventually turned into geographical information available for architects, engineers, planners and managers.
This CITE website was jointly developed in Australia by leading consulting firm, Sinclair Knight Merz, and Web Developer, Social Change Online (SCO), on behalf of the Open GIS Consortium, Inc. (OGC).
Maurits van der Vlugt, a senior GIS Consultant at Sinclair Knight Merz, said the CITE website will benefit developers and vendors who want to claim or indicate compliance in the market place: "Most geoprocessing product users around the world seek verification that a vendor's product complies with OpenGIS Specifications.
"Compliance certification assures buyers that a vendor's product correctly implements the specifications. Previously, there was no objective way of independently verifying compliance against international standards, and anyone could claim compliance.
"CITE has solved that problem - it is a watershed in compliance testing. Testing - even iterative testing - on the CITE website is free, but developers that test successfully and then want to claim or indicate compliance in their sales and marketing literature must submit their results for validation and pay a trademark licensing fee."
This initiative is sponsored by the European Union Satellite Centre, which saw the benefit of using standards-based software and needed a way to ensure that its purchases of commercial off-the-shelf products met its interoperability requirements.
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