C5.109 : Map REST Services version 2: The EDIT Map Web Services for occurrence and distribution data with enhanced functionalit
The EDIT mapViewer is an online toolbox for taxonomists, offering data visualisation and analysis in preparation of their publications. There are two sides to this : an online tool (the mapViewer tool), a set of REST (stateless) webservices, that can be used to integrate (certain chosen parts of) the EDIT mapViewer tool into other webpages or online tools. In version 1 of the mapViewer tool (Mapbuilder implementation ), the mapViewer and geoREST services had separate coding and development cycles, demanding double work and difficult coordination. Since the move to the OpenLayers framework, the same code base can be used for both, so development is now simultaneous and demands less work. The geoREST webservices offering the functionality also available in the mapViewer have been implemented in several EDIT websites. For example, the EDIT exemplar group’s CDM (Common Data Model) Dataportals use the REST services to provide maps for their species distributions (for background information on the CDM Dataportal.