Glossary

API

A set of protocols, tools and procedures that an application (software or web service) provides for the use by external software. Web services API is typically a description of possible HTTP requests.

Basemap

baselayers

Background of the map. All other layers are displayed on top of it. How to add a basemap

Collector project

collector_project

Type of resource in NextGIS Web, a project for data collection. Users connect to it via NextGIS Collector app to enter data in the field. How to create

Connection

PostGIS connection

TMS connection

WMS connection

WFS connection

postgis_connection

tmsclient_connection

wfsclient_connection

wmsclient_connection

Type of resource in NextGIS Web, a connection to a remote server using standard protocols: PostGIS, TMS, WFS, WMS.

CORS

Cross-origin resource sharing

A mechanism that allows a web page to access restricted resources from a server on a domain different than the domain that served the web page. See more in Cross-origin resource sharing.

CSS

Cascading Style Sheets

Style sheet language used for specifying the presentation and styling of a document written in a markup language such as HTML or XML. How to use CSS to change the look of your Web GIS

CSV

A format for storage of tabular data in plain text. The file contains a set of rows where columns are separated with commas or semicolons. The format is used for data exchange between programs if they can not read more complex formats. CSV could be used to store geodata: columns may store coordinates for points or geometry description in WKT or WKB formats.

Demo project

demo_project

Examples showcasing NextGIS Web functionality. How to use Demo projects.

detached layer

Layer downloaded from Web GIS, stored locally and synchronized with the server.

DXF

AutoCAD DXF

An open data file format developed by Autodesk to enable CAD data exchange and interoperability between AutoCAD on different computing platforms.

EPSG

IOGP’s EPSG Geodetic Parameter Dataset

Public registry of geodetic datums, spatial reference systems, Earth ellipsoids, coordinate transformations and related units of measurement, originated by a member of the European Petroleum Survey Group. Catalog is available on https://epsg.io/. Most common codes are EPSG:4326 - WGS 84, EPSG:3857 - Mercator projection.

ESRI Shape

ESRI Shapefile

Shapefile

Shape

Popular format for geodata files developed and supported by Esri company for interoperability between products of Esri and other software.

Extent

The coordinate of the map’s boundary, usually 4 numbers. Extent identifies the area shown on the map.

fid

Field containing the unique feature ID.

File bucket

file_bucket

Special resource type available in Extended NextGIS on-premise. A storage for files of any kind. How to create

Form

formbuilder_form

Subresource of a vector layer, a user-friendly interface for entering and editing data used in mobile apps NextGIS Mobile and NextGIS Collector. The file has *.ngfp extension.

geographical feature

spatial feature

geofeature

geodata

Digital model for material or abstract feature of real or virtual world with assigned identifier, coordinates and attributes.

geographical information system

GIS

Information system that operates with geographical data (geodata).

GeoJSON

An open standard format designed for representing simple geographical features, along with their non-spatial attributes, based on JavaScript Object Notation. The features include points, linestrings & polygons and multi-part collection of these types.

GeoPackage

Open, standards-based, platform-independent, portable, self-describing, compact format for transferring geospatial information.

GeoTIFF

Open geodata format for raster data representation in a TIFF format with metadata about georeferencing. Uses TIFF 6.0 specification, and adds some types of geotags that defines a type of cartographic projection, geographical coordinate system, geoid, datum and all other information required for precise spatial orientation of satellite image.

GLONASS

Global Navigation Satellite System

Satellite navigation system. It provides an alternative to Global Positioning System (GPS) and is the second navigational system in operation with global coverage and of comparable precision.

GML

Geographic Markup Language

XML grammar defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) to express geographical features.

GPS

Global positioning system

One of the global navigation satellite systems that provide geolocation and time information.

HEX

6-digit representation of the RGB color model in the hexadecimal numeral system. The code starts with # followed by two digits representing red, two digits for green and two for blue. E.g. #f5df4d, a shade of yellow.

HSB

Hue, Saturation, Brightness

A representation of RGB colors through three parameters: hue, saturation, brightness.

instance

A single Web GIS with its unique URL.

integer

int

bigint

integral data type

Data type that represents some range of mathematical integers. The ranges of values are: Int - signed: between -2147483648 and 2147483647; unsigned: between 0 and 4294967295. Bigint - signed: between -9223372036854775808 and 9223372036854775807; unsigned - between 0 and 18446744073709551615.

KML

Keyhole Markup Language

The file format used to display geographic data in an Earth browser such as Google Earth.

LA

label attribute

The values of the field marked as “label attribute” are used as feature labels on the map. How to configure

Lookup table

lookup_table

Type of resource in NextGIS Web, a list of key-value pairs that can be connected to a field of a vector layer. How to create

MapInfo MIF/MID

Map and database exchange file format of MapInfo software product. MIF-file contains Block with the description of attributive Data-columns and Blocks that stores Geomentry Objects. MID-file is CSV-like format to store the attributive Data. Each line in MID-file is related with the same order Geometry Block (Geometry Object) in MIF-file.

MapInfo TAB

Geospatial vector data format for geographic information systems software. It is developed and regulated by Precisely as a proprietary format. Used in MapInfo Pro.

Mapnik

Open source map renderer. Written on C++ and Python. Uses a AGG library and has a function of smoothing of features with high acuracy. It can read from ESRI formats, PostGIS, TIFF, .osm files, and also supports for any GDAL or OGR formats.

MapServer

Server geographical information system with open source that is launched through CGI interface.

MapServer style

mapserver_style

Subresource of a vector layer, necessary to display the data on a Web Map or in an app. See also QGIS vector style. How to create

MVT

Mapbox Vector Tiles

Vector tile standard. Uses PBF container for tiles.

NGID

Account on the NextGIS platform with the email address used as login.

NGIDOP

NextGIS ID on-premise

Authorization and user management server for NextGIS software deployed in local networks isolated from the Internet.

OAuth

(Short for open authorization) is an open standard for access delegation, commonly used as a way for internet users to grant websites or applications access to their information on other websites but without giving them the passwords.

OGC API Features

OGC API - Features

OGC API — Features

OSGeo standard for publishing vector data with geometries, attributes and query filtering.

Open data

Open data is data that can be freely used, re-used and redistributed by anyone - subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and sharealike.

Open Source

Software with open source code. Source code of such software is available for view, study and update. This allows a user to participate in a process of development of open source software, to use a code for creation of new software and debugging — through borrowing of source code if that is allowed by license compatibility, or to study of used algorithms, data structures, technologies, methods and interfaces (as source code could essentially complete documentation or be a kind of documentation if there is no one).

PostGIS

Extension for relational DBMS PostgreSQL for storage of geodata in a database. PostGIS has a support for spatial indexes R-Tree/GiST and geodata processing functions.

PostGIS layer

postgis_layer

Layer added using a connection to a PostGIS data base on a remote server.

QGIS

A user-friendly geographical information system with open source code, distributed under GNU General Public License. QGIS is a project of Open Source Geospatial Foundation. It works on Linux, Unix, Mac OSX, Windows and Android, supports for various vector, raster formats, databases and has a variety of functions.

QGIS raster style

qgis_raster_style

Subresource of a raster layer necessary to display data on a Web Map or in QGIS desktop app.

QGIS vector style

qgis_vector_style

Subresource of a vector layer, necessary to display the data on a Web Map or in an app. The file extension is *.qml. See also MapServer style. How to create QGIS style.

QML

The main language for describing map styles in the NextGIS QGIS software. Vector and raster styles are edited in QGIS and saved to a file with QML extension. Internal representations is XML. Map styles in QML format are supported by NextGIS Web.

Raster layer

raster_layer

Type of resource in NextGIS Web that stores geodata as regular pixel grid. The file format is GeoTIFF. How to create

Raster style

raster_style

Subresource of a raster layer necessary to display data on a Web Map.

resource

A component of NextGIS Web: a layer, a map, a service etc.

Resource group

resource_group

In NextGIS Web it’s a folder/directory in the resource structure. How to create

RGB

An additive color model in which the red, green, and blue primary colors of light are added together in various ways. Each color can have a value between 0 and 255. There are also HEX color codes for HTML, CSS, SVG, and other computing applications.

SDK

software development kit

Collection of software development tools in one installable package.

Service

ogcfserver_service

wmsserver_service

wfsserver_service

Type of resource in NextGIS Web, an interface for requesting geo-registered map images using standard protocols: OGC API – Features, WMS etc.

SLD

Styled Layer Descriptor

An XML schema specified by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) for describing the appearance of map layers. A typical use of SLDs is to instruct a Web Map Service (WMS) or Web Feature Service (WFS) how to render a specific layer.

SRS

Spacial Reference System

CRS

coordinate system

A way for description of point location relative to selected axes.

SSL

Secure Sockets Layer

Security protocol that provides privacy, authentication, and integrity to Internet communications.

SVG

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an XML-based vector image format for defining two-dimensional graphics. In GIS systems is used to store icons used as map symbols.

SVG Marker Library

svg_marker_library

Type of resource in NextGIS Web that stores SVG icons used in QGIS vector styles to display data on Web Maps, if the icons are not embedded in the style. How to create

team

A unit of user grouping in NextGIS. A Premium plan holder can share the Premium functionality with up to four other users by adding them to the team and setting up permissions for them in the Web GIS.

Tile

Tiles

Square images displaying part of a map split by a grid, often have the size of 255 X 255 and PNG format.

Tileset

File or Web GIS resource containing map data split into standardized squares.

TMS

Tile Map Service

A specification for Web Maps displayed by seamlessly joining dozens of individually requested image files over the internet. OSGeo standard that describes an access to representation of geodata through the Internet/Intranet without an access to geodata itself. The difference between XYZ and TMS is that the Y coordinate is flipped.

TMS layer

tmsclient_layer

Layer containing tiles served via TMS protocol.

Tracker

Type of resource in NextGIS Web that creates a connection between a tracking device and the Web GIS.
Mobile app NextGIS Tracker that records tracks and sends them to Web GIS.

Trackers group

trackers_group

In NextGIS Web it’s a folder containing tracker resources. How to create.

URL

Uniform Resource Locator

A Uniform resource locator (description of location). Previously called Universal Resource Locator (URL). URL is a standardized way to record a resource address in the Internet.

Vector layer

vector_layer

A type of geodata that stores information as a set of points, lines or polygons as well as the attribute data of the features.

versioning

A mechanism that tracks all changes made to the vector layer features. Learn more

Web Map

webmap

Type of resource in NextGIS Web that visualizes data from various sources in a Web client.

WFS

Web Feature Service

WFS-T

WFS service

A web service that represents data in a vector GML format. Client gets both attributes and geometry. There are standard extensions:

Transactional (WFS-T) - allows clients to send to WFS server new and updated data; Gazetteer (WFS-G) - a draft of a standard that adds a search and a query of items by dictionary of geographical names. Initially developed by USGS; Temporal - a draft of a standard that adds a temporal measurement; Versioning (WFS-V, WFSV) - allows to work with different versions of data (particular development of GeoServer project, not standardized by OGC).

WFS Layer

wfsclient_layer

Layer added using WFS protocol.

WMS

Web Map Service

A standard protocol for serving of georeferenced images through the Internet that are generated on server on a basis of data from a gis database. The standard was developed and initially published by international organization OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) in 1999.

WMS layer

wmsclient_layer

Raster layer that displays data stored on a remote server and served via WMS protocol.

WMTS

Web Map Tile Service

OSGeo standard protocol for serving pre-rendered or run-time computed georeferenced map tiles over the Internet.

XLSX

A zipped, XML-based file format for representing spreadsheets, charts, in Office Open XML standard. Spreadsheets in this format can be used as geodata sources.

XYZ

Raster Tile Map

Slippy map (in OpenStreetMap terminology) or Tiled Web Map is a map displayed by seamlessly joining dozens of individually requested image files over the internet. X, Y & Z denotes the numbering scheme to serve the images. The images are commonly of the size 256 X 256 in PNG format. The difference between XYZ and TMS is that the Y coordinate is flipped.