Northgate (iPlan, iBuild) integration

1

Hi
Has anybody been able to link or integrate Earthlight GIS to iPlan/iBuild etc. from Northgate Public Services?
See https://www.northgateps.com/
Currently our users who access iPlan click on a button that then launches MapInfo Professional. I want to replace the button from launching MapInfo Pro to launch Earthlight GIS. This will yield us some savings and reduce our need for expensive MapInfo maintenance costs.
Thanks.

Vin

2

Hello, Vinesh.

Hope that you’re well.

The iPlan / iBuild software from Northgate Public Services is designed to run with MapInfo or MapExtreme. However, we’ve been building various integrations of late, and will investigate further (in conjunction with Northgate) to see if we can put together an alternative integration API for Earthlight.

It may well be necessary to arrange a little visit, if that’s okay.

Kind regards,

Gordon

3

I forgot to mention that - for Arcus users - an integration has already just been completed.

4

Hi

We use Northgate M3 L & P here which has an integrated mapping module, based on Cadcorp I think (used to be MapX). I know Northgate are working on making the planning system web based. Is there any chance that it may integrate fully with Earthlight when they get to making the GIS web based (or even if they don’t)? At the moment we can import the planning objects into Earthlight each night, but any plotting has to be done in the planning system.

Thanks

Sandra

5

Thanks Gordon.
I’m not after a “full” integration.
Our planning officers typically do one of two things:

  1. a drill down operation where they want to unearth what layers sit under a property point. This in my view is a straight forward function for Earthlight GIS and that it already does.
  2. the ability to draw a polygon shape to pull out addresses from our gazetteer for consultation purposes. Again Earthlight GIS does this very easily. The only issue I am unclear about is how do these selected addresses then get transferred back to iPlan?
    Thanks.

Vin

6

Hello, Sandra.

This should be quite straight-forward when the software is made into a web application. It will mean exposing an API to pass GeoJSON objects from Earthlight to the exposed API in the Northgate web application.

I’ll need to discuss that with the development team, however. I’ll let you know how we intend to proceed.

Regards,

Gordon

7

Hello, Vinesh.

The integration would, as mentioned in the response to Sandra’s comment, involve the use of an API for Earthlight passing GeoJSON objects back to the exposed iPlan API. We’ll need to get a copy of the manifest to see what’s exposed - or will be exposed - in terms of APIs at Northgate’s end and then configure the Earthlight API accordingly.

Again, I’ll need to discuss this with the developers. Will get back to you once we’ve got a plan / way forward in mind (which will be soon).

Hope that this is okay for the moment.

Kind regards,

Gordon

8

Hello Gordon

Thanks for the response. Not sure when Northgate are going to release the full web application - we’re at a bit of a ‘half way house’ at the moment. Around 50% of support/complaints about our planning system are related to the GIS bit (non web) - its a bit temperamental to say the least.

Currently most of the system is still on the old desktop version, just letter generation in our TEST has gone to the web app. There was talk from Northgate that the GIS development part would be contracted out to a third party.

But if we could cut out the Northgate bit and go straight to Earthlight to do the spatial searches, plotting, constraint checking etc it would simplify things.

Regards

Sandra

9

Hi Sandra

“But if we could cut out the Northgate bit and go straight to Earthlight to do the spatial searches, plotting, constraint checking etc it would simplify things”

This is exactly what we would be after.

Thanks.

Vin

10

Hello, Sandra.

We will be in discussions with Northgate about using their APIs. It’ll be easier with a web client (which is supposed to be released soon - at least according to Northgate account managers). Hopefully the ability to simply go straight to Earthlight shouldn’t be a problem in the future.

I’ll keep you posted, though.

Regards,

Gordon

11

Hello, Vin.

As mentioned to Sandra in my post just a moment ago, we will be trying to arrange with Northgate to interact directly with their APIs - so going straight to Earthlight for constraint checking, etc.

I’ll keep this thread updated as and when things happen.

Thanks again.

Regards,

Gordon

12

Hi Gordon

Thanks for the update. If that is possible it would be a really useful step forward with our systems.

Regards

Sandra