IN THIS ISSUECell Phone Notifications from FMEEfficiency in Data Schema ValidationFME Prepares Data for AnalysisExploring FME Server: One Year LaterBuilding a Spatial Project DashboardHow to Share Spatial Data in SDIsFME User Spotlight: Glen RheaSneak Peek at FME 2010 FME Int’l User Conference Round-UpMeet a Safer: Tom Weir

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Founder’s Perspective

Bringing the World Together We recently held the FME® International User Conference in beautiful Whistler, BC, where FME fans joined us from all over the world to explore how FME has been “Bringing the World Together.” Along with fellow Safers, we enjoyed the opportunity to interact with FME users both to share the latest developments and to learn from our customers. Users are the experts – they know their data access problems intimately, and they know what tools they need

“…it is most rewarding to see how customers

have used FME to overcome challenges

with exponentially less effort”

FME 2010 Sneak Peek InsideWant an inside look on the new features developers are creating for the next FME release? Check out the FME 2010 preview that Don & Dale revealed at the recent user conference on page 6.

to solve these problems. Our goal at Safe is to understand these needs and solve them as efficiently as possible, so it is most rewarding to see how customers have used FME to overcome challenges with exponentially less effort than a hand-coded approach.

It was indeed exciting to see first-hand how our customers are using FME to solve their data access challenges. We saw many interesting technical presentations

Safe co-founders Dale Lutz and Don Murray at the 2009 FME International User Conference

highlighting innovative uses including using FME to power a location-based cell phone notification service, performing quality assurance testing, preparing data for analyses, and submitting data to meet SDI requirements along with many others. These stories were so inspirational for us we wanted to share them with you.

In this issue of the Safe Insider, you’ll find some great highlights from the user conference, including many pieces of practical knowledge that we trust you’ll find valuable for applications within your own organization. So until the next time we get to see you on the road, happy FMEing!

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Using FME to Drive a Location-based Email & Cell Phone Notification Service

the county’s 85,000 residents to register online to receive updates via SMS or email on events of interest such as water outages, boil water notifications, road closures and flood warnings.

So, how does this notification system work? Residents subscribe by signing up for an account on the Council’s website (http://reports.kilkennycoco.ie) where they are prompted to provide details on their location in GoogleTM MapsTM. FME is then used to overlay the list of registered citizens (points) onto the County’s list of service locations (polygons) using the PointOnArea Overlayer transformer. FME also filters the resident’s location within a specific polygon area so information can be provided on a localized level. A SQL Server trigger system is used to automatically send out SMS messages to only those residents located within the hazard zone. The system also uses Microsoft® SQL® Reporting Services to provide residents with PDF reports containing useful information for their area.

This location-based notification system provides Kilkenny County

Council with a new and efficient way to communicate with residents. In fact, the system has been so well-received by citizens that Kilkenny County Council is already exploring other interesting applications for improving services to local residents. Future plans include working with their national gas company to alert citizens of leak warnings or potential explosions, as well as the County’s fire department to inform them where the nearest hydrant is located based on the fire location.

To learn more about Kilkenny County Council’s location-based notification system, view Brendan’s presentation at the 2009 FME International User Conference: www.fmeuc.com/Kilkenny.

Imagine being alerted of a road closure along your commute route or being warned in advance of a possible flood threat in your area. For the residents of Kilkenny County, Ireland, this is an everyday reality – made possible by FME.

In 2006, Kilkenny County Council launched a new location-based notification system to help improve communication and deliver time-critical information to local citizens. Developed by Brendan Cunningham, GIS Project Leader and Senior Developer for Kilkenny County Council, the system enables

Residents sign up online to receive up-to-date notifications for their area.

SMS text notifications are

automatically sent to all residents located in

the service area.

An Efficiency Breakthrough for Data Schema Validationpresentation. But before we get into the details, here’s some context:

In his presentation, Mark described the delivery of an uploaded ESRI® Shape file where the customer wanted to ensure that its schema hadn’t changed since the last time it was loaded into the centralized database. Mark described using a Python® script incorporating FME Objects to query the schema of a feature; this script looked at the schema of the Shape data and for each feature class returned a schema feature with attributes representing the feature class names, attribute names and the attribute data types.

At the FME International User Conference this year, Safer Mark Stoakes returned to address a very popular topic: performing data validation with FME. He expanded on his 2008 presentation which covered geometry validation to explore attribute validation.

As the Manager of Professional Services, Mark was able to share an overview perspective on several customer projects that the team has been working on. We recently caught up with Mark and found out that there had been a very helpful development in FME since his

To complete the data validation process, the FeatureMerger transformer was used to compare the results of the query for the uploaded dataset to the results of the query on the last dataset that was uploaded. Finally, the results of this comparison were written to a report using the ever popular TextLineWriter.

So here’s the great update Mark shared with us: To make schema validation faster and simpler, the development team has eliminated the need for the custom Python script by creating the Metadata Reader. This new reader examines the dataset and for

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Using FME to Prepare Data for Analysis

zoning designations, airport noise contours to safety zones – and overlayed this information on parcel data for areas around the airports. Once all the required details were compiled for each parcel, it was easy to determine which parcels, if any, had potential displacement. FME was then used to move this information into Microsoft Access® and Excel® files that allowed for quick and efficient manual calculation of potential displacement loss.

To get more details on how FME was used to facilitate this analysis for the McClellan-Palomar Airport in San Diego, view Chris and Khalid’s presentation at the 2009 FME International User Conference: www.fmeuc.com/Ricondo.

Ricondo & Associates, a full-service aviation consulting firm has been performing land use development displacement analyses for the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.

Under California state law, the Airport Authority is required to develop Airport Land Use Compatibility Plans (ALUCPs) for all public use and military airports in San Diego County. The purpose of the ALUCPs is to help establish policies for airport compatible land use in communities surrounding airports that help maintain the safety of people both on the ground and in the air. As the intensity (allowable # of people) and the density (allowable # of dwellings) per acre planned for by local agencies within areas subject to the ALUCP may be limited by its adoption, it is necessary to identify the total area of any land use — residential, agricultural, commercial/industrial, and/or public use — that would be potentially displaced in the affected community through adoption of the ALUCP.

To conduct the analysis, Chris Jones and Khalid Siddiqi, Senior Consultants at Ricondo, determined which uses would or would not be allowed for each parcel under the zoning ordinances of affected communities. They then equated those uses to land uses identified in the proposed ALUCPs and calculated the difference in allowable area based on the design standards under both the zoning ordinances and the proposed ALUCPs. They used FME to bring together over 14 different data sets — everything from

Mark’s updated workspace takes advantage of the Metadata Reader’s efficiency for data schema validation.

Final results of the land use development displacement analysis for McClennan-Palomar Airport. Each parcel in the impact area boundary is accounted for and shown.

each feature type, returns one feature with information about the feature type. Schema information can now be easily returned within a workspace in a usable way, without the need for the PythonCaller transformer or scripts. Talk about an efficiency improvement!

Due for availability in FME 2010, the Metadata Reader can be tried out today

“FME’s ability to read from many different data sources in the same workspace allows you to apply structured rules in an external table (ie. Excel or Access) against your source data to test its validity.”

Dave Campanas is a Product Specialist in Safe’s Professional Services Department.

Expert Tip!

using the latest FME beta by visiting: www.safe.com/Beta.

You can also find out more about FME and data validation by watching Mark’s presentation at the conference: visit www.fmeuc.com/DataValidation.

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Exploring FME Server: One Year Laterwith people both inside and outside their organization. The real power comes in not only sharing the data, but in providing the data in the formats and models that end users require. Because FME Server can perform data transformation on-the-fly, end users can simply request data and then download a dataset that is immediately usable to them.

This may sound difficult to implement, but FME Server actually makes it very simple. At the conference, users who had never seen

It’s been just over a year, and two releases, since the launch of FME Server, and interest in Safe’s newest product was huge at the recent FME International User Conference. Attendees enjoyed hearing each other’s use cases and learning the many ways FME Server can be applied to solve their data access needs.

One of the most popular capabilities in FME Server has certainly been its data download service. Many customers are using this service to share their spatial data

OneTouchPM was developed by using FME to first integrate data from over eight different formats — including 3D data — into Google Earth EnterpriseTM. The Google Earth Enterprise platform allows for custom worlds to be built for each individual client so the data is as relevant and accurate as possible. The solution also employs FME Server to manage translations and serve up real-time ad-hoc reports to end users.

End users can use the tool to conduct a spatial search to access up-to-date information, usually no more than one minute old, to help them manage their particular role in the project. It’s as simple as searching the area, locating the parcel of interest and bringing up all the information associated with that parcel. From there, the user can click on the embedded hyper-link to access the information they need.

OneTouchPM has proven to be a valuable tool for Burns & McDonnell’s clients. The tool has helped to eliminate the need for paper-based methods of sharing data, as well as to enable better decision-making and virtually eliminate many errors on the job site. This has translated into significant cost reductions, increases in field productivity and decreases in customer calls.

For more details on how the OneTouchPM tool works, check out Wes and James' presentation at the FME International User Conference: www.fmeuc.com/BurnsMcDonnell.

We recently heard from Wes Hardin and James Katz from Burns & McDonnell — an international engineering, architecture and consulting solutions firm — about an innovative tool they’ve developed to deliver access to critical data in near real-time for large-scale construction projects.

Burns & McDonnell’s clients include organizations working on billion dollar+ construction projects in a wide range of industries including energy, transmission and distribution and transportation. These organizations often need to provide project managers, field inspectors, construction superintendents and public relations specialists with access to up-to-date project-related data. In response to this need, the firm’s Business & Technology Services division developed OneTouchPM™, a spatial project dashboard that organizes all the information related to a project so it is can be easily accessed anytime, anywhere.

Building a Spatial Project Dashboard with FME

OneTouchPM is a spatial dashboard that delivers access to critical data in near-time to organizations working on large-scale construction projects.

FME Server before created their own data download services and even integrated them into the Google Maps web interface to provide a familiar front-end. You can try the exercise yourself using the “Intro to FME Server” workshop materials: www.fmeuc.com/ServerWorkshop.

Also very popular has been FME Server’s ability to upload and transform data. This is particularly useful for organizations working to meet spatial data infrastructure (SDI) regulations as they can leave their business processes in place while transforming data for submission to their local SDI.

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Image copyright con terra

Organizations are also finding FME Server very useful for sharing workspaces throughout their organization. Instead of a small number of FME Desktop users being able to run the organization’s spatial ETL tasks, FME Server enables GIS departments to roll out their spatial ETL capabilities across their organization for use by others, saving their department significant amounts of time.

Growing in popularity is the data streaming service, which enables organizations to serve up the latest spatial information in a web-enabled application. For example,

Sharing Spatial Data in SDIs

Since Mark’s presentation in June, Safe has introduced read support for OpenGIS® GML 3.2.1 in the FME 2010 beta to ensure that future data supplied in the German national standard NAS can be integrated into the Fusion Center.

To watch Mark‘s presentation on the INSPIRE Fusion Center, visit www.fmeuc.com/INSPIRE.

As Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) become more popular and greater in scope, an increasing number of organizations are being required to meet their specifications. At the recent FME International User Conference, Mark Döring presented on con terra’s INSPIRE Fusion Center, describing how this pilot project is helping their customers provide compliant spatial data under the INSPIRE Directive – the European Union’s SDI.

Collecting data from a variety of sources and transforming it to INSPIRE’s specifications had to be done without impacting their customers’ existing business processes. The Fusion Center solves this problem, using FME Server to gather the required data and manipulate its geometry attributes and data schema. Once the entire process has been defined, the Fusion Center can automatically call upon FME Server to transform and load the data regularly, saving valuable time. The Fusion Center also employs FME Server to perform quality checks on the data received from each system, verifying that it remains consistent with established specifications.

In addition to facilitating compliance with INSPIRE, the Fusion Center also provides organizations with a central harmonized dataset – in essence their own private SDI – equipping them with improved business intelligence and the ability to make better informed decisions.

one user is providing real-time forest fire information in a Google Maps mash-up for a county fire authority. (Check out the live development site powered by FME Server: www.safe.com/CountyFire.)

In conference workshops, users also learned how to use the data streaming service to create dynamic PDFs that contain hyperlinks which, when clicked, run additional FME workspaces on FME Server and return their resulting PDF outputs. To get more details on streaming PDFs, check out page 2 of the Spring 09 Safe Insider: www.safe.com/Newsletter.

FME Server enables the INSPIRE Fusion Center to collect and transform disparate data to meet the INSPIRE Directive, the EU’s SDI.

“I work for iMapData®, where the FME cult roams the cubicles, performing

random acts of FME awesomeness.”Hugo Estrada, iMapData

Workshop attendees also created GeoRSS feeds, providing real-time information to end users. Try both of these data streaming exercises out for yourself using the Maps for the Masses workshop materials: www.fmeuc.com/MapsfortheMasses.

To find out more about how you can take advantage of FME Server in your organization, contact your friendly account manager at sales@safe.com for a personalized web demo.

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Don & Dale Provide a Sneak Peak into FME 2010Want a sneak peek into what’s coming in FME 2010? Safe Software co-founders Don Murray and Dale Lutz gave live demos at the FME International User Conference to reveal some of the features and capabilities being developed for FME’s next release.

One of the most powerful capabilities is the concept of dynamic, schema-less workspaces. When combined with the Generic Writer (format-neutral) and the Generic Reader (coming soon in FME 2010), users can conveniently solve a whole new class of transformation challenges. As the Dynamic Duo demonstrated, it will soon be possible to create workspaces that are format and schema-agnostic for both the source and the destination.

Don and Dale also highlighted some new transformers including a whole deck of generalization functions and a Twitter transformer

Arkansas Geographic Information Office (AGIO), FME User for 2 Years Please tell us about your GIS background. I first began my career as a System Administrator and later joined the AGIO as a GIS Administrator. I’ve been working in GIS for about 2 years now and thoroughly enjoy it. My experience is primarily in the server side of GIS but I do sometimes get the opportunity to work on some of the everyday GIS requirements.

What is your role at the AGIO? I administer Arkansas’ state-wide GIS Platform and Data Clearinghouse, GeoStor (www.geostor.arkansas.gov). I recently re-architected our whole environment to modernize it, as well as improve performance and stability.

How do you use FME in your organization? We are using FME Server for data downloads and for a dynamic WMS service. We also use FME Desktop for any odd ETL/magic box operations that are needed.

Do you have any tips or suggestions for other FME Server users? My top tip is that FME Server can help you increase performance in a web farm. You can also use a shared database with FME Server. This is especially useful in a web farm architecture as it can give you a single interface to check the job queue, as well as share the configuration amongst web farm members.

What is your favorite FME transformer? I really like the Logger transformer. This transformer logs each feature to the translation log and I find it very useful for debugging workspaces.

Do you have any interesting hobbies or interests? I love to ride motorcycles, play video games, work on computers (big surprise there!), go boating and spend quality time with my family.

FME User Spotlight: Glen Rhea, GeoStor Administrator,

that can be used to send SMS messages to cell phones. They also announced new format support for Google SketchupTM, BAG, Autodesk® Civil 3D® and OpenGIS GML 3.2.1, and on the 3D front demonstrated the texture support that FME will offer for many formats, making FME’s 3D outputs even more realistic.

For FME Server, the biggest news is gated access. Don and Dale demonstrated how the FME Server 2010 infrastructure will provide secure access to server resources. For example, updating a workspace on the server could require a user to provide their Microsoft Active Directory® credentials.

To catch more details, view the recording of Don & Dale’s presentation by visiting: www.fmeuc.com/CofoundersDay2.

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2009 FME International User ConferenceThis year’s FME International User Conference was held in Whistler, Canada on June 11-12. We could try to summarize the conference ourselves, but decided to let our attendees do it for us by sharing some of the feedback we received.

Training & Events UpdateAustralian FME User Meeting

Discover more about FME and network with other FME users in Sydney, Australia on October 19th in an event co-hosted by Safe Software and partner Lagen Spatial. For more details, visit www.safe.com/UserGroups.

Upcoming FME Training Courses

Check out the training calendar to register for FME training near you in 2009. Choose from over 30 courses, scheduled in Chicago, Atlanta, Edmonton and more. For complete listings, visit www.safe.com/TrainingCalendar.

“The hands-on workshops were very helpful and I’ll use the manuals again and again.” This year’s conference offered over 10 hands-on workshops, including “Maps for the Masses” and “Advanced FME Workflows”. Now everyone can access informative workshops (6) by downloading sample data and manuals from www.fmeuc.com/Workshops.

“This is a great experience, and I love being part of the FME community.” A major reason why people attend the FME User Conference is to network with other FME enthusiasts. Each conference provides plenty of opportunities to interact with others, such as the birds of a feather networking lunches and an evening social event. This year’s

evening event was a HUGE hit as attendees were whisked away on private gondolas up Whistler Mountain and treated to a spectacular sunset dinner. (7)

Re-live the FME User Conference! Watch full-length videos of the plenary and technical sessions at www.fmeuc.com/Videos.

“This Don and Dale show is the best one yet!” Conference attendees regularly comment on the passion and enthusiasm of Safe co-founders Don Murray and Dale Lutz (1) who are intimately involved in every FME User Conference. Each conference provides opportunities to interact with a wide range of Safers – you never know who you might bump into! (2)

“Enjoyed the fun and novel ways you presented things and engaged with participants.” Participants found the FME User Conference to have a good balance of information and excitement, with fun activities like FME Idol and FMEopardy (3) complimenting the technical sessions, lightning talks and presentations from Don and Dale and keynote speaker James Fee. (4)

“The FME Doctors were very helpful.” Our FME Doctor’s Office (5) was busier than ever as users had the opportunity to directly engage with Safe’s technical experts for help with their most challenging data problems.

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FME is a registered trademark of Safe Software Inc. All other product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Printed in Canada.

Web: www.safe.comEmail: info@safe.com

Suite 2017, 7445 - 132nd StreetSurrey, British Columbia Canada

Tel: 604-501-9985Fax: 604-501-9965

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About Safe SoftwareSafe Software powers the flow of spatial data with its software platform, FME. The recognized standard in spatial ETL (extract, transform and load), FME is the only complete solution for data conversion. It delivers the most extensive format support for data translation and integration, and provides unlimited flexibility in data model transformation and data distribution.

FME is used by thousands of customers worldwide in a variety of industries including government, utilities, and petroleum. Its powerful data access technology also makes FME the choice of leading GIS, CAD, and database vendors for integration into their own solutions. Designed for true data interoperability, FME unleashes spatial data so people can use it where, when, and how they want to. For more information, visit www.safe.com.

What is your role here at Safe? As a software developer, I focus on adding and refining support for vector formats within FME. I also enjoy working with Google Earth and am involved in some of our KML initiatives.

Please tell us about something interesting you’ve been working on. Expanding FME’s support for metadata has been a focus of mine this year. Using our XQuery transformers, users can now read and manipulate metadata, regardless of whether FME has a reader or writer for that specific metadata format.

We’ve heard that you’ve been on some incredible adventures. Yes, my favorite was a trip to South Korea. I have a black belt in taekwondo and had the exciting opportunity to connect with other competitors in an international taekwondo competition.

Do you have any other hobbies? I enjoy PC gaming, with Team Fortress® being my favorite game. My five-year old son John shares my passion, playing

children’s PC games; maybe my two-year old daughter Ana will join us in a few years.

Employee Profile Tom Weir:Joined Safe Software in August 2002

Excellence Recognized at FME User ConferenceSafe was pleased to recognize outstanding achievements at the recent FME International User Conference. Three individuals attained status as FME Certified Trainers: Ulf Mänsson of Sweco, Mitchell Oake of Lagen Spatial, and Christian Dahmen of con terra. This accreditation validates their ability to teach FME training courses that meet Safe’s standards. Clayton Wise of Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) was also recognized, receiving designation as an FME Certified Professional for demonstrating an advanced level of FME expertise.

For the second straight year, con terra (top left) was presented with the Reseller of the Year Award for their outstanding performance as the top performing reseller of 2008. Collecting this year’s Special Achievement Award was Veremes (bottom left) which was honored for their impressive growth and FME focus.

To find out how you can become an FME Certified Trainer or Professional, visit www.safe.com/Certification.Safe in the News

Our development team has been working hard to expand FME’s support for 3D data and people are really starting to pay attention. Learn more about how FME can help you in your 3D initiatives – such as transforming 2D data into 3D – by reading coverage from LIDAR News, Vector1Media, GISCafe and more. Visit www.safe.com/PressRoom.