Field Work: Map-centric Mobile Apps with Cloudant Geo and LeafletJS

Managing geospatial data has long been owned by relational database technology, but with recent advances in spatial indexing support in NoSQL databases, building spatially-aware apps with non-relational technologies is fast, performant and scalable.

In this session we introduce spatial functionality in Apache Lucene and IBM Cloudant. Cloudant Geo supports Lucene spatial search as well as a more advanced geospatial search and indexing capability using GeoJSON documents, which allows for more types of spatial objects along with spatio-temporal indexing and query.

To illustrate the powerful capabilities of the geospatial platform, we'll demonstrate a sample application called Field Work. This is a pure Javascript/HTML5 mobile app for utilities maintenance people to do remote work - using the GeoJSON format to update the spatial layout of infrastructure such as pipes or meters, and even creating work orders - whether online or offline.

Raj is a developer advocate for IBM Cloud Data Services -- the most complete, integrated portfolio of data, content and analysis services ever delivered via the cloud. He pioneered Web mapping-as-a-service in the late 1990s with Syncline, a startup he co-founded. After that he finished his PhD at MIT, which explored the potential of web services to power urban information systems. Prior to joining Cloudant in 2014, Raj work on geospatial data interoperability challenges for the Open Geospatial Consortium, an international standards body. He's a frequent speaker on interoperability and geo-location services, and contributed to O'Reilly's 2005 book, "Mapping Hacks."