Geoportal Server

Background
Esri Geoportal Server allows user to catalog the locations and descriptions of the organization's geospatial resources in a central repository called a geoportal, which user can publish to the Internet or the intranet. Visitors to the geoportal can search and access these resources to use with their projects. If user grants permission, visitors can also register geospatial resources with the geoportal. Geoportals give user an enterprise-level view of the geospatial resources regardless of their type or location. Resources are registered with a geoportal using metadata, which describes the location, age, quality, and other characteristics of the resources. With access to this information about resources, an organization can make decisions based on the best resources available.

History
The Geoportal Server started off in 2003 as the GIS Portal Toolkit. Built around the ArcIMS Metadata technology it provided a basis for several portals around the world (most notably, the United States Geospatial One-Stop portal).

As the catalogs grew in size (beyond 10,000 items) the limits of the metadata server technology were noticed and the GIS Portal Toolkit started to implement one of the most popular indexing technologies: Apache Lucene.

Around the same time, the product switched from relying on ArcIMS services to working with ArcGIS Server. It became the ArcGIS Server Geoportal Extension.

In 2010 the step was made to make the product open source as the Geoportal Server.

The step, while significant, was a natural progression especially given that the source code of the product had always been available to users upon request, since the days of GIS Portal Toolkit.

What's New in Geoportal Server
Geoportal Server latest version 1.2.4 enhances features and improvements such as system environment, user management, map viewer, Portal for ArcGIS Integration and also fixes known issues from bugs.

Features
With the Geoportal Server user can:


 * Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of geospatial activities within the enterprise and through organizations.


 * Support collaboration and cooperation among departments and organizations by facilitating the sharing of geospatial resources regardless of the GIS platform.


 * Increase an enterprise-level awareness of disparate geospatial data, Web services, and activities.


 * Leverage existing geospatial resources therefore the organization does not duplicate those resources or the effort to create them.


 * Ensure the use of approved, high-quality datasets.


 * Reduce the time users spend trying to find relevant, usable geospatial resources.