State saver/restorer for a geospatial decision management system

Abstract

A geospatial decision management system (GDMS) can save the overall state of a user's experience at one point in time within a GDMS session so that the user can restore the overall state at a later time, such as by restoring a geospatial browser view (e.g., camera settings for rending the map on the display screen, layer state information, map location) and restoring the states of one or more instances of geospatially-referenced tools that were active at the time of the state save. Upon restore, the browser and tools are initialized with their saved states so that the user is presented with the same functionality, data, and browser view that were displayed and accessible at the time of the state save. Saved states are transportable and can also be sequenced and animated to allow presentation of a slide show of individual GDMS views.

1 . A method comprising:
 generating a browser view state data structure associated with a geospatial browser, the browser view state data structure referencing a first location within a common coordinate system, wherein the first location specifies at least one aspect of a view presented on an output device by the geospatial browser;   generating a tool state data structure for at least one geospatially-referenced tool, wherein the tool state data structure references a second location within the common coordinate system, wherein the second location constrains a set of data upon which the geospatially-referenced tool operates;   saving the browser view state data structure and the tool state data to one or more persistent storage media.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the second location defines a point in the common coordinate system defining a geography and the set of data upon which the geospatially-referenced tool operates pertains to the point in the geography. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the second location defines a region in the common coordinate system defining a geography and the set of data upon which the geospatially-referenced tool operates pertains to the region in the geography. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the browser view state data structure specifies one or more camera settings used to render the view presented on the output device by the geospatial browser. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the browser view state data structure specifies one or more layers that represent data overlaid on the common coordinate system. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the tool state data structure references one or more pointers to live data upon which the geospatially-referenced tool was operating when the tool state data structure was generated. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the tool state data structure references a set of static data upon which the geospatially-referenced tool was operating when the tool state data structure was generated. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the browser view state data structure references one or more pointers to live data pertaining to the first location. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the browser view state data structure references static data pertaining to the first location. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the browser view state data structure saves data connection information for opening a data connection to at least one source storing data pertaining to the first location. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the tool state data structure stores data connection information for opening a data connection to at least one source storing the set of data upon which the geospatially-referenced tool operates. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein access by a user to data pertaining to the first location is access controlled by one or more permissions granted to the user. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein access by a user to the set of data upon which the geospatially-referenced tool operates is access controlled by one or more permissions granted to the user. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 exporting the browser view state data structure and the tool state data structure to a transportable data store.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising:
 transferring the transportable data store to a user for use in restoring a geospatial decision management view.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 granting authorization to a user to restore the browser view state data structure and the tool state data structure.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the saved browser view state data structure and the saved tool state data structure comprise a bookmark and the method further comprises:
 animating to the bookmark for presentation on an output device.   
     
     
         18 . A computer readable storage medium having computer executable instructions for executing a computer process, the computer process comprising:
 generating a browser view state data structure associated with a geospatial browser, the browser view state data structure referencing a first location within a common coordinate system, wherein the first location specifies at least one aspect of a view presented on an output device by the geospatial browser;   generating a tool state data structure for at least one geospatially-referenced tool, wherein the tool state data structure references a second location within the common coordinate system, wherein the second location constrains a set of data upon which the geospatially-referenced tool operates;   saving the browser view state data structure and the tool state data structure to one or more persistent storage media.   
     
     
         19 . The computer readable storage medium of  claim 18 , wherein the second location defines a point in the common coordinate system defining a geography and the set of data upon which the geospatially-referenced tool operates pertains to the point in the geography. 
     
     
         20 . The computer readable storage medium of  claim 18 , wherein the second location defines a region in the common coordinate system defining a geography and the set of data upon which the geospatially-referenced tool operates pertains to the region in the geography. 
     
     
         21 . The computer readable storage medium of  claim 18 , wherein the saved browser view state data structure and the saved tool state data structure comprise a bookmark, and the computer process further comprises:
 animating to the bookmark for presentation on an output device.   
     
     
         22 . A method comprising:
 reading from one or more persistent storage media a browser view state data structure associated with a geospatial browser, the browser view state data structure referencing a first location within a common coordinate system, wherein the first location specifies at least one aspect of a browser view to be presented by the geospatial browser;   executing the geospatial browser to present the view in accordance with the first location;   reading from the one or more persistent storage media a tool state data structure for at least one geospatially-referenced tool, wherein the tool state data structure references a second location within the common coordinate system, wherein the second location constrains a set of data upon which the geospatially-referenced tool operates;   executing the geospatially-referenced tool to operate upon data associated with the second location;   presenting on an output device the browser view based on the first location and a user interface of the geospatially-referenced tool based on the second location.   
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the second location defines a point in the common coordinate system defining a geography and the set of data upon which the geospatially-referenced tool operates pertains to the point in the geography. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the second location defines a region in the common coordinate system defining a geography and the set of data upon which the geospatially-referenced tool operates pertains to the region in the geography. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the browser view state data structure specifies one or more camera settings used to render the view presented on the output device by the geospatial browser. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the browser view state data structure specifies one or more layers that represent data overlaid on the common coordinate system. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the tool state data structure references one or more pointers to live data upon which the geospatially-referenced tool was operating when the tool state data was generated. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the tool state data structure references a set of static data upon which the geospatially-referenced tool was operating when the tool state data structure was generated. 
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the browser view state data structure references one or more pointers to live data pertaining to the first location. 
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the browser view state data structure references static data pertaining to the first location. 
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the browser view state data structure stores data connection information and the method further comprises:
 opening based on the data connection information a data connection to at least one source storing data pertaining to the first location.   
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the tool state data structure stores data connection information and the method further comprises:
 opening based on the data connection information a data connection to at least one source storing the set of data upon which the geospatially-referenced tool operates.   
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein access by a user to data pertaining to the first location is access controlled by one or more permissions granted to the user. 
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein access by a user to the set of data upon which the geospatially-referenced tool operates is access controlled by one or more permissions granted to the user. 
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 22 , further comprising:
 importing from a transportable data store to the one or more persistent storage media the browser view state data structure and the tool state data structure from a transportable data store.   
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 22 , further comprising:
 receiving a transportable data store for use in restoring a geospatial decision management view, the transportable data store comprising the browser view state data structure and the tool state data structure.   
     
     
         37 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the saved browser view state data structure and the saved tool state data structure comprise a bookmark, and the method further comprises:
 animating to the bookmark for presentation on an output device.   
     
     
         38 . A computer readable storage medium having computer executable instructions for executing a computer process, the computer process comprising:
 reading from one or more persistent storage media a browser view state data structure associated with a geospatial browser, the browser view state data structure referencing a first location within a common coordinate system, wherein the first location specifies at least one aspect of a browser view to be presented by the geospatial browser;   executing the geospatial browser to present the view in accordance with the first location;   reading from the one or more persistent storage media a tool state data structure for at least one geospatially-referenced tool, wherein the tool state data structure references a second location within the common coordinate system, wherein the second location constrains a set of data upon which the geospatially-referenced tool operates;   executing the geospatially-referenced tool to operate upon data associated with the second location;   presenting on an output device the browser view based on the first location and a user interface of the geospatially-referenced tool based on the second location.   
     
     
         39 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 38 , wherein the saved browser view state data structure and the saved tool state data structure comprise a bookmark, and the computer process further comprises:
 animating to the bookmark for presentation on an output device.