What's New in District Online (Release 3.2)

Since our last revision of District Online in March we've been working hard to bring our users some more functionality.

Without waffling on I'll get straight down to what we've done;

The first thing that is very important to the day-to-day use of District Online is increasing the frequency of our NLPG updates. We now update these on a weekly basis. Our updates are received from GeoPlace LLP on a Monday so that's the day the database gets updated. This keeps District Online users more in tune with the LLPG datasets that may be used locally.

To complement the weekly updates for NLPG, we've also included some new functionality in the NLPG Search tool. Users can now search by UPRN (Unique Property Reference Number) and USRN (Unique Street Reference Number). This should make District Online a lot easier to use in planning departments, for example.

The NLPG tool also has a new feature that allows you to include historic addresses. So now, by default only the current addresses will show and you have to tick a box to have the historic addresses included.

You'll also notice that the NLPG points now appear at 1:2500 without labels instead of 1:1250 scale. This is something that was requested by one of our customers. We thought it was a great idea so have applied it to all our Web GIS accounts.

The next new feature is in the Print tool. We've included an 'output to PNG' option which means users can embed mapping in other documents more easily than with just the PDF output. A PNG file is the same as a JPG image file and is supported by many pieces of software, such as Microsft Word, PowerPoint or Paint. You'll notice that the PNG export doesn't include a border which means you won't need to crop the image to make it fit and look right in other documents.

The final new feature in this update is the Circle tool in the Scratchpad. This allows you to create a circular polygon around a point on the map. You can specify the size of the circle in metres. Circle objects created with this tool work in exactly the same was as other objects, so you'll be able to use it with the Data Extraction Tool to export text information from other layers. I may have gone a bit overboard with this new feature in the image above!

Well, that's all for now! We're already working on our 3.3 release and i'll be sure to keep you informed with other news and info from the Web GIS team soon!

Winchester City Council releases Planning Maps website powered by Getmapping

Winchester City Council have today launched a new webpage that gives residents 24/7 access to an online tool to create high-quality planning maps.

This new service allows residents and businesses to create map extracts to accompany planning and building control applications. The service is based on Ordnance Survey MasterMap and Getmapping's highly detailed national aerial photography coverage.

This new site has major advantages for the residents of Winchester City Council as they now have a trusted online resource to buy their maps direct from the website without needing to make trips to the Council offices. Of course, residents can still visit the offices and use their suite of computers to produce their planning application map on the web.

This new services also has benefits for the Council itself. Enquires by email, phone or in-person regarding planning application maps can now be referred to this website for a quick and easy way to produce high-quality, consistent maps. This makes the drop-in centre more efficient and thus offers a better service to their public.

To access the new site, click on this link; Winchester City Council: Online Planning Maps and click on the link at the bottom of the page.

Getmapping can create online planning map services for Local Authorities at no cost and in a very short time. The Winchester City Council site was live within a week. For more information, contact myself (Chris Mewse) on email or twitter (CMewseGM).