Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 8: MapWindow GIS Interface
To find out more, visit the project home page at
mapwindow4.codeplex.com
or
GeoKettle
One more application that deserves mention is GeoKettle. While this is not a desktop GIS
application in the same sense as the others, it's just as important.
GeoKettle is an ETL tool. Its primary purpose is to transform and then load data between
many formats and many types of database. Originating from a package called Pentaho data
suite, GeoKettle was enhanced to support industry-standard shapefiles, KML files, and the
spatial characteristics of all the previously mentioned databases.
A shining example of how well done a simple-to-use open source application can be is my
experience seeing many people replace highly priced applications such as Safe FME with
solutions based on GeoKettle.
Written in Java, it has a plug-in architecture that is very easy to extend, making it easy to
work with future file formats and databases. It can handle normal data in databases and files
too, not just geospatial data. If you've ever used Microsoft Business Intelligence
Development Studio, you'll feel right at home using GeoKettle as you'll notice in the following
screenshot:
