The Orange County Web-Based Public Records Retrieval and Viewing System Upgrade

By August 2001, MRF successfully completed two phases of The Orange County Web-Based Records Retrieval and Viewing System project. In phase one of the project, MRF successfully developed the web-based records retrieval and viewing system based on GeoMedia Web Map, and scanned, geroreferenced, and loaded the records for the pilot area. In phase two of the project, MRF scanned and georeferenced all 266,000 public records and linked each set of resulting TIF images to a geographic location within the County’s vector GIS land base (MGE/MGDM). Now the system is running on the County’s Intranet.

County employees can now search, query, and retrieve public records (TIF images) and vector GIS data using a standard web browser with the appropriate plug-in. In the browser, users can simply draw a polygon on top of the vector land base display, and the system will report and provide links to the scanned images of all requested records that fall inside the polygon. The following is a screenshot of the system that displays a georeferenced record image underneath the vector base map:

The functionality offered by this system has greatly improved the efficiency of the County’s record users. However, upon the completion of the phase one of the project, Orange County found that the system response time was not satisfactory. MRF decided to develop its own map server to solve the problem. In 2001, MRF successfully developed its state-of-the-art SVG Map Server. MRF then demonstrated the new technology to the County with all the functionality the existing system has and the County has decided to go forward to upgrade its system to MRF SVG Map Server.

Major tasks for the upgrade project include:

• Upgrade the existing public record retrieval and viewing system to MRF SVG Map Server
• Develop an on-line payment sub-system to accept credit cards and other payments methods, and integrate it with the MRF SVG Map Server.
• To enhance the system so that it can run efficiently over the Internet.

Tests have shown that MRF SVG Map Serve can deliver a 2 second response time for the Intranet and a 6 second response time for the Internet with a 56K connection.

The following is a screenshot of the system based on the MRF SVG Map Server: