The Mapping OSID provides a means for managing inventories of places and performing a variety of mapping operations.

Locations

One aspect of the Mapping OSID provides references to location places used in other OSIDs. A Location may include a spatial coordinate or defined boundary described in a SpatialUnit. Additional sessions provide a means to easily look up locations by Coordinate or arbitrary SpatialUnit as well as to traverse locations through lookups of adjacent Locations.

Locations may be structured in hierarchies to convey hierarchical relationships. A room may be located inside a building, within a city within a state.

Primitives

The data interfaces for Coordinates and SpatialUnits are defined through their respective Types to allow for any kind of coordinate or spatial system. A definition for distance resolution is also provided to capture an extremely wide array of unit values. Distance, Coordinate, Heading, and SpatialUnit appear to the OSID as complex primitive interfaces which are constructed by the consumer in order to fulfill the interface contracts. It is required that the consumer and provider agree on the coordinate domain and spatial unit types through testing of the Type support.

Resource Tracking

Resources may be tracked spatially. Sessions are available to query and place Resources at specific Locations and Coordinates, and receive notifications to changes in their locations.

Map Cataloging

Locations may be organuzed in hierarchical Maps that offer a means of federation or layering of map data.

Sub Packages

The Mapping OSID includes a Mapping Route OSID for creating and navigating Routes, a Mapping Path OSID for querying and designing physical Paths and a Mapping Batch OSID for managing locations in bulk.