Towards OGC API - Features Centric GIS Applications Controlled by Object Relational Mapping

Most common GIS applications are composed of a spatially enabled database and a desktop client directly connected to it. In this configuration the business logic is often found either in the client application with custom plugins or in the database where many triggers are defined. When it comes to web GIS applications, a cartographic server is added in between the database and a web client. In this paper, we present an alternative setup where the data-model and the business logic are both defined in Python programming language using the Django web framework ORM. Both desktop and web clients exchange data through OGC services. In addition, the business logic is implemented in a middleware in a Django application. While mitigating the issues we face in standard PostGIS-based solutions, the Django ecosystem also comes with powerful tools offering interesting perspectives for such applications.