Pitney Bowes MapXtreme - Manual (Page 486)

Appendix C: Understanding the MapInfo Workspace
What is the MapInfo Workspace?
MapXtreme v7.1 493 Developer Guide
What is the MapInfo Workspace?
Using MapXtreme, you can persist the maps you create as XML-based workspaces (with an .MWS
extension) that are portable and interoperable. You will then be able to share these maps with
anyone else using MapInfo products regardless of their working environment.
If you are familiar with MapXtreme Java, MapX, or MapInfo Professional, you know that currently
users persist maps using different file formats:
• MapXtreme Java maps are saved as Map Definition Files (.MDF files)
• MapX maps are saved as geosets (.GST files)
• MapInfo Professional maps are saved as workspaces (.WOR and .MWS files)
These files have been the way for users of individual MapInfo products to share maps. MapInfo
Professional workspaces can also contain settings for browser and layout windows, graphs,
legends, and sometimes even printer settings.
The MapInfo Workspace format supports the creation of named resources for easier access and
portability to connections, map definitions, map layers, data source definitions and styles. The main
workspace schema is called MXP_Workspace_1_5.xsd. It is located on the product media. Other
supporting schemas include MXP_MapDefinition_1_5.xsd for map definitions and
MXP_NamedReources_1_5.xsd for named layers, connections, data source definitions and styles.
Our XML documents use textual identifiers and, where possible, we have used identifiers defined by
XML standards organizations. However, XML, being eXtensible, allows for identifiers to be added by
any document author to clarify the meaning of the data used in the document. To ensure that these
identifiers are clearly labeled as defined by Pitney Bowes Software, we specify them in what we call
the MapInfo Codespace. To review the MapInfo Codespace identifiers, see
Appendix G: Defining
the MapInfo Codespace .
For more information about creating workspaces and about using the Workspace Manager, see
Chapter 23: Workspace Manager .
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You cannot use .WOR workspaces created in MapInfo Professional with MapXtreme.
MapXtreme can read MapX geosets.
Structure of a Workspace
To give you a sense of the structure of a workspace, let’s look at a workspace and the XML code
behind it. We will be looking at the World.MWS workspace, which is in the Sample directory of your
MapXtreme installation. Here, we describe four of the five types of data in the workspace.
1. The Header contains the basic file information including the version type and the creation date.
2. The Connection Section defines the database, file and WMS connections that are contained in
the workspace. This is where the named connection information is stored.
3. The DataSourceDefinition Section lists the definitions of the data and where it is located. If you
have named data source definitions, they would be included here.