This Tutorial describes how to use the GEON Portal. You may enter the portal by clicking on the Portal tab above. If you are a new user, click on the “Request an Account” link on the portal page to obtain a GEON portal account. For users who are interested in exploring the portal without actually obtaining an account, you may use the “Guest Login” option. Some functions within the portal will be restricted if you are a guest.

Once you enter the portal, you will see the following information:

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1. How to search resources using GEON Basic Search?

  • Click on the “Search” tab.
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  • Click on the sub-tab “Basic Search”.
  • Type one or more search terms (the words or phrase that best describe the information you want to find) into the search box.
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  • Optionally change the selected categories by clicking on the checkboxes. The resources in GEON are automatically classified into four categories:
    • Data: shapefiles, image files, databases, text files, spread sheets, etc;
    • Tools: software;
    • Services: web services and WMS services.
    • Ontologies: owl files.
    By default all the four categories are selected
  • Click on the Search button.↑ back to top

2. How to search resources using GEON Advanced Search?

  • Click on the “Search” tab.
  • Click on the sub-tab “Advanced Search”.
  • Optionally type one or more search terms into the keyword box.
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    By default, the GEON search engine tries to find these terms in the titles, keywords and descriptions of all resources. You can choose to search only titles or keywords or descriptions and any combination of these by clicking on the checkboxes under the keyword box.
  • Optionally choose the data types by checking the checkboxes next to the data types you are interested. By default, the GEON searches all the data types.
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  • Optionally specify a spatial coverage by one of the following methods:
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    • Draw a rectangle on the Google Maps: First click on the dark blue button in the left bottom side of the Google Maps; and then use the mouse to draw a rectangle on the map.
    • Give latitudes/longitudes: Type the maximum/minimum of the latitudes and longitudes of the bounding box in the text fields under the Google Maps, and click the button “Locate”, and then a bounding box will be drawn on the Google Maps.
    • Input a place name: First type a place name (e.g., Colorado) into the text field at the right hand side under the Google Maps and click the button “Find it”. The system will connect to a Gazetteer to find a bounding box for you. In many cases, the system will return you a list of place names to let you choose. For example, the system may return you three places with the same name “Colorado”.
  • Optionally specify a temporal coverage by one of the following method
    • A present time interval: Clicking on the radio button “present”, and then click on the calendar icons to set the starting time and the end time.
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    • A geologic time interval: This can be specified by a name of geologic time or an explicit time from some millions year ago to some other millions year ago.

      To use a name of geologic time, first click on the radio button “geologic time” to show a pull down list of all geologic ages. Then choose the geologic age you are interested.
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      To use explicit time, click on the radio button “geologic time” to show a pull down list of all geologic ages and select “Explicit Time Period”, then type in two numbers.
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  • Click on the Search button.↑ back to top

3. How to use the resources in the search results?

  • For each listed resource, the system show its title, format, spatial coverage if it has, description and author. At the same time several buttons are associated with each item.
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    • View All Metadata: let you view the complete metadata associated with the item;
    • Add to My Workbench: bookmark this item to myWorkbench so that you can find and use it directly without making any search.
    • View Map: display a map if the resource is a shapefile or WMS service.
    • Download: download the resource if it is a single file or a zip file if it contains multiple files.
    • View Details: show the schema information and query interface if it is a relation database.
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4. How to contribute resources into GEON?

  • GEON welcome you to contribute resources into the system. Sharing is fun and maximizes the value of your resources. Clicking on the top level tab “Contribute” will bring up the resource registration interface.
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  • If you are first time to register a resource to the GEON portal, you may see a button for requesting to be a contributor at this step. Just click on the button and wait for GEON manager to approve it.
  • If you are already a contributor, you can choose a resource type from the following pull down list which contains all the resource types current GEON supports.
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  • The following information is required for registering any type resources into the system:
    • Title: Each resource must have a title. A good title can help users quickly understand what the resource is.
    • Subjects: One or several subjects must be selected from a list.
    • Keywords: Associate some keywords to the resource for the GEON search.
    • Permission: Choose the public permission or the private permission. A resource registered with the public permission will be visible to all the users of GEON portal, and a resource with the private permission is only visible to its provider.
    • Description: A brief description of each resource is required by the registration system to help users to better understand the resource. It is also used by GEON search engine to find search terms.
    • Contributor: Resource contributors’ information is needed to register a resource. The contributor can be persons or organizations. First name, last name, role, organization name and email must be specified for each personal contributor. The organization name is required for an organization contributor.
  • Optionally you can provide a spatial and temporal coverage for your resource. Simply type the maximum and minimum attitudes and longitudes of the area the Resource covers. You don’t need to declare the spatial coverage when register a spatial dataset. The system can automatically calculate it.
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  • Optionally specify a temporal coverage: A temporal coverage could be a present time interval or a geologic time interval.
  • Click on the submit button↑ back to top

5. How to modify the metadata of submitted resources?

  • Click on the top level tab “myWorkbench”.
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  • All the resources submitted by you are categorized based on their types under the submenu “My Submitted Resources”.
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  • Each item is associated with an “Update Metadata” button. Clicking it will display a form filled with the current metadata. You can change the title, subjects, keywords, description, contributors, special coverage and temporal coverage. If the resource is private, then you can change it to be public. But you can not change a public resource to private.
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6. How to create integrated maps from shapefiles on the GEON portal?

  • The shapefiles saved in myWorkbench can be integrated using the Integration Cart. The Integration Cart is similar to the shopping cart in Amazon.com. You drop shapefiles into the Integration Cart, one thing you can do with the Integration Cart is to have an integrated map based on all the resources in the integration cart. The following are all the steps to create an integrated map by combining the shapefiles of Arizona Geology Map and Colorado Geology Map. We assume two shapefiles are already saved in myWorkbench.
    • Step 1: Put Arizona Geology Map into the Integration Cart.
      • Click on the link “Shapefile” under the submenu “My Selected Resources” and find the shapefile “Arizona Geology Map”.
      • Click the button “Select”.
    • Step 2: Put Arizona Geology Map into the Integration Cart.
      • Click on the lick “Shapefile” under the submenu “My Selected Resources” and find the shapefile “Colorado Geology Map”.
      • Click the button “Select”.
    • Step 3: Create an integrated map:
      • Click on the link “Integration Cart” under the submenu “My Integrated Resources”. The figure below shows the result:
      • Give a name to the integrated map and a brief description, and then click the button “Create Map”.
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    • Step 4: View the integrated map:
      • Click on the link “Map” under the sub menu “My Integrated Resources”, and find the created item:
      • Click on the first icon at the right hand side.
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