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Converting from GeoFrameworks to Manifold

With the August, 2009, demise of GeoFrameworks many former GeoFrameworks customers have contacted manifold.net to ask about converting from GIS.NET, GPS.NET and Geodesy.NET to Manifold in their applications. This page provides provides information for any customer considering such a transition.

Overview

GIS.NET was an objects library developers could use to write applications aimed at mobile devices. Geodesy.NET was a coordinate transformation library. GPS.NET was a GPS software component. Manifold is a highly integrated, full-featured GIS package that also provides a very rich API which can be used to create applications like those created with GeoFrameworks products. Manifold also includes a full Internet Map Server (IMS) capability to GIS-enable web applications. However, there are important differences in the licensing and software approaches taken by the different companies that must be considered in any transition.

A major difference is the approach to mobile devices. GIS.NET was aimed at running within mobile devices and also at facilitating use of such mobile devices with web applications. Manifold's approach to mobile devices in many respects is simpler and can be summed up in two key strategies:

Transitioning an Application

Transitioning a GIS.NET application into a Manifold application will usually take one of two paths: the first path, the preferred strategy for mobile devices is to re-write the application as a server-side application using Manifold IMS so the mobile device connects via wireless web to browse the application. That's preferred because it makes the cost of GIS effectively zero and it gives the application developer real-time control over the application and the data it uses.

The second path may or may not be possible for you: if your mobile device can't connect via the web you can create your application as a local application. That means your mobile device will run one of the real Windows desktop editions (such as XP, Windows 7, Vista, etc.) with at least a Manifold runtime license installed on the device so you can use the Manifold API when you create your application. This is a higher cost path because you must have at least the cost of a Manifold runtime for each device. However, you get the power of local, very powerful execution that can take advantage of the increasing processing power, local memory and local disk now available on highly mobile devices.

A third possibility is to utilize Manifold server-side while writing custom applications for the mobile device which interact with Manifold. A classic example would be a forms application running locally on the mobile device that acquires data into a local mobile DBMS which then does DBMS replication / synchronization with the main DBMS when the mobile device can establish contact, either back in the office or through wireless networking. This approach can provide low cost per mobile device but it often requires greater software development expertise for whatever custom client runs on the mobile device.

Any of the above paths start by acquiring a Manifold license and learning Manifold as any user would to become acquainted with Manifold nomenclature and facilities. Programmers can then dive into the object model with confidence to start building their own IMS or local applications.

Licensing

The most common GeoFrameworks product license plan appears to have been a substantial initial fee, several thousand dollars, with no royalties for products created using the licensed objects library. This made initial buy-in costs high but subsequent usage costs low. Manifold takes a different approach, with a per-unit license fee required for licenses; however, the use of either IMS applications or discounted runtime licenses can make the cost per unit very low while retaining a very low initial buy-in cost.

For a complete list of Manifold products and prices, see the Products page. Manifold System products come in two forms:

There are two runtime license options: Professional x64 at $100 and Universal x64 at $225. Both may work in either 32-bit or 64-bit environments. Both allow quantity discounts. The Professional runtime has all features in the Professional license except the desktop GUI. The Universal runtime has all features of a Universal license except the desktop GUI.

All Manifold System editions include the ability to use the API. There is no separate "objects library" product. Simply install a Manifold license and you can run Manifold interactively to learn the system and you can also start coding using the API. Lower-priced Runtime licenses make it cost effective to deploy your applications.

A typical development effort will acquire a full license for each engineer working in software development. The license used will usually be an Enterprise license with one or more extensions or simply a Universal license. For deployment, depending upon the application's requirements, either a Professional runtime or a Universal runtime license will be used. Web applications will almost invariably use a Universal runtime on the web server since only one license is required and the cost difference is insignificant.

Financials

Getting started with Manifold will require the acquisition of at least one license, such as an Enterprise x64 license at $445 to learn the product well enough to plan a transition.

After that, if you can create your application as a web application, plan on $225 per web server to deploy a Universal x64 runtime license to each web server. Since modern machines can handle vast numbers of visitors to a web application, a handful of web servers or even a single machine are usually enough even for nationwide applications. Yes, Manifold on a web server really is only $225 for the Universal Runtime no matter how many web applications that webserver hosts and no matter many people visit your site and use those web applications.

If you must create your application as a local application running on some mobile computer, you'll need at least a Professional runtime on each such computer. Buying licenses in quantity 100 can get 50% off for a cost of $50 per machine.

Some users of GeoFramework products might think, "It was nice not to have to pay any per unit royalties." That's certainly true, but the up-front cost of over $3000 was a significant hit, representing 60 licenses of Professional Runtime at the usual quantity 100 discount. The usual calculation is that if an application is so meaty that it requires a full Manifold API on the computer it should sell for so much per unit that the cost of the discounted Professional runtime should not be a factor. On the other hand, if the application is so lightweight that you can't sell it for very much to your customers, that's a sign that it should be implemented as a web application and thus drive your cost of GIS to zero.

It's true there are applications which fall in between, but to an increasing extent those applications are being squeezed out of an economically viable niche by web applications from below and full-power GIS applications from above. That's ultimately what might have doomed GeoFramework - don't let it happen to you.

Thrive with Manifold

Manifold arose from the "Wintel" tradition of leveraging vast economies of scale made possible by truly mass market desktop hardware and software. By taking advantage of established standards used by hundreds of millions of computers and selling worldwide through Internet, even relatively niche software markets like GIS can achieve huge economy of scale.

That strategy has allowed Manifold to grow at the rate of many hundreds of improvements per year, growing in less than ten years from an impressively powerful but highly limited GIS-like tool into the world's most sophisticated, most highly integrated GIS that provides the greatest breadth and depth of features ever seen in a general purpose GIS package.

Manifold now provides a wide range of powerful features not available in any other GIS package, from complete 64-bit operation to supercomputer performance via GPGPU to native connections to the world's premium spatial DBMS and phenomenally powerful and sophisticated IMS capabilities using HTML, WMS, WFS-T, tiled image servers and other advanced capabilities, all for a price that is a fraction of old-fashioned GIS software.

10 Day Money Back Guarantee

See for yourself the incredible power and modern conveniences of Manifold: Manifold Personal Edition, Professional Edition and Enterprise Edition as well as the Geocoding Tools extension are sold with a money-back guarantee for 10 days from the date of purchase. Other product configurations are not refundable, so please choose from those listed products for a no-risk look at Manifold. See the Returns and Refunds page for details. Order Manifold today and download tomorrow with no risk!

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Questions?

Please contact us at sales@manifold.net. We would like you to be happy with your licensing of Manifold products, so please do not hesitate to ask any questions before placing an order.