2015 in retrospect

2015 in retrospect

The new year is upon us and it is time for me to look back on the passing year.
About this time, a year ago, I published a post on my top 3 of FME 2014, this time I have something totally different in mind.

FME Cloud

For me the past year was without a doubt a FME Cloud year.
This all started with me trying out FME Cloud, after my curiosity about FME Cloud got the better of me. I wondered what I could do with FME Cloud.

One of the many great things of FME Cloud (and Safe Software) is that you get some 'playing around' credits to test it without any need to invest your own capital.

Did you fill in the FME Server questionnaire last year? and this year? well I did and guess what?
I got even more credit to play around with FME Cloud......that was just awesome!


I soon found out that having my own FME Cloud instance made me a power player.
Having all of the transformation powers of FME Server at my fingertips and not even have to pay for it! I couldn't believe my luck.

I realized that I need a good product to be able to make a dent in the over monopolized dutch GIS sector.
That's when I came up with the idea of a self serve data transformation, which also was my first contribution the the FMEWT.

Not that self serve data transformation is something new for FME Server, but what was new about it was (and still is) is the data transformed (BGT).

Up until today there is no such service available for the BGT and even the big guns of the GIS sector are still struggling with how to service the data to its customers.
The transformation trigger for this product is an email with a link in it, quite simple and easy.

Self Serve

Self serve BGT

After the FME Cloud BGT transformation the flood gates of self serve transformations were flung open.

This resulted in a second product in which the degree of complexity got a tiny bit more complex, this time it was not a link to the data, but the data itself that got the transformation started.

This was a very important learning step for me, since working with the resources section of FME Server is crucial when switching to FME Cloud.

The third product (SPLITS Translator) was again more complex, to develop. This time the layer within the CAD trigger data needed to be specified and correctly accessed.

Fortunately the options to use parameters and transfer them between workspaces is easily done (once you figure it out) and a must have for advance FME Cloud usage.

Lastly my final 2015 FME Cloud based product (Geocoder) was the most complex of them all.
This time not only did I need to develop buit in checks to make sure that the schema of the trigger data is as required but also multiple output formats are possible.

2016

With the release of FME 2016 (desktop) and the soon to be released FME Server I am sure lots of more FME'ing will be done this year.

Happy FME'ing!



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