What is the Axero Geographic Data Library?
The Axero Geographic Data Library is a Microsoft SQL Server database, C# class library,
and WCF web service that can be used by any software developer for any software
application requiring country, region, state, metro, and county data.
This database, C# library, and web service allows you to quickly add geographic
data to your application, without the hassle of gathering data, importing into a
database, normalizing it, writing SQL and C# code to access it, and then integrating
it into your software.
What can it be used for?
A perfect example of its use is...
Let's say that you are developing a contact us form on your website. You include
the most common fields such as name, email, phone number, and a text area for adding
comments.
Now, since you want to know where the person contacting you is geographically located,
you would then naturally add a few dropdown lists that contain...
- A list of the world countries
When the person selects a country, another dropdown list is populated with...
- The states, provinces, or territories located in the selected country
Taking this even further and drilling down deeper...on the selection of a state,
province, or territory, more dropdown lists are populated with:
- The major metro areas located in the selected state, province, or territory
- If in the USA, a county dropdown list is populated
Why do I need this?
You may be thinking...
"The functionality that you described above is easy to develop...I can do this on
my own."
Well, if you are a software developer, I'm sure you can agree that the functionality
I just described above is (logically speaking) pretty simple to put into operation,
even if you are a beginner programmer.
However, the ground work for implementing this functionality is quite substantial
and could take you weeks and weeks of:
- research and data collection
- database design and table creation
- importing the data into the database
- normalizing the data to reduce redundancy
- writing SQL stored procedures to access the data
- creating the C# data application layer, business layer
- integrating with your current application
- writing a web service
- testing and quality assurance
- etc. etc. etc.
...which equals out to weeks and weeks of money spent on development – money that
you could otherwise be saving.
Think about it...and let’s calculate this out. Let’s say that you are a pretty good
software developer and you could knock this project out in two weeks. That’s approximately
80 hours of software development time only - and remember ... that’s not counting
the time for data collection, database population, and testing. And, if you are
like most "pretty good developers" you will price out at a mere $65 / hour. So,
80 hours times $65 per hour comes out to $5200.
Now, take that number and add in all of that extra time for testing, searching for
the geographic data, importing the data, normalizing it, etc...
When I sat down and calculated exactly how much we had spent in development costs,
it came to somewhere around $50,000. But it was worth every penny. So even at fifty-grand,
I considered it money well spent.
But, that is not how much you are going to pay.
And this was a big problem our company faced during our own software development
projects. In fact, we created the Axero Geographic Data Library to solve our own
problem. And believe me - it took us months to develop this product...
By the time we were through, our development team had created the perfect Geographic
Data Library for our business. But frankly, I must say, it came at a pretty hefty
price.
The Birth of a Geographic Data Library
You could say that we created the Geographic Data Library for our business because
we couldn't find anything on the market that met our needs - an easy-to-use, affordable
program that allows us to quickly and easily add geographic data to our software
development projects.
But after using our geographic data library for a few months, and seeing how much
time and money we saved, I began telling a few clients about it, and they asked
me if I'd be willing to sell them a copy.
So I sold a few copies to clients who started using it in their own software projects.
Over the next few months, I kept getting calls and emails from these clients telling
me how well the software was working at reducing development time.
Needless to say, they were pretty happy with their results, and began telling their
friends. The next thing you know, we were selling to more and more customers, and
that's how the Axero Geographic Data Library got its start.
It's a simple, easy-to-use Geographic Data Library that any company can use to easily
add a geographic data to their software applications. You get exactly the same functionality
and features that I paid over $50,000 to develop.
By integrating the Axero Geographic Data Library into your software application
you:
- Reduce the cost of software development resources – substantially
- Reduce the time to complete software development projects – saved time is saved
money
- Increase efficiency by centralizing commonly used geographic data
Now, you can have exactly the same Geographic Data Library that I use to in my business,
at a price you're going to love.
Pricing and Licensing
Guarantee:
If you don't agree that the Axero Geographic Data Library is worth many times the
one-time fee you paid...if you can't see how it continues to work for you long after...if
you can't see why it continues to add to your bottom line and free up your valuable
time...just return it any time in the next 30 days and we'll promptly refund your
money.
Here are the types of licenses available:
- Single site license - Buy this license for each software application in which
you use the library.
- Multiple site License - Buy this license to cover the use of the library
in all of your software applications.
- Redistribution License - If you are a software developer who includes our
library in your product, and you license your product to your customers - buy this
license. (If you are a consultant building a product that will be owned by your
customer, your customer should be the licensee. Choose the Single site license or
Multiple site license option for them.)
All licenses are...
- One-time investments -- there are no recurring fees.
- Instantly downloadable -- you receive the full product to install right away under
your own control.
- Backed by our full support -- we'll do what it takes to get you up and running and
keep you there.
- Guaranteed to bring a smile to your face - life's too short for anything else!
What do others choose?
- Most people choose the option with the source code.
What does it include?
The Axero Geographic Data Library consists of 4 major parts...
- A Microsoft SQL Server Database containing normalized geographic data including
world countries, regions, states, provinces, territories, US counties, and major
metro areas.
- Microsoft SQL Server Stored procedures for querying the geographic data. This includes
51 of the most commonly used queries you would use to access the geographic data
in your application. You’ll also get the SQL scripts to create the tables and stored
procedures.
- Flexible 5-tier C# code library that wrap’s the database and stored procedures
- A WCF web service that wraps the C# code library
What does it not include?
Although we have gathered and assembled most of the world geographic data that you
will generally need, we cannot guarantee that it is 100% accurate. Country names,
counties, cities, territories, etc., commonly change over the course of time. In
order to combat this, we have made it extremely easy for you to add and update the
data contained in the database. By using the sample web application included in
the library, you have a full-featured, web based user interface for accessing, adding,
and updating the geographic data.
How does it come packaged?
We'll send you a ".ZIP" file that includes everything you need to get started.
It will include:
- SQL Server database - You get a .bak file and the .mdf and .ldf files
- SQL Scripts to create the tables and stored procedures
- Excel file containing all of the data for Countries, Regions, States, Metros, Counties
- And depending on the license you choose, you will get:
- The DLL for referencing in your software application
- WCF Web Service
- C# Source Code of the class library
- WCF C# Source Code
Architecture
Microsoft SQL Server Database - contains normalized geographic data including
world countries, regions, states, provinces, territories, US counties, and major
metro areas. 51 of the most commonly used queries are included for querying the
geographic data.
Data Access Layer (DAL) - encapsulates the data access methods like CRUD
(Create Read Update and Delete) operations as well as any other methods to access
data.
Business logic layer (BLL) - contains the operational business logic and
functional algorithms of the application and "talks" to the DAL. This layer exposes
methods you call from within your application to access the data.
Data transfer objects (DTOs) - DTOs are simply objects with no methods and
have only public members. They are the carriers of data to and from the different
layers.
WCF Web Service – Provides the means to allow software applications to "talk"
to each other. You can host the WCF Web Service on your server and allow multiple
applications to consume it to use the geographic data.
Class diagrams
|
Data Access Layer (DAL)
|
Data transfer objects (DTOs)
|
Business logic layer (BLL)
|
(click to enlarge)
Data Access Layer (DAL) - encapsulates the data access methods like CRUD
(Create Read Update and Delete) operations as well as any other methods to access
data.
|
(click to enlarge)
Data transfer objects (DTOs) - DTOs are simply objects with no methods and
have only public members. They are the carriers of data to and from the different
layers.
|
(click to enlarge)
Business logic layer (BLL) - contains the operational business logic and
functional algorithms of the application and "talks" to the DAL. This layer exposes
methods you call from within your application to access the data.
|
Support & Help
As a general policy, we suggest taking the following steps to get the most out of
our technical support service:
- Installation instructions
Updated regularly with each release, the User Manual documentation contains information
about the Axero Geographic Data Library - from instructions on how to get started
with your implementation to product features, tutorials, and references.
- Consult Our FAQ Knowledge Base (coming soon)
Our FAQ Knowledge Base includes up-to-date information including general answers,
how-to's, and information about installation, licensing, technical, product fixes,
and upgrading.
- Submit a Support Request
Submitting your support questions through the
online contact form is the best way to ensure that your requests are properly
tracked and answered by our technical support team.
Support Note:
We will do our best to assist you in any way we can. However in some cases, we can
only provide support for the Axero Geographic Data Library in its original form.
We may not be able to provide support for modified version of the library.
Covered by support:
The types of issues covered by Support include:
- Software problems or bugs
- Issues during setup in the customer environment
- Basic help understanding specific features
- All major, minor and patch releases
Not Covered by Support
Issues not covered by Support include (but we will do our best to help you):
- Feature enhancements
- Debugging code not written by us
- Custom development
- Training
Customizations
Our Professional Services can help you with customizing the Axero Geographic Data
Library. We are a full service software development company that provides custom
software development services. If there is anything we can do to meet your requirements
or if you are interested in having customizations or enhancements added to the Axero
Geographic Data Library, please contact us today with your requests.
We kindly request that you have your requirements documented (as best as you can)
before contacting us for customizations. Please include them when you make your
request. This allows us to provide a speedy turnaround when formulating our reply.