The ultimate goal of this project involved the creation of a fully functional geodatabase for the 1996 Canada Census. In addition, it was decided that a spatial data visualization tool would be created for the census data, and an interface would be created for specific variable extraction.There were a series of goals
set out by our group throughout this project that were based around our main goal. These goals will now be discussed, will their level of success detailed in the Project Limitations section. Figure 2.1 provides a visualization of the three focal points of our project, each with its own set of design goals.
The first goal set was to convert the 1996 census spatial data into a feature class for the geodatabase.
Attribute data must be downloaded from the Research Data Library and accessed using Beyond 20/20.
The attribute data must be exported out of 20/20 as a comma-separated value file (.csv) or a dBase file.
Data types used must be changed in order for the database to fall below its two gigabyte size.
Create one-to-one relationships between different attribute tables at the same spatial level.
Recreate the spatial aggregation hierarchy for the 1996 Canada Census within the geodatabase.
Create one-to-one relationships to correspond feature classes to their appropriate spatial level.
Add new fields in the geodatabase indicating the feature classes relating to each spatial level.
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Research ArcObjects and COM in more depth for construct purposes.
Decide which programming environment is most suitable for the user interface creation.
Weigh the advantages of using an ActiveX Data Objects connection.
Develop a main interface for province and geographic level selection.
Build a census category selection window to follow the first.

Figure 2.2 provides a screenshot of the first interface window under production, which allows the user to query the geodatabase in a flexible manner. It was important to set our standards high for ease of use pertaining to the database; the end user must feel comfortable extracting the data they seek.
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Discover the full capabilities of ArcIMS and evaluate all web-based options.
Use the four component ArcIMS applications to develop Java-based viewers depicting the spatial census data at all useful levels.
Apply color schemes and scale dependent area labels for ease of visualization.
Customize the framesets, titles and toolbar of each viewer to maximize flexibility and usefulness.
Add download capabilities for increased database flexibility and added viewer functionality.
Test the benefits of the ArcSDE connection to load web-based shapefiles/coverages.
This section has provided an outline to the construction of the three main project components. In the Methodology section, the processes by which these goals are made a reality are discussed.