The Oklahoma Natural Heritage Inventory (ONHI) serves as a central repository for information pertaining to Oklahoma’s biological diversity, including rare and endangered species, species of special concern, and significant ecological communities. A number of years ago, the ONHI developed the Oklahoma Vascular Plant Database (OVDP) to record all Oklahoma Plant specimens housed in state herbaria and make this information readily available to the general public, scientific community, and others. When first developed, the OVDP used an Access database as its source database and MS SQLServer as its web database. The Oklahoma Biological Survey (the state agency that oversees the ONHI), commissioned Coordinate Solutions to migrate the source database to SQLServer, develop web-based data entry and editing, update the aesthetics and functionality of the website, and expand the mapping capabilities of the site from static images to dynamic and interactive web-based thematic mapping. Moreover, due to new server requirements of the updated system, the ONHI decided to move the OVDP from University of Oklahoma servers, where it was initially housed, to Coordinate Solutions servers.

In order to successfully complete this project, Coordinate Solutions used a combination of VB.NET and ASP.NET, Web Services with SQLServer and SharpMap, an open-source internet-based mapping technology.