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+\section{Overview of the GNV-Server}
+
+\subsection{Tasks and Components of the GNV-Server}
+
+The GNV-server is a middleware-component and consists of two functional
+components:
+\begin{enumerate}
+    \item artifact-server -- providing access to the database and
+    managing the users' workflow to the GNV-WebClient
+    \item mapserver -- providing user-generated maps. Mapserver is
+    controlled by the artifact-server.
+\end{enumerate}
+
+The central concept of the artifact-server is to model the workflow of
+users by the following steps:
+\begin{enumerate}
+    \item selection of data (parameterization)
+    \item processing of result sets (interpolation, clipping)
+    \item exporting processed result sets (charts, statistics, raw data)
+\end{enumerate}
+
+Within the artifact-server, these steps are supported by the following
+core components for the entire GNV-system.  The naming refers to
+components used in the configuration. In order to simplify a first
+orientation in the configuration and this manual, the XML-tags/words in
+the central configuration file at {\tt conf/conf.xml} are used. They are
+marked in {\tt typewriter} style:
+
+\begin{itemize}
+   \item {\tt geo-backend} -- access to the database backend
+   \item {\tt rest-server} -- providing a RESTful-Interface with a
+   XML-based protocol to serve the expert information systems (FIS) with
+   their products to different clients, e.g. GNV WebClient
+   \item {\tt factories/*}, {\tt artifacts/*} --  managing the steps and
+   operations of users' workflow for all expert information
+   systems (FIS)
+   \item {\tt gnv} -- processing pipeline providing results of the
+   products with the following subtasks:
+     \begin{itemize}
+       \item processing of result sets like interpolation, clipping 
+       \item visualization of charts and maps
+       \item exporting selected raw data
+     \end{itemize}
+   \item {\tt mapserver} -- managing the Web Map Service for creating maps
+   dynamically
+\end{itemize}
+
+Each component has a specific configuration for its functionality and
+subsystems. 
+
+\subsection{Internal Structure of the GNV-Server}
+
+\subsubsection{Internal Structure of Artifact-Server}
+Per default the artifact-server can be found at {\tt
+/opt/artifact-server}\footnote{Information about installation and
+operation can be found in the admin-manual.}. The internal directory
+structure of the artifact-server looks like this:
+
+%% tree /opt -d -L1
+\begin{lstlisting}
+artifact-server
+|-- artifactdb # storing artifacts in a database
+|-- bin # binaries including all libraries
+|-- cache # storage for cached data (e.g. result sets)
+|-- conf # central configuration of artifact-server
+|-- install # files for system integration (just for setup)
+|-- mapfiles # generated configurations for map-server (done by
+             # map-generator)
+`-- shapefiles # raw data for map generating (done by map-generator)
+\end{lstlisting}
+
+
+\subsubsection{Internal Structure of Mapserver}
+Per default the mapserver can be found at {\tt
+/usr/lib/cgi-bin}.\footnote{Information about installation and
+operation can be found in the admin-manual.} The internal structure of
+the mapserver looks like this:
+
+%% tree /usr/lib/
+\begin{lstlisting}
+cgi-bin/
+|-- gnv-wms # wrapper pointing to the configuration (default:
+            # artifact-server/mapfiles/mapfile.map), invoked by
+            # webserver
+`-- mapserv-gp # binary of mapserver, invoked by wrapper
+\end{lstlisting}