Transcript Open Source GIS: Web Maps, Desktop GIS and GeoDatabases

Mapserver
The Oregon Experience
David Percy
Geospatial Data Manager, Geology Department
Portland State University
Digital Mapping Techniques, 2006 Conference
2005 the year of OS GIS and the
explosion of online mapping
• Books
– Mapping Hacks
– Web Mapping Illustrated
– MapServer Essentials
• Google Earth, the new browser?
• AutoDesk goes OS!
Previous Web Mapping at PSU
•Windows servers in offices running ESRI ~ 1998-2004:
•Geology (Percy), and Urban Planning (Kimpel)
•Map Objects, then ArcIMS: Oregon Geologic Map
and spatial reference data
•First Mapserver foray in 2002, project abandoned not
due to mapserver
•Coastal data, database of Glacier Change, all science
goes to the web now (1999 – 2004, the ArcIMS years).
•ASP pages transitioned to Apache, MySQL, PHP in
2003 in preparation for move to Open Source
Academic and Research Computing
to the rescue!
•
•
•
•
•
Managed servers with Linux
Ugly install of ArcIMS
Began discussion of Mapserver/PostGIS
Other projects requesting webmaps from ARC
Strong investment in Apache, PHP, MySQL
already.
• Leverage existing strengths
• Cost of Oracle/SQL Server prohibitive at PSU
• Institutional support for Open Source solutions
Components of Open Source
Web Mapping
The new “LAMP” stack
•
•
•
•
L – Linux
A – Apache
M – MySQL
P – PHP
•
•
•
•
L – Linux
A – Apache
M – MapServer
P – PostGIS
Open Source Components
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
GDAL – Raster Library
OGR – Vector Library
GD – Graphics Creation
Proj.4 – Coordinate Systems
FreeType – Nice fonts!
GEOS – Geometry Engine
Shapelib – Shapefile library
Setting up a MapServer Site
• Installation
– Build from source code
– Install a package
• Get data on server
• Create mapfile
– (analogous to AXL)
• Choose or write a front end
– (similar to choice between HTML and JAVA)
• Stateless!
– (No JAVA Servlets!)
A closer look at the “stack”
• Front end –
– PHP/Mapscript with Javascript
– PHP/Mapscript
– Pure CGI with template substitution
• Data in
– PostGIS or Shapefiles for vector
– Geotiff, ECW or JPEG2000 for raster
– Referenced and styled by MAPFILE
• Mapserver CGI built with all the right “includes”
• Webserver – Apache
• Operating system - Linux
The Big Choice:
What front end?
• Percy facilitates open source sessions
– Ka-Map
– Chameleon
– MapBender, MapLab, FIST
• Grad Students revolt!
– Requirements defined
• Pan, Zoom, Query, some AJAX, etc
– In a single weekend prototype developed
– Subsequently “generified”
– Currently used in four production systems, more
implementing weekly
• Demos! http://gisgeek.pdx.edu/opensourcegis
Web Interfaces
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Ka-map
Chameleon
Maplab
MapBlender
FIST
CGI
Build your own: Map-Fu
Conclusions
• Web Mapping is reliable and proven
• GeoDatabases, combined with WFS and
WMS services are reliable and promising
• Be careful what Open Source project you
align with
– Many projects are brilliant, but orphaned
• OSCDL will continue support and
development, both for map interfaces and
backend datastreams.
The future: Data Streams
• End of Monolithic Web Apps
• Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)
– WMS
– WFS
• Query for capabilities
• High Quality data streams from many
sources, possibly aggregated through
Google Earth, or local Geo-Servers
GeoDatabases
• PostgreSQL
– From Berkely, Ingress
– Transactions, rollback and other modern
database features
– Object – Relational DB
• PostGIS
– Extensions for GIS functionality to PGSQL