[Freegis-list] Starting Hand on Web Mapping.

[Scott Davis]

All good suggestions. +1

Here are some more:

If you want to get a feel for what is possible, I'd start playing  
with the Google Maps API. ( http://www.mapmap.org/googlemaps/ )  
Granted, you are playing with Google's dataset instead of your own,  
but it should give you an idea of what is possible through the  
browser. For some pointers on how to play with all of the major map  
providers (Google, Yahoo, Mapquest, et al), see http:// 
www.davisworld.org/presentations/realWorldWebServices.pdf .

If you want to go one layer of abstraction deeper and see how a  
"slippy map" interface is implemented, check out http:// 
www.mapmap.org/ryogm . There are slides and live code demos from a  
talk I'm doing at FOSS4G called, "Rolling Your Own Google Maps." This  
is a first step towards hosting your own geodata, although the simple  
framework we put together in RYOGM is not geo-enabled. It is purely  
Ajax.

Next step for you is to understand the OGC interfaces -- http:// 
www.davisworld.org/presentations/ogc.pdf . There are a a number of  
FOSS OGC implementations for you to pick based on your programming  
language of choice (PHP -- Mapserver, Java -- GeoServer). You can set  
up a WFS (Web Feature Service) to sling around your vector data, and  
a WMS (Web Map Service) for your rasters.

Once you have your own OGC backend, you'll want to look at a couple  
of projects that put slippy map interfaces over OGC servers --  
MapBuilder and OpenLayers.

Finally, both "Web Mapping Illustrated" and "Mapping Hacks" are  
excellent books. My book, Pragmatic GIS ( http://www.mapmap.org/ 
pragmaticgis/ ), should be out in beta in time for FOSS4G.

Good luck getting started -- these are really exciting times for Web  
Mapping. There is an embarrassment of riches out there.

Scott Davis
scott at davisworld.org

> Oguntimehin, John O. (JGNT) [CONT] wrote:
> > Hi All,
> > I need to get my hand on web mapping, I am completely new to this,
> > though I have being working with GIS for over two years. I need  
> to serve
> > all my maps across users through the internet/intranet. Any idea  
> on how
> > I might start this, I am on my toes starting. Please point me to
> > reference materials that might be helpful or just tell me what I  
> need to
> > do or if there is anywhere I can get online training.
>
> I'd suggest you to buy the only and the excellent book
> introducing GIS and web mapping with Open Source tools
>
> Web Mapping Illustrated by Tyler Mitchell
> http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/webmapping/
>
> Second great book that covers many subjects useful in web
> mapping too, is "Mapping Hacks":
>
> http://mappinghacks.com/
>
> IMHO these books are must have if you're interested in
> Open Source-driven GIS and Web Mapping.
>
> Cheers
> -- 
> Mateusz Loskot
> http://mateusz.loskot.net