Mapserver The Oregon Experience

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Mapserver The Oregon Experience

• David Percy
• Geospatial Data Manager, Geology Department
• Portland State University

Digital Mapping Techniques, 2006 Conference
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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!

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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

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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

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Components of Open Source Web MappingThe new
LAMP stack

• L Linux
• A Apache
• M MySQL
• P PHP

• L Linux
• A Apache
• M MapServer
• P PostGIS

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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

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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!)

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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

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The Big ChoiceWhat 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

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Web Interfaces

• Ka-map
• Chameleon
• Maplab
• MapBlender
• FIST
• CGI
• Build your own Map-Fu

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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.

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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

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GeoDatabases

• PostgreSQL
• From Berkely, Ingress
• Transactions, rollback and other modern database
  features
• Object Relational DB
• PostGIS
• Extensions for GIS functionality to PGSQL

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