Web Mapping Illustrated

Description:

With the help of the Internet and accompanying tools, creating and publishing online maps has become easier and rich with options. A city guide web site can use maps to show the location of restaurants, museums, and art venues. A business can post a map for reaching its offices. The state government can present a map showing average income by area.

Developers who want to publish maps on the web often discover that commercial tools cost too much and hunting down the free tools scattered across Internet can use up too much of your time and resources. Web Mapping Illustrated shows you how to create maps, even interactive maps, with free tools, including MapServer, OpenEV, GDAL/OGR, and PostGIS. It also explains how to find, collect, understand, use, and share mapping data, both over the traditional Web and using OGC-standard services like WFS and WMS.

Mapping is a growing field that goes beyond collecting and analyzing GIS data. Web Mapping Illustrated shows how to combine free geographic data, GPS, and data management tools into one resource for your mapping information needs so you don't have to lose your way while searching for it.

Remember the fun you had exploring the world with maps? Experience the fun again with Web Mapping Illustrated. This book will take you on a direct route to creating valuable maps.

Table of Contents:

Foreword

Preface

1. Introduction to Digital Mapping

     The Power of Digital Maps

     The Difficulties of Making Maps

     Different Kinds of Web Mapping

2. Digital Mapping Tasks and Tools

     Common Mapping Tasks

     Common Pitfalls, Deadends, and Irritations

     Identifying the Types of Tasks for a Project

3. Converting and Viewing Maps

     Raster and Vector

     OpenEV

     MapServer

     Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL)

     OGR Simple Features Library

     PostGIS

     Summary of Applications

4. Installing MapServer

     How MapServer Applications Operate

     Walkthrough of the Main Components

     Installing MapServer

     Getting Help

5. Acquiring Map Data

     Appraising Your Data Needs

     Acquiring the Data You Need

6. Analyzing Map Data

     Downloading the Demonstration Data

     Installing Data Management Tools: GDAL and FWTools

     Examining Data Content

     Summarizing Information Using Other Tools

7. Converting Map Data

     Converting Map Data

     Converting Vector Data

     Converting Raster Data to Other Formats

8. Visualizing Mapping Data in a Desktop Program

     Visualization and Mapping Programs

     Using OpenEV

     OpenEV Basics

9. Create and Edit Personal Map Data

     Planning Your Map

     Preprocessing Data Examples

10. Creating Static Maps

     MapServer Utilities

     Sample Uses of the Command-Line Utilities

     Setting Output Image Formats

11. Publishing Interactive Maps on the Web

     Preparing and Testing MapServer

     Create a Custom Application for a Particular Area

     Continuing Education

12. Accessing Maps Through Web Services

     Web Services for Mapping

     What Do Web Services for Mapping Do?

     Using MapServer with Web Services

     Reference Map Files

13. Managing a Spatial Database

     Introducing PostGIS

     What Is a Spatial Database?

     Downloading PostGIS Install Packages and Binaries

     Compiling from Source Code

     Steps for Setting Up PostGIS

     Creating a Spatial Database

     Load Data into the Database

     Spatial Data Queries

     Accessing Spatial Data from PostGIS in Other Applications

14. Custom Programming with MapServer's MapScript

     Introducing MapScript

     Getting MapScript

     MapScript Objects

     MapScript Examples

     Other Resources

     Parallel MapScript Translations

A. A Brief Introduction to Map Projections

B. MapServer Reference Guide for Vector Data Access

Index