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

 Percy facilitates open source sessions

Ka-Map Chameleon MapBender, MapLab, FIST

The Big Choice: What front end?

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