[mapserver-users] Professional Assistance?

[Jeremy]

Thanks for everyone's emails. I sent a few responses, but here's basically
the project in case people are interested. One thought was to provide a
"how-to" as a result of the dev work on this project so others can use
similar tools to build theirs.

Although outsourcing is a good option for my basic needs, I need to work on
firmly integrating a mapserver with the functionality of the web site. I
don't need the exactness of Topozone since I can link to you folks to get
"real" maps ;) It'd be nice of course, but basic features are only really
needed so people can get a general idea of where things are in relation to
caches and other waypoints.

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Geocaching.com is looking for assistance in integrating Mapserver with the
web site, currently running with IIS and ASP on Windows2k with a SQL2k
database.

We currently have a COM object called AspMap, which works quite well, but
I'm afraid will not be able to handle the traffic. This month we'll have
2mil pageviews, and I expect with maps we'll get considerably more traffic
from people clicking to zoom, pan, etc once the maps are in place.

Here's a simple map of the world using two shapefiles - one with geocaches
in the last 7 days (yellow)and one of the other active caches (white). We're
at 4500 points and increasing by 350 caches a week (this number is growing)

http://www.geocaching.com/map

Here's one specific to Washington State. Zooming in gives you more features
(but still sparse). Green ones listed are the new caches shapefile (last 7
days) and the rest in blue with the orange lid. If you had an account it
would also show the ones you visited as checked off (another layer generated
on-the-fly)

http://www.geocaching.com/map/wa.asp

I'm looking for assistance to do the following -

1. Set up Mapserver in an NT environment (of course!). We do have linux
boxes but since the site runs in ASP and some functions will involve session
cookies it made more sense to stick with the platform.
2. Generate worldwide maps of cache locations, and allow zooming to street
level for US (and hopefully the rest of the world where maps are available).
2a. I will need to acquire these maps/shapefiles as well. Any idea of cost
estimates for this data would be helpful.
3. Allow integration of data from the SQL2k database, including vector files
(such as track logs from a GPS unit), and caches. Also other items such as
interesting locations, etc as different icons. I can handle all the database
development, but need assistance integrating with ASP (or another option).
4. Be able to map URLs to the image to allow clicking on points and having
the site relocate you to the new URL.

Thanks folks!

Jeremy