[mapserver-users] Tracking vehicles, Displaying positions

[pcreso at pcreso.com]

Hi Carmelo,

I am doing prettyt much this for vessel positions using PostGIS databases instead of MySQL. I believe PostGIS offers more mature & substantially better support for spatial objects at present, but you can probably achieve similar results with MySQL.

>From a data management and display perspective, I suggest you consider three approaches depending on your needs:

1. Just display the GPS points of the required vehicles in the map.
2. Run a query to turn the required points into a linestring on the fly & display the line. 
3. Pre build vehicle tracklines according to business rules and display selected lines in the map.

All are relatively simple to do with PostGIS & Mapserver, and can be managed with MySQL, although I don't think as easily. (We use mostly option 3, and also option 2, opion 1 is a bit limited & can be somewhat slower to display)

You also haven't said whether you want web maps or hard copy maps. I'm assuming you are looking at web maps for now, & can print the result if required.

The other issue is that the map needs some background to give your data context. If necessary you can assemble local datasets of roads, aerial/satellite imagery, etc to overlay your data on. However I suggest you consider OpenLayers to provide the maps in your web application. This gives you easy access to Google & OpenStreetMaps & a range of public WMS/WFS data as a background without having to manage these data yourself.

Using Postgis to manage your spatial data, mapserver to provide it as a web service & OpenLayers as the client in your application, actually putting the various layers together to build your map is a very effective toolset for the sort of thing I think you are trying to achieve.

If you do need local vector data in addition to your GPS data, then I don't think CAD is the way to go, as suggested by other respondents, extracting these into GIS formats is going to work better for you in this arena.

HTH,

   Brent Wood


--- On Wed, 11/5/08, Carmelo Saffioti <csaffi at libero.it> wrote:

> From: Carmelo Saffioti <csaffi at libero.it>
> Subject: Re: [mapserver-users] Tracking vehicles, Displaying positions
> To: "Venkat Rao Tammineni" <vtammineni at roulacglobal.com>, mapserver-users at lists.osgeo.org
> Date: Wednesday, November 5, 2008, 11:39 PM
> Thank you Venkat for your reply,
> it's interesting to know that it's possible to
> access coordinates data
> directly from the MySql db...
> but before displaying points on the map, I need to
> understand how can I
> "create" a map from my planimetry DWG cad file...
> 
> I hope you can help me
> Cheers
> Carmelo
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
>    1)There are different ways to place GPS points on map.
>      a)  You can display points using OGR direct
> connection, Please refer
> below url
>            
> http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/docs/howto/ogrmysql/?searchterm=ovf
> 
> http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/docs/howto/debian-odbc-mysql/?searchterm=ovf
> 
> http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/docs/reference/vector_data/VirtualSpatialData/?searchterm=ovf
> 
> 2)And You can not create DWG file by using mapfile.Mapfile
> will give you
> image format.
> Please have a look below url.
> 
>  
> http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/docs/reference/vector_data/format_types
> 
> I hope this helps you.
> 
> Thanks,
> Venkat
> 
> 
> 
> From: mapserver-users-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
> [mailto:mapserver-users-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf
> Of Carmelo
> Saffioti
> Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 2:30 PM
> To: mapserver-users at lists.osgeo.org
> Subject: [mapserver-users] Tracking vehicles, Displaying
> positions
> 
> Hi everybody,
> I need to develop a system for tracking and displaying
> vehicles
> positions. I'm storing NMEA gps sentences into a MySql
> DB. Now I'd
> like to display these positions on a map. How can I do?
> I'm new to
> this, can you give me any suggestion?
> I have to create the map too, because this zone is not
> mapped. Is it
> possible to create a map from a DWG cad file?
> 
> I hope you can help me
> Cheers
> Carmelo
> 
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