I think I might work away at Brad's idea for a while, I have already had some success with it. I have managed to load the XML into the DOM and access it but can only so far return single entries whereas I want to be able to return every listing for a certain tag.
<br><br>Making it searchable and customizable is a whole other level lol.<br><br>Thanks for the help so far, I'll keep you updated on my progress. I think this will require me to learn a bit of JavaScript and DOM given my knowledge of them at the moment is very slim.
<br><br>Brad<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 27/11/2007, <b class="gmail_sendername">bradleyspencer</b> <<a href="mailto:brad@cubewerx.com.au">brad@cubewerx.com.au</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div bgcolor="white" link="blue" vlink="blue" lang="EN-AU">
<div>
<p><span><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Tara,</span></font></span></p>
<p><span><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></span></p>
<p><span><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Sorry
about emailing direct to Brad. I did CC Openlayers Users?</span></font></span></p>
<p><span><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></span></p>
<p><span><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">I use a
xml file on the server. This could be generated via a database query and
formatted into XML but I just made mine in an editor.</span></font></span></p>
<p><span><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></span></p>
<p><span><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">I just use
standard ajax to get the XML into the browser DOM. Once there, you can build
your own browser-side filters and present the data anyway you like. In this
example, I used the GoogleMaps API which is really no different to an OL
alternative with the exception that popups/infobubbles are nicer in GM. </span></font></span><span><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></font></span></p><span class="q">
<p><span><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></span></p>
<p><span><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://demo.cubewerx.com.au/bi_demo.html" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
http://demo.cubewerx.com.au/bi_demo.html</a></span></font></span></p>
<p><span><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></span></p></span>
<p><span><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Maybe this
is of no help to you. </span></font></span></p>
<p><span><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></span></p>
<p><span><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Anyway, I
am thinking of integrating GoogleMaps markers inside OL until OL markers and
popus look better. That could be nice.</span></font></span></p>
<p><span><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></span></p>
<p><span><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Cheers,</span></font></span><span><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">
</span></font></span></p>
<p><span><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></span></p>
<p><b><font size="4"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: bold;">Brad Spencer</span></font></b></p><div><span class="e" id="q_1167ed163c8de15d_3">
<p><font color="black" face="Times New Roman" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></font></p>
<p><span><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></font></span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 36pt;"><font color="black" face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;">-----Original
Message-----<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> Tara Athan
[mailto:<a href="mailto:tara_athan@alt2is.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">tara_athan@alt2is.com</a>]<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Tuesday, 27 November 2007
12:33 PM<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> Bradley McLain<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cc:</span></b> Linda Rawson; bradleyspencer;
OpenLayers Users<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [work] Re:
[OpenLayers-Users] OpenLayers Read From Text File</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 36pt;"><font color="black" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 36pt;"><font color="black" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">There seems to be a
missing message in this thread from Bradley Spencer, perhaps sent directly to
Bradley McLain, rather than the mailing list? I would be interested in
his solution.<br>
******<br>
I have recently constructed such an implementation- it may be instructive for
you to hear what we have done.<br>
The demo map appears at<br>
<a href="http://alt2is.com/hcvMaps/latin1/html/hcvoppsmap_utf8.html" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://alt2is.com/hcvMaps/latin1/html/hcvoppsmap_utf8.html</a><br>
In this particular case, php is used to create the marker text file from a
database query.<br>
{You can't see the php from the link above, of course but I am happy to share
code snippets if some one is interested.}<br>
This presents the same information for all users. The next step in our
implementation is to bring in the query capability.<br>
Presently our map shows the number of all volunteer opportunities in each
country. We would like to allow the user to instead show that number of
opportunities that match their specifications- specialty field, duration etc.-
and have the link lead to a list of only these matches.<br>
This requires a database query when the user requests the
map. Our plan is to use a php file to query the database (also a<br>
shadow database as you are considering, containing only information relevant
for the map, and synchronized with the main database regularly using cron and a
php script).<br>
If a text layer is used, then each user will be creating a unique text
file on the server, which is given some unique name that is passed to the
html file by php. Some mechanism must be created to delete these files when the
user is done with them.<br>
An alternative is to write marker information directly to the html file. This
has different options for the markers, including<br>
> Markers with no pop-up, see <a href="http://openlayers.org/dev/examples/markers.html" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://openlayers.org/dev/examples/markers.html</a><br>
>Anchored bubbles, which offer the possibility of changing the style
of the popup, which is not possible with the text layer: see <a href="http://dev.openlayers.org/docs/files/OpenLayers/Popup/AnchoredBubble-js.html" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
http://dev.openlayers.org/docs/files/OpenLayers/Popup/AnchoredBubble-js.html</a><br>
and <a href="http://openlayers.org/dev/examples/popups.html" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://openlayers.org/dev/examples/popups.html</a><br>
However, based on the problems I see in this example, perhaps anchored bubbles
are not stable yet, or the example code has bugs...<br>
I am debating which way to go and am interested in the experience of others-
Thanks<br>
Tara<br>
Bradley McLain wrote: </span></font></p>
<p style="margin-right: 36pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 72pt;"><font color="black" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">@ Linda I have been told
that it would be preferable not to directly access the information, they would
prefer that the information is dumped nightly to something else (text file or
another database) and then accessed that way. I thought that a text file would
be the easier option, given the smaller size and ease of maintenance. <br>
<br>
@Brad, this sounds like the kinda of thing that I want to do. Doing it this way
will I be able to build some sort of interface that allows users to search and
display the markers that they want?<br>
<br>
Cheers<br>
<br>
Brad<br>
<br>
</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 72pt;"><span><font color="black" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">On
27/11/2007, <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Linda Rawson</span></b> <<a href="mailto:linda.rawson@gmail.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">linda.rawson@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:</span></font></span> </p>
<div style="border-style: none none none solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color rgb(204, 204, 204); border-width: medium medium medium 0.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 6pt;">
<p style="border: medium none ; padding: 0cm; margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 76.8pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><font color="black" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Why
don't you just create a database view of the information and make it available
via a web service and your users would always have up to date information.</span></font></p>
<p style="border: medium none ; padding: 0cm; margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 76.8pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><font color="black" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></font></p>
<p style="border: medium none ; padding: 0cm; margin-right: 36pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 76.8pt;"><font color="black" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Linda</span></font></p>
<span>
<p style="border: medium none ; padding: 0cm; margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 76.8pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><font color="black" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">On Nov
26, 2007 3:12 PM, Julien-Samuel Lacroix <<a href="mailto:jlacroix@mapgears.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">jlacroix@mapgears.com</a>>
wrote: </span></font></p>
</span></div>
<div style="border-style: none none none solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color rgb(204, 204, 204); border-width: medium medium medium 0.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 6pt;">
<p style="border: medium none ; padding: 0cm; margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 81.6pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><font color="black" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Hi,<br>
<br>
You have a great resource of examples here:<br>
<a href="http://www.openlayers.org/dev/examples/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://www.openlayers.org/dev/examples/</a><br>
<br>
Check the markersTextLayer.html example to have an example of a layer<br>
that comes from a csv file.<br>
(<a href="http://www.openlayers.org/dev/examples/markersTextLayer.html" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
http://www.openlayers.org/dev/examples/markersTextLayer.html</a>)<br>
<br>
There's also use gml (see the gml-layer.html) if you prefer xml files.<br>
<br>
Julien</span></font></p>
<p style="border: medium none ; padding: 0cm; margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 81.6pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><font color="black" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br>
<br>
Bradley McLain wrote:<br>
> Ok what I am trying to do is to have a progress database dump all<br>
> relevant information about various locations in some form of text file<br>
> nightly.<br>
><br>
> I then want to use OpenLayers to read from/query this file and display<br>
> the relevant information.<br>
><br>
> I was wondering if this is possible to do, can OpenLayers read/query a<br>
> text file such as a csv or xml? <br>
><br>
> Cheers<br>
><br>
> Brad<br>
><br>
></span></font></p>
<p style="border: medium none ; padding: 0cm; margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 81.6pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><font color="black" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">>
------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
><br>
> _______________________________________________<br>
> Users mailing list<br>
> <a href="mailto:Users@openlayers.org" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">Users@openlayers.org</a><br>
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<br>
</span></font><font color="#888888"><span style="color: rgb(136, 136, 136);"><br>
--<br>
Julien-Samuel Lacroix<br>
Mapgears<br>
<a href="http://www.mapgears.com/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://www.mapgears.com/</a><br>
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Users mailing list <br>
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<div style="border-style: none none none solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color rgb(204, 204, 204); border-width: medium medium medium 0.75pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 6pt;">
<p style="border: medium none ; padding: 0cm; margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 76.8pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><font color="black" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br>
<br>
</span></font></p>
</div>
<p style="margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 72pt;"><font color="black" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br>
<br>
</span></font></p>
<pre style="margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 72pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></font></pre><pre style="margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 72pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">
<hr align="center" size="4" width="90%">
</span></font></pre><pre style="margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 72pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></font></pre><pre style="margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 72pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">_______________________________________________</span></font></pre><pre style="margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 72pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Users mailing list</span></font></pre><pre style="margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 72pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="mailto:Users@openlayers.org" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">Users@openlayers.org</a></span></font></pre><pre style="margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 72pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://openlayers.org/mailman/listinfo/users" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://openlayers.org/mailman/listinfo/users
</a></span></font></pre><pre style="margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 72pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span> </span></span></font></pre><pre style="margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 72pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></font></pre><pre style="margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 72pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">
<hr align="center" size="4" width="90%">
</span></font></pre><pre style="margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 72pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></font></pre><pre style="margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 72pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">No virus found in this incoming message.</span></font></pre><pre style="margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 72pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Checked by AVG Free Edition. </span></font></pre><pre style="margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 72pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">
Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.16.7/1151 - Release Date: 11/25/2007 4:24 PM</span></font></pre><pre style="margin-right: 36pt; margin-left: 72pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span> </span></span></font></pre>
<p style="margin-left: 36pt;"><font color="black" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br>
Tara Athan<br>
<br>
</span></font></p>
<pre style="margin-left: 36pt;"><font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Principal, Alternatives to Invasive Species</span></font></pre><pre style="margin-left: 36pt;"><font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="mailto:tara_athan@alt2is.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">tara_athan@alt2is.com</a></span></font></pre><pre style="margin-left: 36pt;"><font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">707-485-1198</span></font></pre><pre style="margin-left: 36pt;"><font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">PO Box 415</span></font></pre><pre style="margin-left: 36pt;">
<font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Redwood Valley, CA 95470</span></font></pre></span></div></div>
</div>
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http://openlayers.org/mailman/listinfo/users</a><br><br></blockquote></div><br>