Hi All,<br><br><b>tl;dr version: </b><br>Is OpenLayers + GeoServer + Geonames a good/sensible combination for a local data source? Am I missing an easier source of similar data or re-combining a setup that is already available/documented under GPL?<br>
<br><br><b>The boring stuff:</b><br>I'm about to start coding on expanded geospatial support in our application and wanted to ask if anyone had advice/feedback on the setup we are currently thinking about. The codebase is GPL v2 compliant (<a href="http://sites.google.com/site/redboxmint/">http://sites.google.com/site/redboxmint/</a>) and I'd ideally like to avoid using any data that has licensing/terms of service issues (acknowledgements, credit etc. are always ok).<br>
<br>The usage context is for data entry staff to provide geospatial metadata about a digital object they are curating (eg. A research study that covers a polygonal area drawn on the map, fairly typical example.) At present we offer basic textual input of this data, and have a Solr index of the Geonames dataset (<a href="http://code.google.com/p/solr-geonames/">http://code.google.com/p/solr-geonames/</a>) that lets them do searches against place names to get basic lat/long information, but plan on using OpenLayers to enhance this in the next version with a Map GUI for polygons.<br>
<br>My current thinking (based on just a weekend of web searching/surfing) is to prototype using OpenLayers against public URLs for maps and feature information (such as geoJson: <a href="http://www.mail-archive.com/geoserver-users@lists.sourceforge.net/msg07110.html">http://www.mail-archive.com/geoserver-users@lists.sourceforge.net/msg07110.html</a>). The UI stuff I'm not too concerned about, since I have a colleague with some great examples of doing this stuff against OpenLayers. My main concern is how to go from the prototype to a production server with unencumbered data that could be deployed (potentially) without Internet access.<br>
<br>I'm thinking of deploying a copy of GeoServer and ingesting layered map data:<br><ul><li>like Blue Marble: <a href="http://ian01.geog.psu.edu/geoserver_docs/data/bluemarble/bluemarble.html">http://ian01.geog.psu.edu/geoserver_docs/data/bluemarble/bluemarble.html</a> </li>
<li>and OpenStreetMap: <a href="http://blog.geoserver.org/2009/01/30/geoserver-and-openstreetmap/">http://blog.geoserver.org/2009/01/30/geoserver-and-openstreetmap/</a></li><li>Not sure on a good source of 'eco' feature data like rainforests, land and marine reserves etc.<br>
</li></ul>Then ingesting Geonames for searchable place names to make lookups faster. I'm guessing I can ingest this into GeoServer somehow, replacing our existing Solr setup... or if not I can just search our Solr index and get OpenLayers to pan my map to the required lat/long.<br>
<br>I think this is all workable, but before I started I wanted to check if I missed something obvious, or if there is already an existing body of work compatible with GPL distribution I can use to shortcut my efforts?<br>
<br>Thanks for your time, if you bothered reading this far.<br><br>Ta,<br>Greg<br>