Adding persistent Geometry Data via Browser

[Stephen Lime]

On Apr 29, 2005, at 7:30 AM, Nicolas Schmidt wrote:

> > Steve.
> >
> > Thanks for your feedback!

You're welcome.

> > To summarize:
> > - I need javascript code in order to enable painting shapes on the map.
> >   Are such javascript libraries included in MapServer?

Nope, not included. MapServer is strictly the server piece. You can use
DHTML or a plugin-based tool like an applet or flash.

> > - On the server side, I can fetch the coordinates of the shapes. I
> > guess
> >   these are image coordinates which I have to translate to geographic
> >   coordinates? Is MapScript supporting me to do this?

Yes, there are helper calls to convert between image and map coodinates.

> > - Then, using MapScript, I can enter the shapes into a shapefile.
> >   (or, store them in a db and do process them later...)

Yes.

> > Has anybody else been implementing something similar? I am glad for any
> > experiences that anybody would like to share.

I wrote an applet to this sort of stuff, and then another person wrote
the server-side piece to write to ArcSDE. We also setup feature editing
this way. Nothing too fancy, more for feature sketching. Worked well.
The biggest problem with that approach was getting machines in our
organization set up with the right versions of Java. The server-side
was written in Java using the ArcSDE Java APIs. MapServer can write
shapefiles, but cannot write to other DBs, although that should be easy
to do with Oracle Spatial or PostGIS using straight SQL.

> > Nicolas

Steve

> > On Thu, 28 Apr 2005, Stephen Lime wrote:
> >
>> >> On Apr 27, 2005, at 10:18 AM, Nicolas Schmidt wrote:
>> >>
>>> >>> Hi List.
>>> >>> I am evaluating UMN MapServer for an internet mapping project.
>>> >>> One customer requirement is the ability for a user to add points or
>>> >>> polygons to map by clicking on the map in his browser.
>>> >>> These points then need to be made persistent on the server side, for
>>> >>> later
>>> >>> display.
>>> >>> Can anybody tell me if thats feasible
>>> >>> - with standard functionality
>> >>
>> >> The code exists to do this, you don't need to write C code...
>> >>
>>> >>> - extra hacking requried
>> >>
>> >> ...however, you'll need to use MapScript to process the shapes from
>> >> the
>> >> browser and write them to a user specific shapefile. You could then
>> >> reference that shapefile in calls to the CGI MapServer, or write the
>> >> whole thing using MapScript.
>> >>
>>> >>> - not feasible at all?
>> >>
>> >> It's feasible, but you'll have to do a bit of work. I'd check with
>> >> folks on the mailing list to see if someone already has built a
>> >> solution that they might be willing to share.
>> >>
>>> >>> Thanks a lot
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Nicolas
>>> >>>
>> >>
>> >> Steve
>> >>
> >
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > -
> > Nicolas Schmidt
> > nicolas.schmidt at netcetera.ch
> > Netcetera AG, 8040 Zuerich  phone +41 44 247 79 42  fax +41 44 247 70
> > 75
> >