Suggestions needed to get started

[Piero Cavalieri]

M. Fioretti wrote:

>Greetings,
>
>I have to build a new website, with a map section. Users must be able
>to say "show me path number X, and all the interest points distant
>less than 20 KMs from its starting point", where:
>
>"show me" means generate on demand a png image of the map with all the
>          requested data. The image must be printable at the right
>          resolution, that is when on paper must be in the exact scale
>          (Hmmm, maybe pdf is better for this: which other tools may
>          work with Image_GIS to do pdf?)

Exact scale could be problematic; Probably you want the user select the
area to be printed. In this case, scale will not be preserved. Good thing
is that you can place images as percentage of paper's width and height. So
you can print in A4, A3, A0, custom dimensions ecc with a unique code block
(but scale will not be presereved...).
For pdf there are various libraries. Pdflib is not free (pdfliblite is, but
under certain circusances), but in php manual there are links to other free
pdf libraries (if you use php...).

>
>the map comes from a complete GIS database, scale 1:25000, the same
>used for official topographic maps
>

Tiff format is suppose. Gdal do the work.

>"path number X" is available as a series of GPS waypoints or is part
>of a road already included in the GIS database
>
>those waypoints and all interest points will be stored in a MySql or
>PostgreSql database

Postgre as a lot of geographic functions. Maybe Posgre will be useful on
 "show me path number X, and all the interest points distant less than 20
KMs from its starting point", but to simply zoom on an interest point you
will no need that.

>
>My question is that obviously, I'd prefer to do the whole website with
>existing FOSS applications. Given the specs above, which other
>programs/PHP modules/tools do you recommend?

Probably Mapserver + PHP + Postgre will be ok.

I just need to be pointed
>in the right direction, so I can download everything, study it and
>start coding everything together by myself.
>

If you use software above you could have a look at GMAP application and
DCMMS (which use also Postgre).


>Any feedback is welcome.
>
>Thank you in advance,
>      Marco
>

P.