Commercial Quality Maps and web services

[Paul Maine]

Do to the nature of my mapping application - I need the most  
up-to-date quality map data. Since I need high quality map data, I am  
looking at using commercial map data. I am looking at using ESRI  
webservices using PHP5 and SOAP to obtain a map that I desire to use  
as a base layer. My design is to get the commercial base layer and  
then add additional layers using Mapserver. The quality of the ESRI  
maps is good but I need to be able to get a world file or a  
georeference file so that when I use this ESRI map I will be able to  
add additional map layers and every thing in the other layers will  
align properly. Thus far I don't know how to georeference the ESRI map  
so that I can use it with Mapserver.

Any assistance is appreciated.

Thank You,
Paul Maine


Quoting Steve Wormley <steve at WORMLEY.COM>:

> One option that the company I work for is looking into, with some success,
> is to have Mapserver do a WMS call to a custom CGI which will retrieve map
> data from a commercial map vendor with their API. Vendors we have looked at
> include: deCarta, Microsoft MapPoint, Yahoo Maps and MapQuest.
>
> Our needs are US, Europe and Australia road mapping and since we were unable
> to find a direct WMS source we began investigating this option. At present
> we are testing MS MapPoint. There are some projection issues but the maps
> look pretty good in our development environment.
>
> Other options, depending on your needs, might be to move to an AJAX based
> solution using one of the above vendor's AJAX map controls and have your
> Mapserver provide the data overlay to the client browser.
>
> -Steve Wormley
>
>
> On 2006-08-15 6:40, "Paul Maine(ATS)" <pmaine at AUSTIN.RR.COM> wrote:
>
>> All
>>
>> I have a commercial mapping application that I would like to use Mapserver
>> as the map engine. Is their a commercial map data provider that provides web
>> services that are compatible with Mapserver?
>>
>> Thank You,
>> Paul
>