UMN Mapserver on mobile devices

[Bob Basques]

Puneet Kishor wrote:
> Rainer Spittel wrote:
>   
>> Hi there,
>>
>>   It just came in my mind: I wonder if is might be possible to setup a UMN
>> Mapserver environment on a mobile/handheld device (cellphone, PocketPC
>> etc.)? So the MapServer runs on the PocketPC including core geospatial
>> datasets (contours etc.) and accesses a WMS through the internet connection.
>> May there is a "ms4mob" ? ;-)
>>
>>   Does anyone has experience with that? Is there a documentation available?
>>
>>     
>
>
> no answer here for your specific question, but -- why would you want to 
> run MapServer on a handheld when you could use the browser on your 
> handheld to access MapServer installed on a real computer? I mean, that 
> is the whole point of running a server, so remote and mobile users (and 
> not just those holding mobile devices) can access the data. All you 
> would have to do is create a small-screen optimized version of your 
> site; fairly easy to do if you are using a scripting environment with 
> some kind of templating system.
>
>   
There are quite a few reasons to do this.  One would be to make the 
thing run without a data connection.  We have need to go into tunnels 
and underground for example.  Not to mention that it would run quicker.  
Doing Red-line markup in the field was another aspect of what we were 
interested in doing.  At the time we didn't have as many data capable 
phones as we have now, but I still think making the remote device 
(PDA/PHONE) run independantly has merit, even with the hardware 
capabilities available.

I experimented with an IPAQ a while ago.  I was more interested at the 
time in getting a HTTPD service running.  This way the remote device 
could also be accessed from other remote devices or back in the office.  
The idea being to run everything as a startup daemon as soon as the 
thing was turned on.  The Mapping system (in our case) was to be 
controlled by a GPS link in automode, where the map was centered 
automatically.   The mapping piece was the easy part.  the WebService 
was the harder piece.  We also wanted to be able to use the local 
WebServer to batch inputting in the field, and sync the remote 
WebService with the internal webservice by the users.  At some point 
this might even be automatable.

The GPS angle was alos a reason to have the mapping and Web service 
running on the remote device.  Our intent was to periodically query the 
remote devices Web service for it's current GPS location and allow for 
tracking and replay of the GPS trail via a Web Query, even from another 
PDA/Phone with the same setup.

Adding in the MapServer Component seemed like it would be possible, but 
in our case, the HTTPD aspect was the first order of business.  I even 
considered a dedicated hardware device for something like this, but we 
just don't have the resources to build something like this ourselve (not 
desire mind you, just resources :c).

bobb