New to Mapserver

[Bob Basques]

David,
 
You asked a couple of questions here.  One was the reuse of distributed
mapping with Google Maps, a way of doing this is with a WMS overlay. 
Mapserver can generate this type of map image, which can be used in a
number of opensource client frame works besides Google maps.  It can be
somewhat limiting though with regard to how much extra data you can add
to the user experience, with our actaully usiong the Google API, which
has it's own usage licenses.
 
Your other question was related to individuals managing their own data.
 This is going to sound a lot like a plug for my project, but . . . I'm
part of a group that builds a Client Framework that I think may answer
that end of the equation for you. The Project is GeoMoose.  It was built
with the primary purpose of abstracting the data maintenance tasks out,
so that individuals or smaller groups, which may or may not have a
background in GIS, can manage and publish their own data without a
systems administrator being involved.  Every layer, and for that matter,
tool or display option is considered a service of some sort, and these
services are collected at start up by the GeoMoose client at start up
for display.  Thisis all controlled by a XML file we call a MapBook
which describes the services and catalog items for use.  More than one
MapBook can be configured for a set of services, so many interfaces to
the same data are possible, and even this level of control can be
abstracted out of the Systems admins control if needed.   One service
that GeoMoose understands is a WMS service.  It also can use MapServer
as a image/data source for things like popups, and highlighting. 
Because everything is treated as a service, a broken service won't break
the whole interface, only that service, so a service provider can't
bring the whole system down.
 
GeoMoose is built around the idea of a distributed publishing system.
 
Hope some of that helps.
 
bobb
 
 
 
 
 
Your se

>>> "David H. McCoy" <davidhmccoy at COX.NET> wrote:
Hello!
I'm new to Mapserver and trying to understand something. I'm working
for=
=20
company that has an application with a mapping component. Currently,
that=
=20
component uses Google maps. I am replacing the Google Maps API with=20
Openlayers and the mapping component with Mapserver. The goal is that
whi=
le=20
a customer can elect to use say Google maps, they can also host the
maps=20=

internally, thus having no external dependencies.=20

In additional to server maps, does Map server actually have maps
availabl=
e?=20
Perhaps a better question would be are there any open source or
freeware=20=

apps comparable to Google maps that I can retrieve for local use and
util=
ize in=20
Mapserver?

Thanks for your time.
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