[OpenLayers-Dev] Transition From Google's API to OL

[Stephen Woodbridge]

Arnie Shore wrote:
> Folks, hello, and I wonder if anyone can share experiences doing such a 
> transition.  (I've tried this question with the users group but with no 
> responses.  It was suggested that I try this august group, so here 'tis.)
> 
> Background:  I've written a free, Open Source application targeted to 
> the public safety community, notably ham radio groups who kick into gear 
> during emergency/crisis conditions.  It relies on their mapping API, 
> currently.
> 
> But under emergency conditions that comprise the reasons for this 
> community's existence, internet connectivity to Google  may not exist of 
> course.  Accordingly, I'm planning a version of the app in which the 
> tile sets and API are resident at a local server.  Hence my strong 
> interest in OL.
> 
> I can't imagine I'm the only one here doing anything like that, so I'll 
> appreciate hearing re experiences doing this, plus, especially, thoughts 
> on the tile sets available.  Thanks, all.

Arnie,

There is not magic to doing what you want, just a lot of work.

OpenLayers is a good way to go. I have client that had originally built 
application on Google and have since migrated to OpenLayers. You will 
need to get something like the Tiger Shapefiles and process them into 
something suitable for you purposes to work with UMN Mapserver which can 
serve map images to OpenLayers or can be used to generate tiles.

You can start by rebuilding your application using OpenLayers and 
continue using Google for the time being. Then when you have it rehosted 
into the OpenLayers API, you can turn your attention to getting the maps 
working. Once you have Mapserver generating maps, you can change a few 
lines of OpenLayers to switch it between Mapserver and Google. Another 
option might be to use OSM and Tilecache to cache a copy of the OSM 
tiles locally.

When you are ready to focus on the Mapserver side of things, join the 
mapserver list and I'm sure we will be glad to help you.

-Steve