[OpenLayers-Users] Communicating and Coordinating Maps Among
Several Servers
Bill Thoen
bthoen at gisnet.com
Thu Jan 29 13:24:30 EST 2009
This is omewhat off-topic, but the getting the end result involves
OpenLayers at both ends, so I thought I'd try here first and see if
anyone has some good ideas or "best practices" advice they could share.
In a nutshell, I've got a map server that displays maps using MapServer
and OpenLayers and I have a large set of LIDAR elevation points. Also, I
have a colleague who is building a SAS application that produces DEM
files (and shaded relief, line of sight, ridgeline, 3D scenes and other
digital 3D map products and map layers) from XYZ points. What we are
wondering is what is the best way to design a system or a protocol
whereby my system would take a client-defined rectangle and
automatically send the XYZ point data and SRS to his server and get back
one or more of these digital 3D products?
Would this be done best by first sending a data file via FTP to his
system and then issue an OpenLayers.loadURL() call with instructions as
to what's wanted and the file name, then have it do its thing and send
back a response with the necessary info that would allow my app to pick
up the resulting file and display it in a map window? Does this make
sense or am I barking up the wrong tree?
I realize that this would not likely be an interactive process from the
user's point of view, and it would be acceptable for the processing to
be an overnight thing, but the fly in the ointment here is that the
source data does not exist on the machine that is doing the heavy data
crunching and so it has to be transferred first. I'm looking for ideas
as how best to transfer a data set from machine to machine and
coordinate it with a request for performing some service with it. We
also want to this in as flexible a manner as possible, so we want to
avoid platform-specific protocols.
So does anyone have some suggestions as to what the best way to do this
is, or where I could go to learn more about doing something like this?
TIA,
- Bill Thoen
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