Table of Contents

Foreword Preface 1. Introduction to Digital Mapping The Power of Digital Maps The Difficulties of Making Maps Different Kinds of Web Mapping 2. Digital Mapping Tasks and Tools Common Mapping Tasks Common Pitfalls, Deadends, and Irritations Identifying the Types of Tasks for a Project 3. Converting and Viewing Maps Raster and Vector OpenEV MapServer Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL) OGR Simple Features Library PostGIS Summary of Applications 4. Installing MapServer How MapServer Applications Operate Walkthrough of the Main Components Installing MapServer Getting Help 5. Acquiring Map Data Appraising Your Data Needs Acquiring the Data You Need 6. Analyzing Map Data Downloading the Demonstration Data Installing Data Management Tools: GDAL and FWTools Examining Data Content Summarizing Information Using Other Tools 7. Converting Map Data Converting Map Data Converting Vector Data Converting Raster Data to Other Formats 8. Visualizing Mapping Data in a Desktop Program Visualization and Mapping Programs Using OpenEV OpenEV Basics 9. Create and Edit Personal Map Data Planning Your Map Preprocessing Data Examples 10. Creating Static Maps MapServer Utilities Sample Uses of the Command-Line Utilities Setting Output Image Formats 11. Publishing Interactive Maps on the Web Preparing and Testing MapServer Create a Custom Application for a Particular Area Continuing Education 12. Accessing Maps Through Web Services Web Services for Mapping What Do Web Services for Mapping Do? Using MapServer with Web Services Reference Map Files 13. Managing a Spatial Database Introducing PostGIS What Is a Spatial Database? Downloading PostGIS Install Packages and Binaries Compiling from Source Code Steps for Setting Up PostGIS Creating a Spatial Database Load Data into the Database Spatial Data Queries Accessing Spatial Data from PostGIS in Other Applications 14. Custom Programming with MapServer's MapScript Introducing MapScript Getting MapScript MapScript Objects MapScript Examples Other Resources Parallel MapScript Translations A. A Brief Introduction to Map Projections B. MapServer Reference Guide for Vector Data Access Index

About the Author

Tyler is a geographer - at heart and at work - and has a BA in Geography from Lakehead University. He is GIS Service Manager for a forestry consulting company in British Columbia, Canada. His work and interests include geospatial and tabular data management, analysis, manipulation and visualisation - you know, maps! He focuses on using the latest Open Source GIS tools including MapServer and PostGIS and uses these together to enable web-based mapping and data management at low cost with unrivalled capabilities. You might catch him speaking at various conferences or supporting these tools through numerous mailing lists.

Reviews

"Map geeks will delight in this catalogue of appealing ideas and projects. The rest of us will be educated and impressed." - Gavin Inglis, news@UK, September 2005