Open Source Update Friday

September 30, 2011 1 Comment

Everybody’s working for the weekend, especially on Friday.  But there is good news for those who like to install updates to software on their Friday; QGIS 1.7.1 and OpenLayers 2.11 are available.

  • QGIS 1.7.1 was released this week.  This is a bug fix release so there isn’t much new there other than cleaning up issues.  Check out those release notes to see what was updated.
  • OpenLayers 2.11 also was released this week.  Don’t let the .01 update fool you, this is huge.  Specifically “native” support for touch devices (you know, like that thing called an iPad) and some big performance updates.  Clearly this is an update all who are running OpenLayers 2.10 should look at very closely.
  • Esri Canvas Maps are now available in ArcGIS.com (er ArcGIS Online).  Now your paleo maps can have a little neo map flavor.  Everyone is a winner!  Yea that’s not really open source, but you can use it in OpenLayers so that’s a win for libre.

Filed under GIS Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

OpenLayers 2.10 – A Beginner’s Guide Book Review

May 16, 2011 Leave a Comment

I was excited to be able to review a book on what I think is one of my favorite javascript libraries out there.  OpenLayers 2.10 Beginner’s Guide has some really good parts and is going to be a good resource for those who want to get started with OpenLayers.  There are some major typos and other formatting issues with the ePub version I have that may not be present in the print version (I’m so over killing trees), but prepare to be frustrated if you go the ePub route.

One section of the book that I did think was very valuable was the one on Firebug.  It is a good reminder that developing JavaScript applications with only your web browser and notepad is not generally going to be enough.

If you have any experience, this book is probably going to not be of much value as it really is a beginners guide.  Developers can probably get up and running quicker using the online docs and examples than this book.  That said, it could be a good introduction to anyone wanting to get started with online mapping APIs.  A sample chapter is available if you’d like to see if this book is for you.

If there is one thing you can say about the Geo/LI space is that we’ve got a great selection of books to pick from lately.  This OpenLayers book is probably no exception to those wanting an integration to OpenLayers.  People always ask me what “technology” should they learn[ref]”Should I learn ArcObjects?” — Er no![/ref] and I usually say OpenLayers.  If you are the type that likes a book to help them learn how to do something, I’m going to say OpenLayers 2.10 – A Beginner’s Guide is a good choice to get your head around OpenLayers.

Filed under GIS Tagged with , , ,

The World… She be a changing…

February 25, 2011 16 Comments

The speed at which technology flows these days still impresses me. It seems like just yesterday I was watching TV on a TV, reading books on paper and listening to music on something called a walkman. My son asked me what a modem was and how it worked with my iPhone. Clearly we are all in trouble.

  • Brian Flood is correctly impressed with the World Resources Institute Reefs Map rendering 63,000 polygons with Google Fusion Tables faster than you can scream AXL.
  • Take a look at the Atlas of New South Wales.  I love how it is organized for actual people and not technologists.  I suspect it will be used quite a bit by the good folks upside-down on the other side of the world.  Take note, organize information by how people understand it to be, not by how you think it should be.  I’m not as smart as I think I am and neither are you.
  • The OpenLayers community has been sprinting in some neutral country in Europe.  The main goal, only something where they get OpenLayers to support mobile devices better.  Sounds like they have made some great progress.
  • When you see an article with “Gov 2.0″ in the title you can but not help but cringe.  That said the awesome that is TileMill is only to apparent to everyone.  CSS is the future, stop using SLD everyone.
  • Speaking of freaking amazing, how about this?  Noncontiguous cartograms in OpenLayers and Polymaps[ref]just saying “noncontiguous cartograms” makes you sound smart[/ref].  OpenLayers + Polymaps[ref]oh and GeoJSON is in for the ride as well, what a great example all around[/ref] is a winning combination.  God bless Ian Turton for pushing a SLD/GeoServer example[ref]Come to think of it, maybe the fact you can do such a thing with SLD is more amazing[/ref] in the comments.
  • Do you use ArcGIS Server with OpenLayers?  Thank the Azavea guys for making that happen.
  • Lastly, lets all start putting the fork in the IT department and just name them “the help desk”.  Why we hold on to such nonsense is beyond me.  We are all IT staff tonight! [ref]Ich bin ein Berliner[/ref]

Have a great weekend folks, baseball is back in session!

Filed under GIS Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

New Bing Tile Layer Type in OpenLayers

December 20, 2010 Leave a Comment

So this was some really great news for those of us using OpenLayers; Bing Tiles for OpenLayers:

As of today, OpenLayers has a new layer type: OpenLayers.Layer.Bing. “Why that” you may ask, “there is OpenLayers.Layer.VirtualEarth already”. So why is this new layer type so special? It is the first time that we access tiles from a commercial service directly. Others (e.g. Google Maps) do not provide direct access to their tiles, but Microsoft does through the Bing Maps Web Services.

Yea direct tile access is pretty awesome.  Bing Bang!

Filed under GIS Tagged with , , ,

OpenLayers 3.0 Takes Shape

June 28, 2010 Leave a Comment

Mid-Long Term isn’t around the corner, but there is much to like about OpenLayers 3.0.

Amongst the things we did discuss (and agree on) in the meeting are:

  1. Have the map be a central place for triggering events
  2. Streamlining the drag flow
  3. Maps are the leaders of all. They have the projection properties, and you can reproject maps
  4. Layers advertise their ability to render in a projection. If they can’t render in one, they turn off or something
  5. LonLat is a bad name. Location() is the future, and it is smart. Geometry comes from Location, and is also smart. They know about projections.
  6. Baselayers are a bad concept. Mutually exclusive visibility is the way of the future. Layer groups is a potential name for this type of thing
  7. Things which are called many times (which we now know/can examine) should be improved performance wise
  8. Create adapters for things like DOM manipulation but still have OpenLayers keep its own implementation. Just make it easier for people to roll in their favourite, be it jQuery, ext-core etc.
  9. Potentially pull out the geometry operations stuff into a separate library
  10. Keep a set of “widgets” but better separate them, so that people can more easily write their own “widgety things”
  11. Facilitating mobile support

We welcome your feedback.

OpenLayers 3.0 is like my own little Private Idaho!

Filed under GIS Tagged with , , , ,

Open Source Friday!

April 23, 2010 3 Comments

Basically I have no idea where the week went. As you can probably tell I’ve been very busy and thus there isn’t much time for blogging about how much I love the shapefile format. In the meantime there is some good open source news you probably need to be aware of.

  • OpenLayer 2.9 Released – Follow that link for the full details, but the take-away from the ESRI DevSummit was if you are doing cool stuff with the ESRI REST API, you are probably doing it in OpenLayers. Why code with something else?
  • zigGIS 3.0 – The defacto tool to access PostGIS from ArcGIS is now open source again. Well it is more complicated than that, but Abe Gillespie has the details on his blog. Basically the project is going to be moving forward with some very cool stuff planned. I’m excited as it makes zero sense to buy ArcSDE to access PostGIS.
  • The R Project – now this isn’t a specific news item, just a reminder that there is a kick ass statistical open source project screaming for you to use it. At the URISA conferences I was at the last two weeks, it appears many don’t know about all the cool stuff you can do with it. My favorite book on learning R (and other open source analytical tools) is Baseball Hacks. ESRI has been showcasing using R with their python tools so you should really want to get into it, just a freaking sweet project. Now if you want to see some geospatial use of R, check out Dylan Beaudette’s blog where he’s been showcasing some cool uses of R.

Anyway, have a great weekend folks. I’ll see some of you next week at GITA 2010. Play me out Joe Morello.

Filed under GIS Tagged with , , , , , ,

Rolling Your Mapping Apps on the iPad (or the iPhone)

January 27, 2010 17 Comments

One thing that has become crystal clear is the preferred method of having a mapping application on the iPhone and by extension the new iPad is to create a native iPhone/iPad app.  That said, the noise sometimes causes people to miss some great web mapping app (as native web apps).  I’ve looked into using SVG and even OpenLayers in the past for mapping in the iPhone, but who is rolling their own web apps out there to accomplish what until 2 years ago required a browser on a laptop or desktop? I know there will most likely be a session at the ESRI DevSummit using OpenLayers, but is there a framework people are working with?

Can anyone find me some mobile web mapping applications to love?

Filed under GIS Tagged with , , , , ,

ESRI Tries to Answer, “Which ESRI Web Mapping API Should I Use?”

October 19, 2009 17 Comments

This question comes up almost every day.  If you ask me I’ll tell you the same thing every time, use the ESRI REST API with OpenLayers.  Picking an ESRI ArcGIS Server API always makes me think of a good movie:

Filed under GIS Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Using OpenStreetMap in your ESRI JSAPI web apps

September 24, 2009 8 Comments

So yea, one can always use the Google, Bing or ESRI ArcGIS Online for your web mapping base layer, but lets be honest… You really want to use OpenStreetMap.  Well there is now a code example on the ESRI JSAPI Resource Center  using Cloudmade with JSAPI.  Once can easily take the code and modify it to read in the OSM tiles directly into your JSAPI map.  I used OpenLayers with OSM and ESRI ArcGIS Server in the past, but if you don’t or can’t use OpenLayers, you can take advantage of the OSM project now inside ESRI’s API.

Let’s get it on!

via @sathyaprasad

Filed under GIS Tagged with , , , , ,

OpenGeo releases OpenGeo Suite, puts price on Open Source GIS

May 28, 2009 2 Comments

OpenGeo has released their OpenGeo Suite to the public.  Most people already know about the part of OpenGeo Suite, so take a look at the Version Matrix with pricing and features and the big reason why you’d look at this suite.

Filed under GIS Tagged with , , , , ,

← Older posts