Analysis of free web mapping libraries

Accessibility and Interactivity these are keywords of information today and that is equally important in science as anywhere else. When technician share information it benefits if it is intuitive, informative and simple and Common people able to understand they does not demand expert skills to understand and complicated formats. This master thesis has the aim to investigate open source software tools to design a web map application that can be used by any University, Government Department, Institute or NGO to distribute their data over internet .The Java platform to be implemented is the open source Open Layers which allow users to view and potentially manipulate GIS map data through a web map application. GIS data made available on the Google sites (the host site for the application) can be shared to users worldwide. The user can simply add from a list of available data layers, choose background (e.g. satellite view, Road map, Terrain View with label etc.), and zoom in and out. The data distributed from the Google sites can also be viewed and accessed from smart phones which open the possibility to make the public part of the larger data gathering task of specific scientific inventories like observations of migrating birds view, or whatever indicator a specific technician is interested in. Data is uploaded to the Google sites and can then be analyzed and the result is distributed to the public. Keywords: Html, CSS, Java Script, Google Map API, Google sites, .Kmz/kml file Etc.

ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information

Web mapping and the use of geospatial information online have evolved rapidly over the past few decades. Almost everyone in the world uses mapping information, whether or not one realizes it. Almost every mobile phone now has location services and every event and object on the earth has a location. The use of this geospatial location data has expanded rapidly, thanks to the development of the Internet. Huge volumes of geospatial data are available and daily being captured online, and are used in web applications and maps for viewing, analysis, modeling and simulation. This paper reviews the developments of web mapping from the first static online map images to the current highly interactive, multi-sourced web mapping services that have been increasingly moved to cloud computing platforms. The whole environment of web mapping captures the integration and interaction between three components found online, namely, geospatial information, people and functionality. In this paper, the trends and interactions among these components are identified and reviewed in relation to the technology developments. The review then concludes by exploring some of the opportunities and directions.

2010

Abstract HTML5 is being developed as the next major revision of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), the core markup language of the World Wide Web. It aims at reducing the need for proprietary, plug-in-based rich Internet application (RIA) technologies such as Adobe Flash. The canvas element is part of HTML5 and is used to draw graphics using scripting (eg, JavaScript).

ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information

Recent Web technologies such as HTML5, JavaScript, and WebGL have enabled powerful and highly dynamic Web mapping applications executing on standard Web browsers. Despite the complexity for developing such applications has been greatly reduced by Web mapping libraries, developers face many choices to achieve optimal performance and network usage. This scenario is even more complex when considering different representations of geographical data (raster, raw data or vector) and variety of devices (tablets, smartphones, and personal computers). This paper compares the performance and network usage of three popular JavaScript Web mapping libraries for implementing a Web map using different representations for geodata, and executing on different devices. In the experiments, Mapbox GL JS achieved the best overall performance on mid and high end devices for displaying raster or vector maps, while OpenLayers was the best for raster maps on all devices. Vector-based maps are a safe bet for n...

2008

The success of WebML (Web Modeling Language) and of the supporting tool WebRatio for designing and generating data-intensive web applications suggested us to extend the approach to the Web GIS context. The proposal was based on Geo Server and Map Server, two standard, open solutions, to handle spatial data. In the present paper, we propose an alternative approach based on Google Maps, a freely available web mapping application provided by Google, which allows for the search and the visualization of geographic information. This solution is so diffuse that many Internet users are identifying it as a “standard” way for the presentation of geographical informa-tion. Moreover, Google Maps can be integrated into a Web application by exploiting Google Maps APIs. In the paper, we describe the proposed WebML-based visual language to design Web GIS applications and how it has been embedded into WebRatio to generate Web GIS applications by exploiting the potentialities of the Google Maps APIs. We also illustrate the architecture of the generated Web GIS applications together with the employed technologies and provide a sample example of design and generation of a Web GIS application.

Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Distributed Multimedia Systems, 2016

In recent years, we have seen a growing number of location-based sensors used to measure increasingly diverse phenomena. Therefore, we consider the increasing need to efficiently manage the huge amount of data collected from located wireless sensor networks (WSN). In some phenomena, it is fundamental to generate maps in real time. Data can be grouped into web-cartography for diverse purposes; so finally, we develop a web-based mapping on demand. In this paper, in addition to cartographic functionalities mentioned above, we are facing another challenge. Indeed, we encounter the problem of avoiding on-the-fly overlays of multiple visual layers in order to get a result that is easy to interpret due to visual interference between graphic elements. The present paper describes an approach to the cartographic visualization of geo-data regularly acquired by WSN and exhibits a prototype portal based on an open source platform for integrated visualization as visual realtime summaries. An application in meteorology is proposed.

Advances in Spatial Data Handling, 2002

This paper details efforts to development a set of prototype, web-based geovisualisation tools. The focus is on design and implementation of lightweight tools that can run in standard web browsers and access data, stored in a remote database. The web geo-visualisation tools incorporate several standard exploratory spatial data analysis methods, including linked brushing and interactive animation. These tools are constructed using Macromedia Flash, a commercial software application that produces content for the web using a publicly available file specification called SWF. The advantages and disadvantages of Flash for geovisualisation are discussed. One advantage is that it supports links to remote databases. Accordingly, the use of XML as the communication syntax for the geovisualisation tool-to-database link is discussed. Two solutions to dynamic database access have been implemented, one using a stand-alone Java server and the other using Java servlet technology; the advantages and disadvantages of each approach are discussed.

This research explores the usage of freely available open-source resources for the creation of a plug-in free web-application interface for 3D geospatial data to display energy related modelling and simulation results. The objective is to provide an alternative to current browser based interfaces which rely on browser plug-ins. A Level of Detail 1 (LoD 1) CityGML 3D model of the city of Karlsruhe, Germany consisting of over 87000 buildings is used as a test data set. The data set was compiled using OpenStreetMap data and outputs from energy simulation models. All spatial and nonspatial data is hosted in a PostgreSQL database with a PostGIS extension that provides spatial capabilities. As the main requirement is independence from browser plug-ins, HTML5 and freely available JavaScript libraries are used for the web-application creation while the 3D aspect is controlled by WebGL through the JavaScript library Three.js. The analytical cartographic and GIS functions implemented in this interface include classification, attribute selection, descriptive statistics, spatial buffer analysis and the retrieval of simulation results from a PostgreSQL and PostGIS data infrastructure. This paper further discusses case studies and future enhancement opportunities for the proposed interface as well as lessons learned during the development process.

International Journal of Computer Applications

In this age of information where petabytes of data is generated every day, there is need to utilize this data to solve day-today problems encountered in the modern society. For this reason, Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) have become ubiquitous. The curation, data visualization on maps, geocoding of the same, and online deployment using web 2.0 technologies are user-generated content that are interactive and geo-located. Collectively, when GIS is delivered via internet technologies, it is termed web GIS. Over the years, Web GIS has evolved and gained prominence. This paper explores the structure of Web GIS, evaluates various methodologies currently employed by developers in the design, development and implementation of Web GIS systems and proposes a methodology for developing a standard Web GIS based on evaluation criteria.

In the last years, advancement of digital technologies has led to the development of innovative information and communication applications. Today, geographical digital tools are closely linked to computer-based communication processes, and contemporary (Geo-)ICT is extensively used in a wide range of different applications. However, for taking full advantage of these tools across society – including special needs groups – manifold open issues still have to be considered referring to topics such as e-inclusion. Interest is rising on enabling visually impaired to make use of web map applications, especially web-based city maps. Due to demographic change – associated with the rapid aging of population and the increasing number of people with age-related visual impairment – this is particularly in recent times. Unfortunately, the access and use of currently available web map applications is difficult or even impossible for visually impaired. Hence, several questions pertaining to the appropriate design and implementation of web maps for visually impaired are still open: (1) How to design and configure user interfaces of web map applications for visually impaired? (2) Which functionalities need to be implemented? (3) Which map content is demanded by visually impaired? (4) Which kind of graphical and non-graphical map design is most useful to enhance accessibility? The AccessibleMap project aims to investigate the above mentioned questions and to develop methods to make web-based city maps more (easily) accessible and usable for visually impaired. A prototype web map application is developed.