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An Open Source Approach to Build a Web GIS Application

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IJCST Vol. 5, Issue 1, Jan - March 2014
An Open Source Approach to Build a Web GIS Application
1
Harpinder Singh, 2Dheeraj Gambhir
1,2
Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, Ludhiana, Punjab, India
Abstract
Deployment of Free and Open Source GIS (Geographic Information
Systems) tools (FOSS-GIS) is increasing day by day. Technical
features provided by FOSS software are comparable to their
proprietary peers. There is a variety of open source web GIS
software available on the internet and they differ on parameters like
ease of use, technology, complexity and support etc. In this paper
review of open source software combination of MapServer and
pmapper has been done. A reader working on Windows platform,
with no prior technical web GIS and programming skills can use
this simple and easy to use software combination to build a web
GIS application within a short period of time.
Keywords
MapServer, pmapper, Web GIS
I. Introduction
Today, World Wide Web is a popular medium for the distribution
and online processing of geo-spatial data. Open Source Web
GIS software systems have matured over time and provide the
functionality, elegance, strength and user friendliness equivalent to
that of proprietary Web GIS products. There are many technologies
and open source software (Server and Clients) to create a Web
GIS application like Geoserver, Geomoose, degree, MapServer,
MapBuilder, MapFish, OpenLayers etc. This paper reviews
MapServer and pmapper software to create a simple web GIS
application. Below given is a brief description of the software/
technologies used:
A. MapServer
It is an open source platform to publish spatial data and interactive
mapping applications to the internet [1]. Originally developed by
University of Minnesota, it runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS.
MapServer features MapScript, a scripting environment, which
makes it easy to build intricate Web GIS applications. It supports
many languages like, Java, PHP, C#, Python and Perl. According
to [2] MapServer is a high-performance, interoperable and open
source web mapping and geo-spatial analysis system.
MS4W package can be used for easy installation of MapServer
on Windows platforms. MS4W package installs a preconfigured
Web Server environment that includes components like: Apache
HTTP Server, PHP, MapServer CGI, Map script, GDAL/OGR
and other utilities [3]. There are various applications which have
been packaged for MS4W like Chameleon, Fusion, pmapper,
GeoMoose, kaMap etc.
B. pmapper
This framework is based on MapServer and PHP/MapScript
and is used to create the graphical user interface (GUI) of the
application. It offers broad functionalities like pan, zoom, identify,
search, select, distance/area measurement and various ready to
use plugins. It uses HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP and XML [4].
C. Mapfile
Mapfile is the core of MapServer. It helps MapServer to locate
the data, style it and create relationship between various map
objects. It contains links to the data layers (Shapefile, PostGIS,
50 International Journal of Computer Science And Technology
ISSN : 0976-8491 (Online) | ISSN : 2229-4333 (Print)
Raster layers etc.) or services (WFS, WMS), details about the
query and symbology/styling of the layers, extent and projection
information of the map and reference map details etc.
The basic structure of a map file is as follows:
MAP
|-LAYER
|-CLASS
|-STYLE
Objects like MAP, LAYER etc have various parameters to define
the desired property e.g. EXTENT to define the bounding box of
the map. The location of the map file is included in the pmapper’s
configuration file.
The Mapfile can be created manually in a text editor or can be
automatically generated with the help of “MapServer Export”
plugin of Quantum GIS.
Combination of Mapserver and pmapper has been used worldwide
to create various web GIS projects. [5] has used this combination
to develop a collaborative system for environment and tourism
information authoring and Web publishing. Steps to publish health
maps on the internet using MapServer have been defined in [6].
Ground water quality maps [7] have been published using these
open software for bringing the generated ground water quality
maps to the authority and or the community and to alert the local
community about the steps to be taken about the contaminated
water and decision making. [8] & [9] has used MapServer for
natural resources management. Details about the design and
implementation of spatially explicit online decision support
systems for disaster management has been provided by [10], it
also uses free or open source GIS tools.
II. Objective
The objective of this review paper is to provide methodology
to develop a web GIS application using open source tools. The
resultant application has features like pan, zoom, identity, query etc.
The software reviewed in this paper are MapServer and pmapper. A
reader working on Windows platform, with no technical web GIS
and programming skills can follow the step-by-step instructions
to develop a web GIS application.
III. Tools & Methodology
The various tools required are:
Server Side, Development and other: MS4W 3.1.0 (MapServer
4 Windows) which contain the packages : Apache 2.2.24 HTTP
server, PHP 5.4.14, Map Server CGI 6.2.1 etc, pmapper 4.3.2.,
Quantum GIS 1.7.3 and Notepad++.
Client Side: Simple Browser
The methodology for creation of the web application is as
follows:
1. Download the MS4W zip archive file and extract the contents to
the root of the drive , if successful a folder ms4w will be created
e.g. C:\ms4w
2. Double click on C:\ms4w\apache-install.bat to install the Apache
web server. Open the link http://localhost/ or http://127.0.0.1/ on
your browser, if the MS4W page (Fig. 1) opens then the package
has installed properly. Note: for Windows 7 and higher use the
option “Run as Administrator” during installation.
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Fig. 1: MS4W Home Page
3. Download the pmapper zip archive file and extract its content
to the root of the drive where ms4w folder is located. Open the
link http://localhost/ and check if the pmapper has been listed in
the applications in MS4W page.
4. Click on the “p.mapper: start demo application” to check if
the demo application (Fig. 2) is running. Else, restart the Apache
server by running the batch file C:\ms4w\apache-rerstart.bat
5. To start the development of the web GIS application, copy all
the shapefiles related to the project in the folder C:\ms4w\apps\
pmapper\pmapper_demodata.
6. Creation of a Map file: Open Quantum GIS (QGIS). Add a
plugin “MapServer Export”. Add the shapefile to QGIS, symbolize
, add categories and labels etc. and save the project. Use the
Mapserver Export plugin to convert the QGIS project to a map
file which will be used by pmapper. Open the file in Notepad++
editor and check the generated map file for the projection, extent
and the shapefile layers information.
7. Copy the map file to the path C:\ms4w\apps\pmapper\pmapper-
4.3.2\ config \ default as pmapper_demo.map
8. Check and edit the file config_default.xml which is the main
configuration file of the application. It is present in the folder,
C:\ms4w\apps\pmapper\pmapper-4.3.2\ config. It contains the
information about:
• List of plugins.
• Map file to be used.
• Categories of the layers to be added.
• User Interface settings
• Export plugin formats.
• Search item settings
• Print formats
• Query settings etc.
For the current objective only the Categories of the layers and
the Search sections need to be edited to include the name of the
layers referred in the mapfile and the attributes on which search
need to be performed.
9. Check and edit the file js_config.php located in the folder C:\
ms4w\ pps\ mapper\ mapper-4.3.2\config\default. It contains
information about: scale levels, query layouts, measuring units,
layout of the toolbar and tool elements etc.
10. For the current objective, it need not be edited.
Test the application by running the link http://localhost/pmapper/
map_default.phtml, on the browser. Now instead of the demo
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IJCST Vol. 5, Issue 1, Jan - March 2014
layers, the desired layers will be shown in the map window.
IV. Discussions
In this application pmapper has been used to create the GUI in
which the map images created by MapServer are displayed on
each pan, zoom, query etc events. pmapper has various plugins
and configuration options to enhance the application but only
the basic configurations and plugins has been used in this paper
for the development of the web GIS e.g. there is a plugin to add
a advance query editor and configuration settings to modify the
GUI also.
Shapefiles have been used in this application but PostGIS database
layers can also be used.
Since the software is open source, the core pmapper framework
can be used by the software developers to build complex web
GIS applications.
Fig. 2: Pmapper Demo Application
References
[1] [Online] Available: http://www.mapserver.org/
[2] R. R. Vatsavai, S. Shekhar, T. E. Burk, S. Lime,“Umn-
mapserver: A high-performance, interoperable, and open
source web mapping and geo-spatial analysis system”,
Geographic Information Science, pp. 400-417, 2006.
[3] [Online] Available: http://www.maptools.org/ms4w/
[4] [Online] Available: http://www.pmapper.net/
[5] B. R. Barricelli, N. Maiellaro, M. Padula, P. L. Scala,
“A collaborative system for environment and tourism
information authoring and Web publishing: An institutional
case study”, In Internet and Web Applications and Services,
2008. ICIW’08. Third International Conference on, 2008,
pp. 279-282.
[6] M. N. Boulos, K. Honda,“Web GIS in practice IV: publishing
your health maps and connecting to remote WMS sources
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[7] A. K. Das, P. Prakash, C. Sandilya, S. Subhani, “Development
of Web-Based Application for Generating and Publishing
Groundwater Quality Maps Using RS/GIS Technology and
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[8] L. Kooistra, A. Bergsma, B. Chuma, S. De Bruin,
“Development of a dynamic web mapping service for
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International Journal of Computer Science And Technology   51
IJCST Vol. 5, Issue 1, Jan - March 2014 ISSN : 0976-8491 (Online) | ISSN : 2229-4333 (Print)

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pp. 2371-2388, 2009.
[9] Z. Zang, J.-N. Shi, L. Zhao, Y.-X. Xu,“Map Publication
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[10] V. G. García, H. L. Perotto-Baldivieso, S. Hallett,“A prototype
design for a Web-GIS disaster support system: The Bolivia
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