[Mapserver-west] Greetings from a(nother) MS user in Prince George, BC

[Steven Monai]

Hello group:

I work for Spatial Mapping Ltd., a small map-making/GIS company that serves
mainly the forestry sector by producing paper maps and digital datasets. My
title is "Database Analyst/Developer", which basically means I create
database tables, help to populate them, and then generate reports based on
them. I have come to think of maps as just another kind of report, which
reflects my database-driven view of the world.

Currently, most of my co-workers use Microstation and ArcInfo for map
production and GIS analysis (respectively). Personally, I am more interested
in delivering map products and data over the Internet, hence my interest in
tools like ArcIMS (ESRI), Image Web Server (ERMapper) and MapServer (open
source). The latter is, of course, my favourite, but that may just be a case
of liking what you know and disliking what you don't. I haven't had the
opportunities to dive into ArcIMS or IWS as I have with MapServer.

I can't remember exactly when or where I first heard of MapServer, but it
was likely through contact with Mishtu Banerjee and Tyler Mitchell, whom
I've worked with on various projects going back to 2000 or 2001. I am
currently the only person in my shop who knows anything about MS, but I'm
hoping that will change if its power can be suitably demonstrated.

I recently built a Linux (Slackware 10.0) server (running MapServer,
Postgres/PostGIS, Apache, and PHP) as the platform for development of a
web-based vehicle tracking system (VTS). The VTS receives packets of GPS
data from the vehicles in (nearly) real time, and stores the data points in
a Postgres database for subsequent display. The web interface relies on
Javascript (and a tweaked version of "dbox") to deliver its mapping
capabilities (currently panning and zooming, but no querying as yet). From
the server side, map images are delivered via a combination of MapServer
FastCGI and PHP/MapScript. Since the map background layer is a raster (with
relatively large map images), the background is refreshed only when panning
and zooming. The foreground layer, consisting of the current vehicle
positions (points and text), is small enough to be refreshed at regular
(roughly 5-second) intervals.

Unfortunately, a public link to the current working demo is not available,
as it is still a work-in-process (i.e. not very pretty), and it contains
data considered confidential. At some point, it would be nice to put up a
public demo site using non-proprietary data. Maybe I could serve it from my
home PC ... 

Bye for now,
-SM
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Steven Monai
Database & Application Developer
Spatial Mapping Ltd.
484 2nd Avenue
Prince George, BC, Canada
V2L 2Z7

http://www.spatialmapping.com
mailto:stevem at spatialmapping.com
phone: 250 564 1928
fax: 250 564 0751
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