Chris, I am not sure that KML and KMZ are not better ways to go. I went the "community" route because it just seems to fit in with OFBiz's philosophy and even Google should be (and I think is) using open source standards in their work. I should be able to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the Google vs. the Geoserver/MapBuilder approaches, but I would have to research the KML/Z tech more, first.
The question to me answered is whether or not KML/Z are as good at accessing Geoserver servers as the MapBuilder product. If they don't do as good a job, then I think that developers may sometimes wish to access data that is not served up by Google Maps and won't be able to. The other test for KML/Z is if you can do custom rollover popups with KML/Z. It is easy to do simple ones, but sometimes you may wish to do more complicated ones and I am not sure about the suitability of KML/Z for that - though I would guess it does fine. Please don't hesitate to discuss your issues here. Adding GIS to OFBiz would be a really cool add-on and the more people we can involve, the better. -Al On 11/26/07, Chris Howe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Very interesting. My implementation is extremely crude in comparison. I > was only outputting KML and KMZ for Google Earth. It seems I have quite a > bit of homework to do before being able to add very much to the discussion. > > ----- Original Message ---- > From: Al Byers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: dev@ofbiz.apache.org > Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 10:46:31 AM > Subject: Re: GIS Tools/modeling > > > Hey Chris, > > Yes, I did some GIS work a few months ago. What I did was add a WFS > interface to OFBiz. It is WfsEventHandler class in webapp.event. I did > a lot > of work with GeoServer (http://docs.codehaus.org/display/GEOS/Home) > and > MapBuilder (http://docs.codehaus.org/display/MAInterstinP/Home) for the > client > side. > I used MySQL for a geo spatial DB. I think GeoServer is definitely the > way > to go for the server since it is Java based and I had no trouble > including > it in my ofbiz tomcat setup. There is an effort to consolidate many of > the > various client packages (such as OpenLayers) and MapBuilder seems to be > at > the forefront of that effort (it uses OpenLayers to render, but adds an > XML > syntax for implementing client frontends. > > It is a very exciting time for the GIS community as they are working > together to create products and mashups that are the same sort of > Goliath-killers in the GIS world that OFBiz is becoming in the ERP > world. > > I also did a GeoRSS interface so that I could add markers to Google > Maps, > but I did not see how to add that to the ofbiz base code. I would be > willing > to share that code if we can see where to add it. See > http://docs.codehaus.org/display/GEOSDOC/GeoRSS. > > I think the WFS interface is the critical part, as it lets you use > other > servers like GeoServer to server up the base GIS layers, but lets you > use > OFBiz to store and server the "points of interest". I only modeled > points > with my WfsEventHandler class. It needs to be extended to do a > rectangular > "find". One of the key things that I did was implement the "ogc:filter" > using FreeMarker templates. That is the part that needs to be extended > to > implement the rectangular find. > > If you are not familiar with the WFS, WMS and WCS standards, you need > to be. > They are what make all the synergy possible. > > It has been a few months since I have had a chance to work on it (which > might as well be a few years at my age) so you might want to google > "gis" > and "ofbiz" to see what else I had to say about it. I would be glad to > discuss and work on something more substantial for ofbiz, but I am not > actively working on GIS at the moment, so my time will be limited. > > -Al > > On 11/26/07, Chris Howe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > I just completed a rather remedial GIS implementation (very poorly > > designed, but works for it's purpose). Anyone have any > > interest/experience/intelligent thought with this? > > > > > > > > > >
