Slashgeo Log In
WMS, Where Shall I Find Thee?
posted by Satri
on Tuesday November 07, @05:37AM
Permalink
Trackback URI
Slashdotthis
Diggthis
Del.icio.us
from the where-are-those-layers-hiding? dept.
Permalink
Trackback URI
Slashdotthis
Diggthis
Del.icio.us
from the where-are-those-layers-hiding? dept.
Tim Schaub writes "Ok, you're putting together a new web mapping app and you want good looking data without all the work of hosting it. You might decide to rely on a publicly accessible web mapping service (WMS), but how can you find what's out there? A number of sites have links to these resources, but they come up short if you want to know the extent of the data, or what it looks like. The recently launched http://wms-sites.com/ is an effort to ease your pain. The site houses a growing catalog of useful WMS resources. Each layer (just under 3,000 at this writing) can be browsed in a slippy map interface – kudos to the OpenLayers team. The most useful way to find data is to enter a keyword or two in the search box. Hover over listed results to see the layer extent on a map, or consume the RSS if you prefer GeoRSS in the Resource Description Framework." Read what's left of the announcement with search examples below. See also related stories.
"There are a number of glitches that keep this from being an end-all solution at this point. Chief among them is that the WMS spec doesn't require enough metadata to ensure that a mindless client can make a request and get back a valid map graphic. (The WMS 1.1.1 specification doesn't require ScaleHint to be advertised, for example. So the mindless client – http://wms-sites.com/ in this case – might request map tiles that are beyond the range of available scales.)
Still, I find it more appealing than scrolling through lists of links. Interested in finding sources of shaded relief? Try http://wms-sites.com/search?SearchableText=shaded+ relief. If you have a mapping application that can ingest GeoRSS and want to create a map of orthophoto sources, try: http://wms-sites.com/search_rss?SearchableText=doq +OR+ortho.
If you know of a site that's not currently listed, drop it in the suggestion box. If this doesn't work, drop me a line and I'll add it to the list of glitches."
Still, I find it more appealing than scrolling through lists of links. Interested in finding sources of shaded relief? Try http://wms-sites.com/search?SearchableText=shaded+ relief. If you have a mapping application that can ingest GeoRSS and want to create a map of orthophoto sources, try: http://wms-sites.com/search_rss?SearchableText=doq +OR+ortho.
If you know of a site that's not currently listed, drop it in the suggestion box. If this doesn't work, drop me a line and I'll add it to the list of glitches."
Related Stories
Top Ten WMS Layers
[+]
Matt at the PerryGeo blog shares his top 10 for WMS layers. From the blog: "Software like GeoServer and Mapserver are making it easier to publish data via WMS and the number of WMS servers is surely growing… but how do you find them? There is no central registry for WMS servers but efforts like the refractions research ogc survey, mapdex and a few google tricks are making it easier to find data distributed via WMS." Any other valuable WMS layers nobody should miss?
The Reliability of Web Mapping Services
[+]
The PerryGeo blog has a interesting entry discussing the reliability of web mapping services. From the entry: "The bottom line is that whenever we rely heavily on a web service to deliver essential data, we are risking the integrity of the end product. The chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link and, unfortunately as the USGS and NASA have shown, those links can and will fail completely from time to time." Read also Dave's comment on Geodatabase replication feature coming in ArcGIS 9.2.
Industry: OGC WMS Server List
[+]
Via an internal mailing list, here's a SkyLab list of servers which use the OGC WMS implementation, along with a resource from Refractions Research to discover WMS/MFS services. This can be associated to the OSGeo efforts for geodata discovery.
OpenLayers 2.0 Released
[+]
The Chris GISMo blog tells us OpenLayers 2.0 has been released. From the press release: "OpenLayers makes it easy to put a dynamic map in any web page. It can
display map tiles and markers loaded from any source. OpenLayers is
completely free, Open Source JavaScript, released under the BSD License.
This new release of OpenLayers supports a number of new layer types,
including support for Virtual Earth, Google, and more, alongside WMS,
WFS, KaMap, and GeoRSS." The official website.
Industry: Setting up MapServer, OpenLayers and a WMS Server
[+]
Dave Bouwman not only discuss MapServer, but the installation process of OpenLayers and a WMS server. From the blog: "Again, this is not the least bit earth shattering, and it's a loooong way from a production application or an in-depth understanding, but the total time investment thus far (including this write up) has been a little over one hour. Thus, I think it's safe to say that the basic learning curve here is now in the realm of reasonable. Will your manager set this up? No. But this is no more complex (and may be simpler) than setting up ArcIMS or ArcGIS Server."
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
What a great idea :-)
(Score:2)( http://alexandreleroux.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Friday March 17, @05:07PM )
I hope the best for wms-sites.com. Having geo-aware search results is very interesting.
Suggestions from Chris GISmo
(Score:2)( http://alexandreleroux.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Friday March 17, @05:07PM )