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cjhowe

GIS Tools/modeling

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?

byersa

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/MAP/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 <[hidden email]> 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?
>
>
>

cjhowe

Re: GIS Tools/modeling

In reply to this post by cjhowe

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 <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
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 <[hidden email]> 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?
>
>
>

byersa

Re: GIS Tools/modeling

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 <[hidden email]> 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 <[hidden email]>
> To: [hidden email]
> 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 <[hidden email]> 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?
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>

BJ Freeman

Re: GIS Tools/modeling

In reply to this post by byersa

might want to look at
http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/services.html#Geocoding_Direct

Al Byers sent the following on 11/26/2007 8:46 AM:

> 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/MAP/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 <[hidden email]> 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?
>>
>>
>>
>

cjhowe

Re: GIS Tools/modeling

In reply to this post by cjhowe

From an OFBiz community perspective KML/Z would just be an output manner (simply done through freemarker templates) as there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of interest in storing data in XML (I floated the Xindice integration earlier in the year and while it works there doesn't seem to be much interest). The storage seems to be better through adding geospatial tables or a secondary database and then linking it to a contentId.

I need to do quite a bit of homework on the issue as a whole before I bloviate on the issue. The topics that need to be decide on would be:
1) storage format
2) retrieval/output format(s)
3) miscellaneous tools (centroid, area, perimeter, etc calculations)
4) possibly rendering tools (if online map overlays are too limiting)
Let me know if I'm missing areas while I get my reading list in order :-)

----- Original Message ----
From: Al Byers <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 12:18:02 PM
Subject: Re: GIS Tools/modeling

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 <[hidden email]> 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 <[hidden email]>
> To: [hidden email]
> 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 <[hidden email]> 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?
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>

byersa

Re: GIS Tools/modeling

Here is an interesting blog talking about some of the issues:
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/05/where_20_standards_1.html
This was written in 2006 and it could be that GeoRSS has come on stronger
since then.

You may well want to implement your app using GeoRSS. I forgot that I added
the RomeEventHandler. I see that JIRA issue OFBIZ-721 deals with RSS and my
issue is https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/OFBIZ-1208. Maybe we should
use 1208 to capture discussion.

My controller.xml file has these:


<handler name="rome" type="request" class="
org.ofbiz.webapp.event.RomeEventHandler"/>
...
<request-map uri="ViewCustomRssFeed">
<security https="false" auth="false"/>
<event type="rome" invoke="generateCustomRssFeed"/>
<response name="success" type="none"/>
<response name="error" type="view" value="error"/>
</request-map>

Here is the code for generateCustomRssFeed:

public static Map generateCustomRssFeed(DispatchContext dctx, Map
context) {
Debug.logInfo("generateCustomCustomRssFeed(0) context:" +
context, module);
GenericValue userLogin = (GenericValue) context.get("userLogin");
String entryLink = (String) context.get("entryLink");
String feedType = (String) context.get("feedType");
Locale locale = (Locale) context.get("locale");

// create the main link
String mainLink = (String) context.get("mainLink");

LocalDispatcher dispatcher = dctx.getDispatcher();
GenericDelegator delegator = dctx.getDelegator();

// get the main blog content
GenericValue content = null;
// create the feed
SyndFeed feed = new SyndFeedImpl();
feed.setFeedType(feedType);
feed.setLink(mainLink);

feed.setTitle("Custom RSS Feed");
feed.setDescription("Custom RSS Feed");
Debug.logInfo("generateCustomRssFeed(1) feed:" + feed, module);
feed.setEntries(generateEntryList(dispatcher, delegator,
entryLink, locale, userLogin));

Map resp = ServiceUtil.returnSuccess();
resp.put("wireFeed", feed.createWireFeed());
return resp;
}

public static List generateEntryList(LocalDispatcher dispatcher,
GenericDelegator delegator, String entryLink, Locale locale, GenericValue
userLogin) {
List entries = FastList.newInstance();
List customList = null;
Map nullMap = null;
try {
customList = delegator.findByAnd("CustomEntity", nullMap);
} catch (GenericEntityException e) {
Debug.logError(e, module);
}

if (UtilValidate.isEmpty(customList)) {
return entries;
}

Iterator i = customList.iterator();
while (i.hasNext()) {
GenericValue v = (GenericValue) i.next();
Debug.logInfo("generateEntryList(1) v:" + v, module);
String sub = v.getString("customName");
if (sub != null) {
String thisLink = entryLink + "?customId=" +
v.getString("customId");
SyndContent desc = new SyndContentImpl();
desc.setType("text/plain");
desc.setValue(sub);

SyndEntry entry = new SyndEntryImpl();
entry.setTitle(v.getString("customName"));
entry.setPublishedDate(v.getTimestamp
("createdStamp"));
entry.setDescription(desc);
entry.setLink(thisLink);

//entry.setAuthor((v.getString("createdByUserLogin")));

GeoRSSModule geoRSSModule = new W3CGeoModuleImpl();
Double lon = v.getDouble("longitude");
Double lat = v.getDouble("latitude");
//GeoRSSModule geoRSSModule = new SimpleModuleImpl();
if (lon != null && lat != null) {
Position pos = new Position( lat.doubleValue(),
lon.doubleValue());
geoRSSModule.setPosition(pos);
entry.getModules().add(geoRSSModule);
Debug.logInfo("generateEntryList(2) entry:" +
entry, module);
entries.add(entry);
}
}
}

return entries;
}

I have added most of this email to JIRA-1208. I should mention that this
work was sponsored by HotWax.

-Al

On 11/26/07, Chris Howe <[hidden email]> wrote:

>
> From an OFBiz community perspective KML/Z would just be an output manner
> (simply done through freemarker templates) as there doesn't seem to be a
> whole lot of interest in storing data in XML (I floated the Xindice
> integration earlier in the year and while it works there doesn't seem to be
> much interest). The storage seems to be better through adding geospatial
> tables or a secondary database and then linking it to a contentId.
>
> I need to do quite a bit of homework on the issue as a whole before I
> bloviate on the issue. The topics that need to be decide on would be:
> 1) storage format
> 2) retrieval/output format(s)
> 3) miscellaneous tools (centroid, area, perimeter, etc calculations)
> 4) possibly rendering tools (if online map overlays are too limiting)
> Let me know if I'm missing areas while I get my reading list in order :-)
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Al Byers <[hidden email]>
> To: [hidden email]
> Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 12:18:02 PM
> Subject: Re: GIS Tools/modeling
>
> 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 <[hidden email]> 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 <[hidden email]>
> > To: [hidden email]
> > 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 <[hidden email]> 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?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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