[Talk-GB] 'Easy' Speciality Map Rendering

[Graham Jones]

Hi All,
Quite a bit of the feedback I have had on this suggestion has pointed
towards the documentation for the map rendering tools being very complicated
and hard to follow.
I think there are quite a few good step-by-step tutorials on setting up the
tools, but I think we may be lacking a 'stand back' overview of how it all
fits together and the basic concepts.

I have had a go at this overview in a presentation format (I think this is
easier to follow than a wiki page, but will get this information into the
OSM wiki somehow once people have commented on it).

You should be able to see 'Draft A' of the presentation at
http://maps3.org.uk/doc/Mapnik_OSM_Presentation.pdf.

I would welcome any comments, in particular on the level I have pitched it -
I am concious that many that work with computers will consider terms like
XML and SQL obvious, but thought it worth a slide on each.   I think that
slide 7 (the picture showing the relationship between the tools and the
configuration files) is particularly important - please let me know if I
have missed something!

I am concious that there are more things that could be included - I think
that map projections and OpenLayers are two things that could use a basic
introduction too - I would welcome your thoughts.


Regards


Graham.

On 21 February 2011 19:38, Graham Jones <grahamjones139 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Folks,
> We have had a few interesting discussions both on and off this list about
> some speciality map overlays that I had put together to entertain myself
> (things like canals, historical sites, railways, power stations etc.) - the
> sort of things that I have on http://maps.webhop.net.  I have started
> moving these to a commercial web host at http://maps3.org.uk, which will
> be faster.
>
> A few people have commented that they would like to be able to do this sort
> of thing to display the data they are most interested in, but setting up all
> of the databases and rendering programs is too complicated.
>
> I have been giving this some thought, and would like to develop a
> speciality map rendering system to allow less technically minded people to
> create their own map overlays to display over the standard OSM map rendering
> (ie without having to set up your own postgresql database, import OSM data,
> keep it up to date etc...) - all you will need to do is create the mapnik
> stylesheet to tell the renderer what do display and how to display it (not
> that that is easy!).
>
> I envisage having a shared web server to share these map overlays, and
> provide customised editing facilities (potlatch2 tailored to the particular
> things being displayed on the map).
> It would also allow someone to create their own mapnik style sheet to show
> a particular set of data, and add it to the map.
>
> The idea would be that we would use a commercial web hosting service to
> keep the cost down, and a separate computer to do the map rendering and
> upload the map tiles to the server (I will use my old laptop for now, which
> should cope unless things get very popular...but might start an appeal for a
> community owned virtual server to do it if the load gets too high!).
>
> I have put some thoughts on what this system would look like on my OSM user
> page (http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/User:Grahamjones#Speciality_Maps
> ).
>
> My question is whether many people would find this useful?   Or has someone
> already done it but I have not found it?
>
> If it is the sort of thing people are interested in I will look at getting
> it set up - If anyone would like to help, that would be great!
>
> (note that I have sent this to the GB list because my hardware is not up to
> dealing with the whole world - there is no reason in principle why this
> should not be international).
>
> Regards
>
>
> Graham.
>
> --
> Graham Jones
> Hartlepool, UK.
>
>


-- 
Graham Jones
Hartlepool, UK.
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