Saturday, October 7th, 2006
OpenLayers - Google Maps for the Rest of Us
Category: Mapping
Google Maps was and is a good idea. In large part it is what caused people to say “Whoa! Cool.” and first take notice of Ajax on a broad scale. The OpenLayers project aims to give that power to the rest of us. Built using OO Javascript, Prototype and the Rico library, it provides a similar UI and API to Google Maps. It’s purpose, however, is not to be a google clone. To quote from the project page:
As a framework, OpenLayers is intended to separate map tools from map data so that all the tools can operate on all the data sources. This separation breaks the proprietary silos that earlier GIS revolutions have taught civilization to avoid. The mapping revolution on the public Web should benefit from the experience of history.
In essence, if you have a campus map or a detailed map of some other area, you can roll your own Google Maps like interface.
Germany fails.
Why? The proportions of the projection to 2d are not correct for this type of map. I see no details (city names, street names) in Germany. I think it’s good to start such a project, but a good api wont help if the map source is that bad.
More about what I’m talking - in German: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartenprojektion
[...] OpenSurvey - Google Maps for the Rest of UsGoogle Maps was and is a good idea. In large part it is what caused … Built using OO Javascript, Prototype and the Rico library, it provides a similar UI and API to Google Maps. It s purpose, however, is not to be a google clone. … [...]
[...] Ajaxian » OpenSurvey - Google Maps for the Rest of Us [...]
OpenSurvey or OpenLayers?
Brain cramp. OpenLayers, of course.
[...] Openlayers gets a nice plug on the popular ajaxian blog. Unfortunately its not exactly well written and it left even me questioning the point of the post. Ah well, publicity is publicity i guess [...]