Hi Peesjee, You don't need WFS in your case. A WMS request on your ship position data would return a single image with your ships on it. Like Till said, you only need to care about WMS. You'll handle the rest with OpenLayers.
Alexandre Peesjee wrote: > Thx Till, > > your answer clears a lot of questions for me. I am definitely a *newbie* in > this area. I started reading about WMS and WFS yesterday, i even installed > 'GeoServer', and succesfully mapped custom shapefile into the Geoserver. But > then i got stuck thinking that only OpenLayers was responsible for the > objects on the Map. I read about WFS, but i thought that was for retrieving > data from existing data in maps (which my ships are not). I was clearly > wrong. > > So can i say that: with GeoServer i must be able to show my own "maps" (tiff > images), include the ships positions (with WFS) from our database...return > this as one WMS layer... and add this layer in with Openlayers. > > I have to figure the WFS part of the puzzle then... > > ps: seeing your answer and mine now, this post doesn't handle much of > openlayer, sorry for that... > > Greetz > Peesjee > > > > > > Till Adams wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> it is a WMS or WFS solution - that is what I probably would think as >> well:: There is a probalby UMN Mapserver or Geoserver (as WMS servers) >> solution behind, which handles the points (your ships) out of the >> database or a file. For this case, OL only has to handle one image, >> regardless whether you have 1, 3 or 2000 ships - this is a matter of the >> database or file feeding the WMS server behind, not of the client to >> render every single point. >> >> To explain the rough archtitecture behind - there is a WMS server like >> UMN or Geoserver (see www.osgeo.org for more info on them), they access >> your ship data (don't know where they come out, file or database?), you >> give them a marker and they create an image on the fly out of the ships >> - a WMS map request looks like that: >> >> http://www.webmapcenter.de/cgi-bin/mapserv?map=/var/data/www.webmapcenter.de%2Fnabu%2Fportale.map&TRANSPARENT=true&LAYERS=portale&FORMAT=image%2Fpng&SERVICE=WMS&VERSION=1.1.1&REQUEST=GetMap&STYLES=&EXCEPTIONS=application%2Fvnd.ogc.se_inimage&SRS=EPSG%3A900913&BBOX=761809.6422981643,6579508.301301379,831099.8084290314,6616771.352585221&WIDTH=1813&HEIGHT=975 >> >> As you can see, there is are params like BoundingBox, layer, coordinate >> system (srid) and so on - they let you control the "place" (don't find a >> better word) you see on the map. The configuration of our WMS let you >> control the rendering of the images, e.g. different symbols and/or sizes >> based on any attribute(s). >> The WMS server parses the request, accesses the data (your ships), >> creates a png (or gif, jpeg, ...) and sends it back to the requesting >> client. >> More: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Map_Service >> >> The request as above is directly taken from OL, so you only have to care >> about the WMS, not the rest, this will be done by OL for you. >> >> In the OL main file you bring the things together, the base layer from >> google and the WMS from your server - that's it, no worry about the >> amount of ships. >> >> BTW: I give you another strong reason why switching to openlayers makes >> sense: By changing one line of code you may switch from google basemaps >> to yahoo, virtual earth or any other base map service supported by OL, >> if any reason to do this comes up. Using the google API means using >> google maps ;-) >> >> Kind regards - Till >> >> >>> Hi, >>> >>> Let me explain my situation. I recently created an website showing >>> current >>> positions of ships with googlemaps. For a couple of reasons, we want to >>> migrate to another solution. One of the reasons is performance. With >>> googlemaps, i parse an xml (given by a webservice) and add/update markers >>> for every ship to show. This slows down with the number of ships to show >>> (example, sometimes we show more than 500 ships). To be honest, i'm not >>> sure >>> this is a good way to work... >>> >>> We are in contact with a company that offers a solution for us. They use >>> Openlayers. We have seen a demo and its very fast. I dont think they add >>> "markers" for every ship. Cause, when i zoom, the object also zooms, and >>> then refresh to the correct size it was before. How do they do that? Its >>> extremely fast, less than a second to show a 1000 of objects on a map. >>> >>> i'm given the task to investigate the possibilities of Openlayers, and >>> decide whether we can implement everything ourselfs (with openlayers), or >>> just buy the solution of that company. i'm afraid that, with my >>> "solution", >>> adding so many markers, the website would'nt be that fast. >>> >>> What is the best way to put 500 - 1000 "markers" on a map? (and refresh, >>> when refreshing in googlemaps, i had to update the marker-objects to >>> prevent >>> flickering) Sometimes a have to draw lines between them (tracking). (i >>> know >>> of the image caching problem in IE) >>> >>> I see i can add Markers, GML, geoRSS. So, which one do i use? i could >>> create >>> a webservice that gives me a GML, so i only have to load it, but is this >>> fast? or do i use my googlemaps way, adding markers and updating those >>> markers (slow)? >>> >>> Greetz >>> Peesjee >>> >>> >>> >>> >> -- >> ---------------------------------------------------------- >> terrestris GmbH & Co. KG >> Irmintrudisstrasse 17 >> 53111 Bonn >> Germany >> >> Till Adams >> Geschäftsführung >> >> Tel: +49 (0)228 / 962 899-52 >> Fax: +49 (0)228 / 962 899-57 >> [email protected] http://www.terrestris.de >> Amtsgericht Bonn, HRA 6835 >> --------------------------------------------------------- >> >> Komplementärin: >> >> terrestris Verwaltungs GmbH >> >> vertreten durch: >> Hinrich Paulsen, Till Adams >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Users mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://openlayers.org/mailman/listinfo/users >> >> >> > > -- Alexandre Dubé Mapgears www.mapgears.com _______________________________________________ Users mailing list [email protected] http://openlayers.org/mailman/listinfo/users
