[Geowanking] WFS / GML servier for the rest of us?

[Jody Garnett]

Bryce Nesbitt (mailing list account) wrote:

> I've got data - simple point data with attributes.  I maintain this 
> data, and I can slice it or dice it, cook it up with perl scripts.  If 
> you'd like I can even turn it into a shapefile.  But how do I publish 
> it using OpenGIS standards?

Try GeoServer - it has a one click installer and can be set-up quite 
quickly:
-<http://docs.codehaus.org/display/GEOS/Home>
-<http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/geoserver/geoserver-1.3.0-RC2.exe?download>

> I must admit I'm a bit confused by OpenGIS.  I sort of expected to 
> find a simple canonical 'I'm here, world' type of XML script, and an 
> easy-to-install WFS server.  Something I could cook up with only a few 
> hours investment.  But so far, I only find deeper things, which cause 
> my eyes to glaze over before I've actually installed anything.  
> Remember, I care about the data, not the technical details of publishing.

I think it even meets your hello world use (there is a demo section in 
the webapp where you can choose different example requests and 
responses).  As for configuration it takes care of figuring out a all 
that XML Schema stuff and supports connection to a number of different 
data types.

It even supports a "property file format" which is probably enough plain 
text for you to use your perl skillz.

>_=id:Integer,geom:Geometry,name:String
>rd1=1|LINESTRING(0 0,10 10)|road one
>rd2=2|LINESTRING(20 20,30 30)|road two
>
(From http://geotools.org/DataStore+Walkthrough)

> I'm coming terribly close to publishing some of my data using the 
> Google Map API, and figuring that someone will eventually create a 
> hack to import that into real GIS software.  But what I'd really like 
> to do is support open standards, and add my data to a stable and 
> regionally geo-searchable index.  Can you folks suggest ways to help 
> make this happen?  Am I just too impatient?

Well the open standards types are a bit far away from that regionally 
geo-serchable index, the best I know is GeoConnections Dsicouvery Portal 
but as the standards come together I imagine it will be replaced:
-<http://geodiscover.cgdi.ca/gdp/index.jsp?language=en>

Jody