[Geowanking] web content management systems and GIS

[Chris Holmes]

Yes, GIS in CMS's is a great idea.  I think it will play a big role in 
bringing mapping to the masses.  Lately I've heard of a couple people 
working on such things.  My favorite so far is using plone.  It was just 
announced, and is only a pre-release version, so not any where near 
completion, but I think it's a great start.  See 
http://primagis.technocore.fi and 
http://primagis.technocore.fi/demo/pgdemo/map_view It's built on PCL and 
ZCO (Python Cartographic Library and Zope Cartographic Objects), and in my 
opinion is right in on in terms of how to do web mapping and cms 
integration.  I think Anselm also worked on getting stuff working in 
Drupal, but he can probably tell you about it.

Chris

On Mon, 16 May 2005, Douglass Davis wrote:

>  
> I am currently working on the idea of integrating GIS capabilities with
> Content Management Systems, and I wanted to put the idea out there and
> see what you thought of it.  I also wanted to see if any one would be
> interested in working on it with me. 
>  
> If you are not familiar with content management systems, here is an
> example of one:
>  
> http://www.xoops.org
>  
> Also, here is an example of another site run using Xoops software:
>  
> http://www.guitargearheads.com/
>  
> In a nutshell CMS systems allow you to run a professional site by just
> adding modules such as message boards, photo albums, blogs or whatever
> you want to be on your site. A CMS also handles all of the commonly
> needed capabilities such as user management, search, customized displays
> etc.  For web programmers, a CMS provides a kernel/API with commonly used
> functionality.
>  
> So.  What I would like to work more on is adding GIS capabilities to a
> CMS.  I have started on a prototype already.
>  
> For example, when you look at photo albums or blog entries, these
> represent things may happen at a specific location.  Adding GIS
> capabilities to a CMS allows several things:
>  
> 1. A uniform representation for location across all modules/applications.
> 2. A uniform way to display information about a certain location, from
> every module installed. For example, I could easily go to the Raleigh, NC
> page and see all conversations, photos, blog entries happening in
> Raleigh, NC
> 3. Many existing applications in which GIS capability could be added
> without building the app from scratch.  Once the API
> 4. Location searches integrated into the CMS API
> 5. writing the HTML META tags that specify location automatically.
> and more...
>  
> Comments questions, ideas?  Any one else want to help get this up and
> running?
>  
> Douglass Davis
> Assistant Professor of Computer Science
> St. Augustine's College
> Raleigh, NC (USA)
> 
> 

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