THL Toolbox > Developers' Zone > GIS Development

GIS Development

Contributor(s): Tom Benner, David Germano

Technologies Overview

• Place Dictionary: The The Ruby on Rails application that handles the description of places with an underlying POSTGIS database.
• GeoServer: The server that serves the geospatial data from the Place Dictionary directly from the POSTGIS database.
• OpenLayers: The JavaScript library used to create the interactive map generated out of GeoServer.
• GeoNetwork: The JAVA application we use to catalog spatially referenced resources (e.g. paper maps, online maps). It allows for mapping of its static maps on the Open Layers-driven Interactive Map.
• Knowledge Maps: The Ruby on Rails application that handles ontologies, including the Place Dictionary's feature thesaurus, and the various ontologies drawn upon to describe places within the Place Dictionary.

THL Interactive Map

The THL interactive map is made with OpenLayers and draws its GIS content from an instance of GeoServer. It also provides direct searching of the Place Dictionary, and browsing of the Knowledge Map-driven Feature Thesaurus, with results mapped directly on the map to the left.

• Adding GIS Datasets for Display in the Map Layers Section of the Interactive Map
• Creating GIS Datasets
• Cataloging Maps and Datasets
• Creating Custom Maps
• Bookmarkable Map URL
• Clicking on a Location to List Features
• Consumption of the Place Dictionary and Knowledge Maps APIs
• Custom WMS Layer Class
• Drawing an Area to Find Features that Intersect with It
• JQuery Plugins Used on the Map
• Methods of Symbology Management
• Printing and Saving the Map
• Rendering Historical Maps with OpenLayers
• Requesting GML, KML, and Shapefiles from GeoServer
• Stopping Loading Layers
• Using a Proxy Script with OpenLayers

THL Map Collections App

The THL Map Collections App is a PHP and XSLT-based front-end for an instance of GeoNetwork.

• Adding Custom Search Fields to GeoNetwork
• GeoNetwork Web Services Used by the THL Map Collections App
• Overview of the THL Map Collections App
• Using Short, Persistent Identifiers in GeoNetwork

THL GIS Position Job Description

The three main tasks of the job are:

• Creating GIS Datasets
• Cataloging Maps and Datasets
• Creating Custom Maps

Provided for unrestricted use by the Tibetan and Himalayan Library