Oracle Maps uses "Openstreetmap" as WMS

Thanks to the analysis work and "hacking" done by my colleague Carsten Czarski I am pleased to present the Openstreetmap solution (free maps...!!) being integrated in Oracle Maps utilising an Openstreetmap WMS service provided by the WHEREGROUP.

In the Oracle Mapviewer it looks like:



Here are some screenshots of the setup of the "Map Tile Layer Definition":



The "cutted" url is : http://osm.wheregroup.com/cgi-bin/mapserv

you will have to use SRID 4326 - I used 10 zoom-levels:



In Oracle Application Express with Oracle Maps it looks like:

A tutorial (in German) can be found on the German APEX Community site.

"Firewall challenges":
The OSM-server resides in the Internet. If your MapViewer Installation is behind a firewall, you'll  need to define your Proxy-Server... this has to be done in the file
"MapViewerConfig.xml" or here:
MapViewer Admin GUI --> Configuration --> search for "Web Proxy Settings"

And the "check-box" for "HTTP Proxy required" has to be set in the MapTileLayer configuration

Geocubes - what is that ?

As the number of FOI's do increase steadily, it makes sense to "cluster" these instead of pointing to a cloud of FOI's.

Last week I came across this new feature called GEOCUBES developed by a Berlin (Germany) located company named Skilldeal.com.

Til end of Feb 2009 the Code (Javascript API, JS API Reference, client library PHP ) is free - I haven't had the time to test it - feel free to test it on your own !

(28.01.2009) One more comment:
I think there is no need for the GEOCUBES functionality in Oracle Maps, as we do influence the appearance of the FOI's according to the Zoom-Levels. In Mapviewer and Oracle Maps we can setup the layers in relation to a Zoom-Level.
This is different in Google Maps: there you do see ALL FOI's at all Zoom-Levels, and therefore it makes sense to use GEOCUBES.

New Oracle OTN Discussion Forum on Mapviewer

Since November 12th 2008 there is a new OTN Discussion Forum on Mapviewer and Oracle Maps.
Pls be informed accordingly.

FOI numbering + label in LJ's new BLOG - and more

I like to point you to the new BLOG of LJ QIAN - Oracle Maps Software-Developer.
Especially, as in his latest thread he describes how to "Number" FOI's in order to easily crossreference the numbers with the numbers of a list aside the map:



As well I found very useful infos and How To's about
- Oracle Maps/Mapviewer within a SWING application (with source code!)
- How to put/edit labels/text aside an FOI
- Do a "secure" Mapping by means of APEX, AJAX and Oracle Maps
- How to read Logs generated by Mapviewer
- a Primer on Oracle Maps/Mapviewer
- GeoRSS function using FLICKR feed...
and even more.

Bernhard

Mapviewer 10.1.3.3 Quickstart Kit for Weblogic Server (WLS) on OTN for Download

http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/mapviewer/htdocs/winsoft.html

NEW: Spatial und LBS White Paper (August 2008)

A new Oracle Locator and Oracle Spatial 11g Best Practices Whitepaper (16 pages) has been published. Just to let you know !
The TOC looks as follows:
- General Best Practices
- Oracle patchsets
- Data modeling
- Metadata, tolerance and coordinate systems
- Transportable tablespace with spatial data and spatial indexes
- Data loading
- Point data in the SDO_POINT attribute of the SDO_GEOMETRY object
- Geometry validation
- Spatial index creation
- Partitioned local spatial indexes
- Spatial Queries
- Application considerations ArcGIS
- DBTUNE file
- Important notes for 3D data
- Creating a spatial index with an ESRI client tool
- Primary key for ArcSDE
- Registration of spatial layers not created by ESRI client tools
- Deregistering layers from ArcSDE
- Performance with ESRI client tools

Mapviewer - Mapbuilder: concatenated labels

Undocumented Feature:

How can labels be concatenated from different columns of a table/theme?

Mapbuilder helps !

Mapviewer certified on WebLogicServer (WLS)

A new Mapviewer patch for version 10.1.3.1 is available with WLS and Safari Browser support:

Feel free to download from Metalink.

DOAG SIG Spatial infos

The DOAG SIG Spatial event September 9th in Frankfurt was a great success ! Again more than 70 people attended the event. Thanks to Thomas Pahl's excellent organisation and the very interesting topics and speeches (as planned - pls see my previous thread on this).

After 7 years of DOAG SIG SPATIAL organising Thomas Pahl will hand over the event organisation to other spatial enthusiasts -
A GREAT THANK YOU to Thomas for all his voluntary work ! Great !

As promised and as a follow up of my speech pls make a note of the following information:

MAPVIEWER 11g Preview (comprising Oracle Maps) is now production and supported! - whereas you might miss it for download on the Mapviewer download page.
As MAPVIEWER now has become part of the Oracle Weblogic Server (WLS) and the version 11g is not out,
MAPVIEWER's new version is: 10.1.3.1 + Patch#4 (incl. Oracle Maps)
You may download it from Metalink.oracle.com - search for patch 7195504
Mapviewer does run on WLS - I did test it -and the certification process of Mapviewer on WLS is underway.

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Of great interest was the new Oracle Middleware Strategy: So I post some links here.
See and hear the Oracle Fusion Middleware Strategy as a Podcast or the Product Strategy and Briefing (pdf) or the Webcast "BEA Welcome and Middleware Strategy Briefing" (Charles Phillips - Oracle President and Thomas Kurian - Oracle SVP Development - July 1st 2008)

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Forgotten Links:
Geocoder Demo: http://elocation.oracle.com/geocoder
Oracle Maps online: http://elocation.oracle.com/elocation/ajax
Oracle Mapviewer online: http://elocation.oracle.com/mapviewer

New (in German) Spatial Community page with a wealth of information !

All visitors of the DOAG SIG Spatial will received the links to supporting papers and copies of the speeches on paper or pdf from the DOAG organisation.

I enjoyed both speaking at the DOAG event and meeting all the people !
Take care !

DOAG SIG Spatial 9.9.08 in Frankfurt

• Neues zu Oracle Spatial und Oracle Maps in 11g (Carsten Czarski, Oracle)
• Oracle Maps Mashups - wie nutzt man andere Kartenserver (Bernhard Fischer-Wasels, Oracle)
• Oracle als Integrationsplattform -- Geodata Warehouse im Konzern Stadt Herten (Berthold Bärk / Rolf Jüttner, CISS TDI)
• Oracle-Spatial-basierte Betriebsmittelauskunft für Ver- und Entsorgungsnetze (Petra Freutel / Nico Tebbe, Mettenmeier)
• Geoproxy Thüringen - Hochperformante Bereitstellung von Geodaten (Olaf Schimmich / Erik Lipski, Grit)
• Data Dictionaries: Vergleich von Oracle Spatial 11g und PostGIS (Andreas Bartels, disy)

More you can find on the http://www.doag.org/ site under SIG Spatial

Event location: InterCityHotel Frankfurt Airport, Cargo City Süd, 60549 Frankfurt/Main