[GLLUG] Re: PHP GD Question

[Ashton Shortridge]

I know very little about web interfaces for databases, but I hope to learn. 
I do know quite a bit about GIS. As far as open source GIS goes, I'm most 
familiar with GRASS. A website with lots of information, as well as 
software, is:
http://grass.ibiblio.org/index.html 

also check this site for lots of other free or open alternatives:
http://freegis.org/index.en.html 

A couple of people have mentioned PostgreSQL; I believe some spatial 
components have been developed for it, so it might be worth taking a careful 
look. 

My suspicion is that the GIS route is overly complex for a basic mapping 
application, though if you have plans for more substantial web content - 
such as analysis, DB mining and more sophisticated activities down the road 
it could make sense to bite the bullet now. 

Next winter I'm teaching a graduate seminar in Geography on Spatial 
Databases, so I'd better learn a thing or two about interfaces this summer! 

Hope this helps, 

Ashton 


Ashton Shortridge
Assistant Professor
Department of Geography
ashton@msu.eduSean writes: 

>> > Hello Everyone! 
>> > 
>> > We use models to predict the possiblity of a plant disease or pest 
>> > emergence.  This is based upon an algorithm that takes as input hourly 
>> > weather information to include humidity, temperature and precipitation.  
>> > It requires  seven days of data to calculate this probability. 
>> > 
>> > On a dynamic webpage, I want to display these percentages on the screen 
>> > with a color legend and have the appropriate county on the Michigan Map 
>> > colored corresponding to the statistical probability calculated.  I would 
>> > like the user to be able to select past weeks to see the probability, but 
>> > the default map displayed would show the probability of the past seven 
>> > days. 
>> > 
>> > Does anybody out there know if it would be feasible to use PHP and GD 
>> > somehow to color in individual counties on a State Map image.   The 
>> > coloration would be determined values that were stored in a Mysql database 
>> > or determined by an algorithm that worked upon the values in a Mysql 
>> > database.  Unfortunately, these are not simple rectangles, arcs, squares, 
>> > the counties are pretty complex shapes. 
>> > 
>> > Or would this be a lot of work that might be accomplished by use of a good 
>> > GIS/mapping package?  Does anybody out there have any experiences with GIS 
>> > with Linux / Mysql acting as a server/datasource, serving up dynamic maps 
>> > in users web browsers? 
>> > 
>> > Appreciate your input, 
>> > 
>> > Lee Duynslager 
>> > 
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