Building Web Mapping Services

If you have your own machine set up for web access there is nothing to stop you serving out your own data (provided you own the copyright or have a licence). You can do this by setting up one of the web map server software systems.

GeoServer and MapServer are the main two Open Source technologies for serving your own map files (commercial software includes ArcGIS Server: was ~ArcIMS). Both come on OSGeo-Live and loading this as the OS for your webserver is the simplest way to get them set up (not least because it also comes with Apache). Here we'll talk a little about GeoServer as an example.

GeoServer on your OSGEO Live installation

One of the great things about OSGEO Live is that it comes with its own pre-configured website running as localhost, so you can test serving information within the safe bounds your computer, without having to go anywhere near the internet. This is good to play around and avoids any security issues associated with serving data publicly.

Starting-up GeoServer in OSGEO Live

GeoServer is built into the menu system for OSGEO Live, so it is simple to manage. To start serving, drill down to the GeoServer menu under Geospatial > Web Services

It has a relatively intuitive web-based management system reachable via the menus or on localhost:8082/geoserver/web/ .

You can find out more about how to get an OSGeo version of GeoServer up and running at this Quickstart webpage.