The KML Handbook: Geographic Visualization for the Web Review

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(More customer reviews)Just received my copy today and spent the afternoon pouring through it. In summary it is an excellent summary of KML and will appeal to both novice and professionals.
This is a step by step guide to writing and using KML programming language to produce enhanced graphics as overlays onto web based mapping programs such as Google Earth. But since KML is an open standard it can be used with almost any geographic program that supports it (such as Microsoft Virtual Earth, ArcGIS, EarthBrowser, etc.).
It has been a long time since a did any programing and I was worried that this book would be over my head, but it is not. It provides step by step directions with excellent colour screen shots to progressively walk the reader through several real world mashups using Google Earth. KML is based on the XML language but you do NOT need to know anything about programming in order to pick up this book and learn how to write and use KML code. Since KML is platform independent this book will be useful if you use PC, Mac or Linux.
Finally there is a website that has examples and KML scripts for downloading (to save some typing). I especially appreciate Appendix A which is a reference for the syntax of all of the KML commands.
In addition to this book, Google's website has a lot of information, examples and practice scripts on KML and how to use it with both Google Earth and Google Maps. If you are just interested in seeing what KML is and how it is used that would be the first place to go as it is FREE. If you like what you see and want to learn more this is THE reference/guide for KML.
Eric

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"The way the information is presented appeals to teachers, hobbyists, web designers—anyone looking for a way to enhance their content by using customized maps."—Warren Kelly, Pastor"It could become the de-facto tutorial volume for the subject, as well as the classic reference guide."—Thomas Duff, Lead Developer"This book is written so well and is so easy to follow it's a joy to go through."— Daniel McKinnon, Software Engineer KML began as the file format for Google Earth, but it has evolved into a full-fledged international standard for describing any geographic content—the "HTML of geography." It's already supported by applications ranging from Microsoft Virtual Earth and NASA WorldWind to Photoshop and AutoCAD. You can do amazing things with KML, and this book will show you how, using practical examples drawn from today's best online mapping applications.Drawing on her extensive experience with the creators of KML, Wernecke teaches techniques that can be used by everyone from programmers to real estate agents, scientists, students, architects, virtual explorers, and more. Highlights includeIncorporating rich content in Placemark balloons Creating overlays that superimpose your images on standard Earth browsers Generating animations that move through Placemarks, Overlays, and Models Controlling and updating map content across the Web Managing large data sets using regions and custom data types Complete KML language reference: elements, types, syntax, file structure, and conventions

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Map Scripting 101: An Example-Driven Guide to Building Interactive Maps with Bing, Yahoo, and Google Maps Review

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(More customer reviews)I've gone over different aspects of this book a few times now, and was really looking forward to it showing a few things with ease, that I was looking to complete for a site I'm working on. Needless to say, I'm rather disappointed with the code issues within the book. I've compared the code in the book itself to the code on both the books website and the code on the Mapstraction website, and it varies much from both. So much so that it doesn't even work correctly...I believe that it's partially due to the lack of clarity on the Mapstraction website. The book does excel in describing techniques used for map scripting without a reliance on any one particular service, but after the issues described above, I feel that sticking to one service (such as google maps) would make your life a lot easier.
Pros
- Good read for basic concepts
- Easy to read and understand
Cons
- Flawed code and examples
- Book site code doesn't always match books code
(site code appears to be outdated! How this is possible I don't know)

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Websites like MapQuest and Google Maps have transformed the way we think about maps. But these services do more than offer driving directions—they provide APIs that web developers can use to build highly customized map-based applications.

In Map Scripting 101, author Adam DuVander delivers 73 immediately useful scripts that will show you how to create interactive maps and mashups. You'll build tools like a local concert tracker, a real-time weather map, a Twitter friend-finder, an annotated map of Central Park, and much more. And because the book is based on the cross-platform Mapstraction JavaScript library, everything you create will be able to use nearly any mapping service, including OpenStreetMap, MapQuest, Google, Yahoo!, and Bing.

You'll also learn how to:

Create, embed, and manipulate basic maps by setting zoom levels and map boundaries
Show, hide, and filter location markers and info-bubbles
Customize your maps for visitors based on their location
Use common data formats like GPS XML, Google Earth's KML, and GeoRSS
Create graphical overlays on maps to better analyze data and trends
Use freely available geodata from websites like Yelp and Upcoming—and public domain geodata from the US government

Map Scripting 101 is perfect for any web developer getting started with map scripting, whether you want to track earthquakes around the world, or just mark the best coffee shops in Dubuque.

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GIS for Web Developers: Adding 'Where' to Your Web Applications Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is a great introduction to web mapping for someone new to the subject, either a new developer or a manager. If you already have some GIS skills, this is still a good book, except it is becoming dated. The author is committed to open source tools, and that is the focus of the book.
The first few chapters cover the following:
-Vectors
-Projections
-Rasters
All things that would be useful for someone new and can be skipped by someone with a GIS background.
The rest of the book covers the following general concepts:
-The Open Geospatial Consortium and their web service specifications
-Geospatial databases
The author then gets into specifics on the following:
-Geoserver
-Mapbuilder (no longer an active project)
-Openlayers
He gives some information on Google Maps, Mapserver, and other products, but no real detail.

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There is a hidden revolution going on: geography is moving from niche to the mainstream. News reports routinely include maps and satellite images. More and more pieces of equipment cell phones, cars, computers now contain Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers. Many of the major database vendors have made geographic data types standard in their flagship products.

GIS for Web Developers introduces Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in simple terms and demonstrates hands-on uses. With this book, you'll explore popular websites like maps.google.com, see the technologies they use, and learn how to create your own. Written with the usual Pragmatic Bookshelf humor and real-world experience, GIS for Web Developers makes geographic programming concepts accessible to the common developer.

This book will demystify GIS and show you how to make GIS work for you. You'll learn the buzzwords and explore ways to geographically-enable your own applications. GIS is not a fundamentally difficult domain, but there is a barrier to entry because of the industry jargon. This book will show you how to "walk the walk" and "talk the talk" of a geographer.

You'll learn how to find the vast amounts of free geographic data that's out there and how to bring it all together. Although this data is free, it's scattered across the web on a variety of different sites, in a variety of incompatible formats. You'll see how to convert it among several popular formats including plain text, ESRI Shapefiles, and Geography Markup Language (GML).

With this book in hand, you'll become a real geographic programmer using the Java programming language.You'll find plenty of working code examples in Java using some of the many GIS-oriented applications and APIs.You'll be able to:
Find free sources of GIS data on the web Browse GIS data using open source desktop viewers Manipulate GIS data programmatically Store and retrieve data using geographically-enabled databases Explore free web toolkits like Google Maps Publish and consume web services using Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) interfaces

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Web Mapping Illustrated: Using Open Source GIS Toolkits Review

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(More customer reviews)I found this book a "tough call" when I came to writing a review.
I have to admit to not being a big fan of a lot of the technology showcased this book (PostGIS aside). I have professional reasons for saying this that do not concern us in this review but should be admitted up front.
Firstly I want to be clear that we should thank Tyler because he has done a very good job in weaving a consistent and useful thread through all the technologies in the book.
However, I had to think about why he chose these particular technologies and why the book was laid out the way it is because it was not initially clear to me what relevance a lot of them had to the book's title - Web Mapping. To me the title implied a richer potential content wrt "web mapping" per se, so that when I opened the book I was surprised to see that quite a bit of it was really about GIS basics such that a title more like "Getting started with MapServer" or "MapServer for GIS Dummies" (not an O'Reilly title I grant) might have been more appropriate!
I also don't know if this book accurately targets its audience. If you expect a real treatise on the University of Minnesota's MapServer then this book will not fill all your needs. If you want to see a set of open source technologies put together in a logical and coherent way so that you can start on understanding Web Mapping from one view point only then this book is useful.
On to the book itself.
He has also highlighted some important features of some of the technologies in a way that good training courses often do. The lights definitely go on and you will hear yourself say: "Ahh, so that's what this does!". That is what this book did for me across a number of technologies: in particular the OGR and GDAL command line tools. (Thanks, Tyler, for this alone.) He also does what all good trainers should do: he clearly demonstrated software functionality via concrete examples. It is my view that, except for university, most people learn by doing and this book works well in supporting those who find manuals and technical documents opaque when trying to assess software usefulness.
I really wasn't sure if the technical detail with respect to things like command line actions for installing, compiling and installing some software was that useful: I admit to skim reading this stuff. Is this Web Mapping for the uninitiated gun programmer? Or is this something that less technical geospatial professionals whose only world is that of the mainstream "pay per license" software products (on Windows) would get excited over? Unless command line computing is coming back and becoming mainstream again (and I am of that vintage), most people today expect the initial heavy lifting decisions to have been done for them so they can start "value adding" immediately. I think all the configuration decision making that is involved with open source technologies is still a big put off: I know it is to me, and I have 20+ years in the IT/GIS industry!
I also thought that the technologies described in the book showed what I can only describe as a North American (perhaps even Canadian) bias in the choice of technologies. Look, this is a bit of a quibble because I really can understand a lot of the choices precisely because the main distribution of the tools in the book (except PostGIS) is via FWTools which contains OpenEV, GDAL, MapServer & PROJ.4: all core technologies to the book. Yet I really don't think it is all that obvious. (I had to double check when writing this review.) Even so, my view is that more coverage should have been given to other open source technologies rather than a particular group. So, for example, why not cover the really big database of the open source community: MySQL (not just PostGIS)? And this oversight is strange given that the book mentions OGR/GDAL support for Oracle Spatial and ArcSDE which are of little interest (in one sense) to the open source people and are not accessible unless the company you work for has them. Also, why doesn't the book give more airtime to the excellent GeoServer WFS (and WMS) than just MapServer's read-only WFS? Why not hightlight the actively developed European managed Deegree WMS/WFS? Sure, MapServer has both WMS/WFS capabilities so let's concentrate on one rather than confuse people with others (just reference them instead - yet Deegree doesn't even get a mention in the book).
But all this musing gets me back to the title. Is it really "Web Mapping Illustrated"? Not really. Perhaps it should have been called "Getting started with MapServer". Too long? "FWTools Illustrated". Certainly not eye catching in terms of elucidating interest from browsers of bookshops and Amazon.
All in all, a good book and very useful. It certainly helped me and because of it I have decided to use some of the supporting technologies in it in my day job. Well done Tyler.

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With the help of the Internet and accompanying tools, creating and publishing online maps has become easier and rich with options. A city guide web site can use maps to show the location of restaurants, museums, and art venues. A business can post a map for reaching its offices. The state government can present a map showing average income by area.

Developers who want to publish maps on the web often discover that commercial tools cost too much and hunting down the free tools scattered across Internet can use up too much of your time and resources. Web Mapping Illustrated shows you how to create maps, even interactive maps, with free tools, including MapServer, OpenEV, GDAL/OGR, and PostGIS.It also explains how to find, collect, understand, use, and share mapping data, both over the traditional Web and using OGC-standard services like WFS and WMS.

Mapping is a growing field that goes beyond collecting and analyzing GIS data. Web Mapping Illustrated shows how to combine free geographic data, GPS, and data management tools into one resource for your mapping information needs so you don't have to lose your way while searching for it.

Remember the fun you had exploring the world with maps? Experience the fun again with Web Mapping Illustrated. This book will take you on a direct route to creating valuable maps.

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