How?

There is this great library PROJ.4, that does everything you’d ever want in terms of cartographic projections. A few smart people have ported PROJ.4 to JavaScript, called Proj4js then.

Proj4js works great in combination with OpenLayers, a popular JavaScript web mapping framework, and allows on-the-fly projections between any spatial reference systems browser applications.

<script src="proj4js-compressed.js"></script>
<script src="http://openlayers.org/api/OpenLayers.js"></script>

Define the spatial reference you’re planning to use. Check Spatial Reference for the exact projection parameters and include them in your code.

Proj4js.defs["EPSG:26986"] = "+title=Massachusetts Mainland NAD83 +proj=lcc +lat_1=42.68333333333333 +lat_2=41.71666666666667 +lat_0=41 +lon_0=-71.5 +x_0=200000 +y_0=750000 +ellps=GRS80 +datum=NAD83 +units=m +no_defs";

Adding all desired projections to the OpenLayers script…

projOSM = new OpenLayers.Projection("EPSG:900913");
projWGS84 = new OpenLayers.Projection("EPSG:4326");
projMassGIS = new OpenLayers.Projection("EPSG:26986");

map = new OpenLayers.Map ("map", {
	maxExtent: new OpenLayers.Bounds( -20037508.34, -20037508.34, 20037508.34, 20037508.34),
	maxResolution: 156543.0399,
	units: 'm',
	projection: projOSM,
	displayProjection: projWGS84,
	allOverlays: false
});

osm = new OpenLayers.Layer.OSM(
	"OpenStreetMap",
       "http://tile.openstreetmap.org/${z}/${x}/${y}.png"
);

openspace = new OpenLayers.Layer.WFS("Open space", "http://giswebservices.massgis.state.ma.us/geoserver/wfs", {
	typename: "massgis:GISDATA.OPENSPACE_POLY"
}, {
	projection: projMassGIS
	attribution: "<a href='http://www.mass.gov/mgis/'>MassGIS</a>"
});

…results in an interactive map with MassGIS Open Space WFS vector features overlayed on an OpenStreetMap base layer, using WGS84 lat/lon as display coordinates.

On a sidenote: OpenLayers comes with a Python proxy to retrieve information from remote servers via an XMLHttpRequest. Here is a good how-to get Python play well with IIS 6 on Windows Server 2003, which was quite useful.

Don’t forget to add the domains you’re trying to access to the Python proxy. For MassGIS you would add following string for instance:

allowedHosts = ['giswebservices.massgis.state.ma.us']

To bring some map content from ArcMap to Raphaël I used the VBA Macro I wrote 4 years ago in ArcMap. It still does the job and gives me clean vector graphics the way I want them. I couldn’t find a decent SVG export option for QGIS, although there are some efforts to improve that kind of functionality.

AsSVG, a Python geoprocessing script for ArcGIS is pretty good too. It provides some nice export options, such as pick style and data attribute fields, and I actually ended up using it a lot.

However, it’s 2009 and there are other ways available for sharing code then just providing a plain text file. So I ended up wrapping a bitbucket repository around it. Just in case if somebody is interested in working on or improving the script…

Next weekend a BarCamp is taking place again in Vienna, organized by Dieter, Max and Michaela (thanks all!) at HP’s office space.

Alex and I would like to take the opportunity and introduce, talk about and discuss our project timatio. And I would be interested in doing a session about OpenStreetMap – advantages, use case scenarios or licensing issues compared to other map sources for instance.

Great experiences at former BarCamps let me look forward to an interesting event next weekend. Be there!

Guess what, it works!

SVG is supposed to be the flash killer since its first appearance, and never really succeeded as we know very well. SVG is still a good choice for mapping applications in my opinion, for light-weighted thematic web mapping applications to be more precise. Vector graphics handled by an AJAX front-end, used to visualize statistical attribute data provide a user-friendly interface and are usually easy to develop. Mapping APIs like Google Maps or Open Layers support and use SVG. Web browsers like Firefox and Safari for instance natively support SVG elements, no “but you need an extra plugin discussion” anymore. There is good portion of potential users for SVG based mapping applications.

Anyways, the odd thing with the iPhone and SVG is now, that a quite popular and hyped platform supports SVG but doesn’t play Flash. That’s maybe the time SVG developers have waited for.

I haven’t had the chance yet to play with SVG on the iPhone by myself. But I’m curious how far SVG support goes, what functionality is possible and how the iPhone’s multi-touch gestures can be used in mapping applications. Maybe somebody else can offer more insights on that. I’m not expecting our clients moving to the iPhone, but I would like to see if our simple mapping applications work on the iPhone or can be easily ported to suit the iPhone dimensions – should be easy with *Scalable* Vector Graphics though. However, accessing interactive maps and dig into some regional data while being in meetings or on the way could be a valuable option sometimes.

Meanwhile I really believe it must be my karma or something, maybe I killed a fly by accident recently, I’m sorry!

Again, I downloaded the app, installed it, finished the initial setup and it kept crashing each time I tried to access my passwords. Not quite what I expect from software which holds a good part of my confidential information.

At the support forums I found the thread dealing with exactly the same problem. The developers already released version 1.1 and 1.2, both of them are sitting at Apple and waiting for approval:

Version 1.1/1.2 is a lot more stable and we’re just waiting for it to be approved in the App Store.

That’s good, basically, but we remember, the last time it took Apple 23 days to approve a 1.0 to 1.1 update containing a few bugfixes. Let’s see if they have speed up approval processes and will release an updated 1Password before summer ends…

I emailed the developer about the bug. Within a few hours I received an answer telling me the bug is already fixed in version 1.1, but it’s stuck at Apple’s approval process and he has no information when Apple is going to release his application.

Today, a week later, still no luck reading eBooks. Instead I found a note at the developer’s website.

Just a quick update as many have asked. Version 1.1 of BookShelf was submitted to Apple on the morning of July 15th. It’s been listed as “In review” status since then. My emails to Apple have received either a tracking number or no response at all. I have no idea when 1.1 will be released by Apple.

Sorry that I don’t have more useful information on this. The AppStore experience has been incredibly frustrating so far.

This is indeed frustrating, for me as customer, who bought an unusable product, too. After MobileMess, Apple seems to create a bottleneck at the App Store. I’d recommend developers to release less and release major updates. Expect some time waiting at Apple’s App Store gates, the gate keeper is busy.

Seriously, when Twitter was released I never would have thought that the 140 character messages will catch my attention. As I used to say LOST is not my thing and now I’m into the 4th season.

Guess I was wrong.

Twitter is fascinating, it’s simple and quick – no title, no abstract, body, trackback, category or comment, basically just a line. It makes you post micro-fragments of your day and read other’s. Mostly unimportant and meaningless, sometimes resulting in short conversations.

It’s not the single message stuffed into 140 characters which draws so much attention. It’s the stream, the ongoing sum of tweets what makes it so interesting.

User generated content means users care what happens to their content. They even might act like shareholders and want a vote or at least share their opinion. It’s a totally interesting aspect in business decision making processes – asking the crowd before the board.

I personally don’t care if Yahoo! is taken over by Microsoft or not. If the service is good and works for me, I use it, no matter what label is on it. [via Max]

Some notes I made during that day…

• the blogroll will celebrate a huge comeback
• it’s easy to do what Google does, crawling the internet, well, at least the syndicating part of it. best quote of the day:
  

  internet scanned. done. so what now?

• business sense and ethics aren’t mutually exclusive
• don’t waste your time looking for early stage funding in Vienna. impossible. go look somewhere else.
• don’t quit your dayjob while working on your startup (in Vienna)
• with a little help of iUI you can make your website iPhone optimized within 4 hours
• the major drawback of any collaboration tool is team discipline (and the wiki syntax)
• there are potential synergies between map mashups and spatial planning

More BarCamp reviews can be found at Tschilp, Sekante, Stormgrass, Wissen Belastet, datenschmutz, …

Thanks to all organizers for making this happen!

If you’re sitting behind a Mac and do CSS, you should give CSSedit a try, it’s worth it!