Installation guide

11
AG2417 Web and Mobile GIS
Autumn 2012
Rui Zhu and Gyözö Gidófalvi
Lab 3&4: Open Source Solution: OpenLayers + GeoServer +
PostGIS
Due Sep 18
8. Task
In this exercise you will learn some of the most popular open source (server-side and client-side)
web mapping technologies. The series solution of OpenLayers + GeoServer + PostGIS will give
you a great start to build sophisticated WebGIS applications. Try your best to make this lab
perfect, since it can be a great preparation for your final project of this course.
This lab contains three consecutive exercises. In Part 1 you will get familiar with GeoServer web
admin interface. In Part 2 you will also explore the integration of a popular open source
client-side web mapping technology of OpenLayers to enrich the web GIS applications. In Part 3
you will be using data that are stored in plain files as well as PostgreSQL/PostGIS database.
9. Tutorials and Preparations
There are eight official websites that you should take a careful reading as tutorials before you
physically start the lab exercise. By reading the first three websites, you will get a main concept
of what GeoServer, OpenLayers and PostGIS are, and you will also understand the logical
structures between each of them.
Table 1. Open Source Official Websites
No.
Name
Official Website
Last Accessed
1
GeoServer
http://geoserver.org/display/GEOS/Welcome
7/18/2012
2
OpenLayers
http://openlayers.org/
7/18/2012
3
PostGIS
http://postgis.refractions.net/
7/18/2012
4
GeoExt
http://geoext.org/
7/18/2012
5
OGC
http://www.opengeospatial.org/
7/18/2012
6
OpenGeo
http://opengeo.org/
7/18/2012
7
OpenStreetMap
http://www.openstreetmap.org/
7/18/2012
8
OSGeo
http://www.osgeo.org/
7/18/2012
The software stack and data sources used in labs 3&4 are preinstalled on a Virtual Machine
(VM). You can run this VM (a set of files) using VMware Player by opening a Virtual Machine and
selecting the .vmx file that is associated with the VM (ignore any error messages about copying