During my second year of college, I came across this technology where maps could be rendered online (web maps) and users could interact with the maps for visualization and analysis. I found this technology interesting and decided to give it a shot. I encountered the “usual” barriers experienced by any beginner in coding. Then, I came across these interesting and well explained platforms for web mapping (Open Source platforms).
After a couple of months of research, I settled for ExtJS, OpenLayers, GeoExt, GeoServer, PHP, QGIS, PostgreSQL /PostGIS and HTML/CSS as my development platforms for my web maps. I knew this was a huge project for me to undertake but always motivated by the capabilities the platforms offered me. Spending days and nights on-line trying to come up with something meaningful was my day-to-day job.
One year down the line, web mapping has been one of my successful courses in college with the ability to develop great web mapping applications. I saw meaningful to share my story about this topic to encourage anyone interested in leveraging the Open Source Platforms for their developments as there numerous benefits of this technology.
Below is a screenshot of one of my web maps that I have managed to develop (Open source web maps)
Open-Source Web Maps