2

I am totally new to GIS development and I am trying to grasp the concept.

From my understanding the stack looks as follows (Please correct me):

Back End GIS Server: GeoServer/GeoNode/ArcGIS Server (Some of the back end servers do have their own spatial database - however, PostGIS can still be used in conjunction with them)

Back End Spatial Database (optional): PostgreSQL/PostGIS database can be used in conjunction with back end GIS server (ArcGIS for example)

Front End Library (to display the shapes/points on top of a map(Google Maps/Open Street/etc.)): Openlayers, lefletjs and GeoExt

Now I am reading about Geo-Platform and I am not sure where exactly does it fit in the above?

PolyGeo
  • 65,136
  • 29
  • 109
  • 338
perpetual_dream
  • 299
  • 2
  • 7
  • This is the first time I'm hearing of geoPlatform, but this answer might be a good idea to start out: http://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/25313/understanding-web-mapping-tools/25317#25317 – Devdatta Tengshe May 13 '13 at 08:34
  • First time for me too but it sounds like another web mapping application builder. I thought about suggesting closure since this looks likely to generate discussion rather than an answer but instead I hope it is OK for me to just turn the title into a question. – PolyGeo May 13 '13 at 09:19

1 Answers1

3

Warning: A rant follows. the actual Answer is further down.

I'm always weary of such kinds of FOSS projects. A project home page, at the least should have some of the following: documentation, screenshots, features, running demos/example, how to Install/run and a link to the discussion forums/mailing list. This leads me to believe that the people behind the project are serious about it.

When a project has none of the above, I feel that that the project is not ready for prime time. See I'm glad that someone has open-sourced there work, but it has to have something to attract me to it. I need some evidence that the project is valuable and has a future, and won't be abandoned some time in the near future.

Now answering your Question: Where does GeoPlatform fit? I'll say that without any documentation from them, it is not possible to answer this question. It might be best answered by one of the authors/contributors of the project.

I would rather spend my time, and base my project on stable, popular, well-known projects like OpenLayers/Leaflet (even ArcGIS JSAPI) for the frontend and Geoserver/mapserver/tilemill/ArcGIS Server for the backend.

Devdatta Tengshe
  • 41,311
  • 35
  • 139
  • 263