This blog will discuss the Mapping kit modules for Drupal and how these interact with e.g. OpenLayers, Mapserver and PHP/Mapscript, shapefiles, PostgreSQL and PostGIS, etc.

A map can be integrated with the simile timeline control since version 6.x-1.5 of the mapping kit. The date fields of a WFS layer can be displayed as events on the timeline. The bands of the timeline are configurable.
But a good example dataset is still missing ...

[map baselayers="osm" controls="timeline" timeline="height=150,bands={day:50,week:30,year:20},firstband={numUnits:7}" /]

For the bands, you can choose interval units like: "MILLISECOND", "SECOND", "MINUTE", "HOUR", "DAY", "WEEK", "MONTH", "YEAR", "DECADE", "CENTURY", "MILLENNIUM", "EPOCH", and "ERA". The number following the interval unit represents the percentage of the total height.

The following map shows a WFS layer as in the example at http://openlayers.org/dev/examples/wfs-reprojection.html. When you want to define a unique values renderer for a WFS layer, you need to define 3 extra parameters: styleMap, uniqueValueProperty, and uniqueValueFillColor. This renderer is available in the mapping kit since version 6.x-1.5.

[map zoom="4" controls="default,statusbar,layerswitcher" baselayers="osm" layers="1" 1="wfs|http://sigma.openplans.org/geoserver/ows|States|topp:states|extract=true,styleMap={strokeColor:black,strokeWidth:2,strokeOpacity:0.5,fillOpacity:0.5},uniqueValueProperty=STATE_FIPS,uniqueValueFillColor={01:red,02:green,03:blue,04:brown,05:grey,06:yellow,07:magenta}" center="-103,41" /]

Note that only a few (Southern) states are rendered with this limited definition.

A look at the Cape Town International Convention Centre where the FOSS4G was held from 29 September to 3 October 2008.

Demo map file for using world geodata. The layers have been added by automatic classification (equal interval or quantile) of given fields in the geodata.

The same world countries data, but imported into PostGIS.

Openstreetmap shapefile for point locations at lower zoom levels. See also http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Mapnik.

The right button of the toolbar will open or close a popup that displays Google Street View and Virtual Earth for the current center of the map. It functions similarly to the example at the Geospatial Portal.

The following map is defined as
[map baselayers="google,ve" center="2.29526,48.87327" zoom="15" streetview="views=google+ve,width=400,height=400"/]. The streetview parameter adds the button to the toolbar and the popup.