File: README — Documentation for mapfish (1.3.6)

Mapfish server plugin for Ruby on Rails

This HowTo describes step by step how to use ‘MapFish <www.mapfish.org/>`_ Server Framework to set up a MapFish project. A MapFish project defines Web Services on which MapFish Client components can rely. See `here <trac.mapfish.org/trac/mapfish/wiki/MapFishProtocol>`_ for a description of the interfaces provided by MapFish Web Services.

The Mapfish server for Ruby is implemented as a plugin for the ‘Ruby on Rails <www.rubyonrails.org/>`_ framework.

A sample application is available at ‘GitHub <github.com/pka/mapfish-rails-sample-app/tree>`_.

Create a MapFish project

Create a new Rails project: rails new MyMapFishProject –database=postgresql cd MyMapFishProject
Rails 3: Add the mapfish plugin to your Gemfile: gem ‘mapfish’

Then from your project’s RAILS_ROOT, run:

bundle install

Rails 2: Add the mapfish plugin to your config/environment.rb: config.gem ‘mapfish’

Then from your project’s RAILS_ROOT, run:

rake gems:install

It is also possible to install mapfish as a plugin: script/plugin install www.mapfish.org/svn/mapfish/implementations/rails-plugin/mapfish/trunk
Install the latest version of the Mapfish client libraries: rake mapfish:install_client

Set up the PostGIS database

If you don’t have PostGIS database template yet, create one: sudo su - postgres createdb -E UTF8 template_postgis # Create the template spatial database. createlang -d template_postgis plpgsql # Adding PLPGSQL language support. psql -d template_postgis -f /usr/share/postgresql-8.3-postgis/lwpostgis.sql psql -d template_postgis -f /usr/share/postgresql-8.3-postgis/spatial_ref_sys.sql cat <<EOS | psql -d template_postgis UPDATE pg_database SET datistemplate = TRUE WHERE datname = ‘template_postgis’; REVOKE ALL ON SCHEMA public FROM public; GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA public TO public; GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA public TO postgres; GRANT SELECT, UPDATE, INSERT, DELETE ON TABLE public.geometry_columns TO PUBLIC; GRANT SELECT, UPDATE, INSERT, DELETE ON TABLE public.spatial_ref_sys TO PUBLIC; VACUUM FULL FREEZE; EOS

Change the connection properties in “config/database.yml“. Add a line “template: template_postgis“ for each environment.

Create the development database, if it does not exist: rake db:create

Set up layers

You now need to create layers. In effect, a layer corresponds to a PostGIS table.

Create a resource (model and controller): rails generate mapfish:resource WeatherStation name:string geom:point –skip-timestamps –skip-fixture rake db:migrate
Import some data: rails runner “Geonames::Weather.weather(:north => 44.1, :south => -9.9, :east => -22.4, :west => 55.2).each { |st| WeatherStation.create(:name => st.stationName, :geom => Point.from_x_y(st.lng, st.lat)) }”

(needs lib/geonames.rb from github.com/pka/map_layers/raw/master/lib/geonames.rb)

Create a resource for an existing table: rails generate mapfish:resource Country –skip-migration –skip-fixture
Insert table name and custom id in “app/models/country.rb“: set_table_name “world_factbk_simplified” set_primary_key “gid”

Starting the web server

You should be all set now. Try starting the web server: rails server

and checkout “localhost:3000/countries?maxfeatures=10“

Your browser should be displaying a nice GeoJSON object!

You can now go back to your webpage and configure MapFish widgets to access your layer through the URL “localhost:3000/countries“.

For running in production mode you should build and install the compressed runtime libraries: rake mapfish:build_scripts rake mapfish:copy_scripts

The development libraries in public/mfbase are not needed in a production deployment and the

CSS and Javascript files can be included from public/javascripts

Using the print module

The Rails MapFish plugin can generate a controller for the ‘MapFish print protocol <trac.mapfish.org/trac/mapfish/wiki/PrintModuleDoc#Protocol>`_, to produce PDF outputs of your maps. (see `MapFish PrintModuleDoc <trac.mapfish.org/trac/mapfish/wiki/PrintModuleDoc>`_): rails generate mapfish:print_controller Print

You’ll need to have ‘Sun’s JRE <www.java.com/download/>‘_ installed to make this working.

The print module should be ready & responding to /print/info.json to get print configuration. Don’t forget to adapt config/print.yaml (see ‘configuration <trac.mapfish.org/trac/mapfish/wiki/PrintModuleServer>`_. For instance, you should at least allow the print service to access the WMS services you’re using. If you’re getting errors, check your log file to get debug information.
Once this is done, you can integrate the ‘MapFish print widgets <www.mapfish.org/svn/mapfish/trunk/MapFish/client/mfbase/mapfish/widgets/print/>`_ into your client application, which give you the ability to output nice customizable PDF with your maps. Examples can be `found here <demo.mapfish.org/mapfishsample/trunk/examples/print/>`_.

License

The Mapfish server plugin for Rails is released under the LGPL license.