MapFish is a complete and flexible framework for building rich web-mapping applications. It is based on the Pylons Python web framework for the server side, and on the OpenLayers and GeoExt JavaScript toolkits for the client side.
A minimal application built with MapFish is installed on the Live DVD. To launch it, click on the MapFish link on the desktop. This will start the server and open a FireFox tab pointing to the application (http://localhost:5000).
The minimal application includes a map with two OSM layers, a toolbar above the map, and a layer tree.
This minimal application is what users of the MapFish framework get right after the creation of their application with the framework. Read on to learn more.
The MapFish framework is installed on the Live DVD in the virtual Python
environment located in the /usr/lib/mapfish/mapfish-venv
directory. We will use this installation of the framework here.
A MapFish application is created in three commands (from a terminal):
$ source /usr/lib/mapfish/mapfish-venv/bin/activate
$ paster create -t mapfish MyMapFishApp sqlalchemy=true
$ paster create -t mapfish_client MyMapFishApp
The above commands should have created the MapFish application in the
MyMapFishApp directory. Note: if the sample application
(from the previous section) is running then port 5000 is already used, so
you'll have to edit the MyMapFishApp/development.ini file and
change the port number from 5000 to for example 5001.
At this point you should be able to run the application with:
$ cd MyMapFishApp $ paster serve development.ini
Open http://localhost:5000 (or http://localhost:5001) in your browser. You should see the same minimal application as that presented in the Sample section.
The MapFish framework offers more than that. In particular it allows easily creating RESTful web services for creating, reading, updating and deleting features. Please visit our web site to learn more about MapFish.
As indicated in the previous section the MapFish
framework is installed on the Live DVD in the the virtual Python environment
located in the /usr/lib/mapfish/mapfish-venv directory. Yet, keep
reading if you want to know how to install MapFish in a fresh, clean virtual
environment.
Installing the MapFish framework is done with one command line:
$ go-mapfish-framework-all.py --python=python2.5 venv
The above command creates the virtual Python environment in the
venv directory, fetches MapFish and its dependencies and install
them all in the virtual environment.
Ok, the framework is installed, you can go back to the Create a MapFish application to create a MapFish application using this installation.