Embedding Google Maps APIs into WebRatio for the Automatic Generation of Web GIS Applications

摘要

The success of WebML (Web Modeling Language) and of the supporting tool WebRatio for designing and generating data-intensive web applications suggested us to extend the approach to the Web GIS context. The proposal was based on Geo Server and Map Server, two standard, open solutions, to handle spatial data. In the present paper, we propose an alternative approach based on Google Maps, a freely available web mapping application provided by Google, which allows for the search and the visualization of geographic information. This solution is so diffuse that many Internet users are identifying it as a "standard" way for the presentation of geographical information. Moreover, Google Maps can be integrated into a Web application by exploiting Google Maps APIs. In the paper, we describe the proposed WebML-based visual language to design Web GIS applications and how it has been embedded into WebRatio to generate Web GIS applications by exploiting the potentialities of the Google Maps APIs. We also illustrate the architecture of the generated Web GIS applications together with the employed technologies and provide a sample example of design and generation of a Web GIS application.