24

I'm not sure whether to post this here or on Stackoverflow, as it's sort of a crossover. Let me give it a try.

In the proposed HTML5 standard, there's the option of storing web application data in a local cache using a cache manifest. I am looking to use this technique for an offline tiled web map application and did a quick prototype here based on a standard install of Geoserver.

I just ripped the OpenLayers client page that is generated from one of the default layers and changed the <html> tag to 

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" manifest="cache.manifest">

And created the file cache.manifest which simply reads

CACHE MANIFEST
http://lima.schaaltreinen.nl:8080/

Which should, in my limited understanding of the matter, locally cache everything that loads from that URL: all tiles and the OpenLayers JS. In fact, upon first call in Firefox, it does ask me to allow local storage, but when I hit refresh - either online or offline - the page croaks stating that the OpenLayers object is not defined. Looks like it hasn't loaded the OpenLayers JS.

Anyone successfully did a functioning offline OpenLayers-based tiled web map app? Or hints on how to investigate this further?

mvexel
  • 1,680
  • 13
  • 30

4 Answers4

9

You might be interested in the projects Maps on a Stick and MapBox iPad. (disclaimer: designed the former, involved in the latter. however, both are BSD-licensed, and the underlying tile format, termed ".mbtiles", is SQL-based.)

Maps on a Stick is an offline OpenLayers map. The main reasoning for going with a portable database/server instead of client side storage is that using browsers as large data storage isn't quite worked out and populating and indexing the cache can be costly.

tmcw
  • 4,286
  • 20
  • 22
  • Interesting solution, not what I was thinking about but it looks workable. How easy or difficult is it to load MapBox / Maps on a Stick with custom tile layers? – mvexel Jan 12 '11 at 19:41
  • 1
    It's relatively simple: there are a few tools - a C-based importer ( https://github.com/developmentseed/mb_tiles_importer ), a version of gdal2tiles that outputs mbtiles ( https://github.com/developmentseed/gdal2mb ), and an upcoming GUI tool. – tmcw Jan 26 '11 at 14:18
4

Think you will need to create your own tilecache on 'localhost' see http://code.google.com/p/cumberland/wiki/TilePyramiderAndOpenLayers

Examples

    Using vmap
    http://localhost:8081/vmap0/levelzero/0/0.png
    The tile near the middle of the tile set in the third zoom level of vmap0.
    http://localhost:8081/vmap0/leveltwo/3/4.png
    The tile near the middle of the tile set in the fifth zoom level of landsat2000.
    hhttp://localhost:8081/vmap0/landsat2000/1/8500/8500.png
Source:
    The tile at the origin of the tile set in the first zoom level of basemap.
    http://www.osgeo.org/services/basemap/L1/0/0.png

Note: must not have spaces

Mapperz
  • 49,701
  • 9
  • 73
  • 132
  • This is useful but requires a local web server, which might not always be feasible, e.g. when you want it to run on an iPhone / iPad. In general, I am looking to achieve this without any requirements on the client side other than a HTML5/cache manifest savvy web browser. – mvexel Nov 15 '10 at 11:03
  • http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/offline.html – Mapperz Nov 15 '10 at 15:03
  • 1
    I linked to that page in the original question already. I know this is the way to go, but I am trying to find out if it's feasible at all. – mvexel Nov 16 '10 at 08:23
3

One complexity that seems to show up in articles about this is that:

Note that the MIME type of the manifest file is text/cache-manifest.

And the examples all seem to list specific files to cache (but I may need to read further).

Ian Turton
  • 81,417
  • 6
  • 84
  • 185
  • That's one thing that is not clear to me: whether you need to whitelist specific concrete URLs or you can use URL prefixes. I have not been able to test this yet. Anyone who has? – mvexel Nov 15 '10 at 11:00
3

Maybe another approach: Geopublisher http://www.geopublishing.org/ can publish your maps for offline use. Geopublisher is a Desktop software that allows you to plug together vector and raster data and create digital maps. Then you can export this map as a stand-alone Java application. It even creates autostart files etc. and does not require a Java installation on the targeted computers.

UPDATE 2018: Geopublisher is not actively developed anymore.

alfonx
  • 1,111
  • 10
  • 13
  • note: The destination is in German even though the url is to the English language version of the site. To fix locate the [english] link in the left hand navigation column. – matt wilkie Mar 28 '12 at 17:59