TileServer: WMTS from map tiles and MBTiles
Published Aug 28, 2013 Updated Mar 18, 2014
Do you want to host your maps online according the OGC WMTS standard? Did you know you can do that from an ordinary PHP web hosting?
Your maps could be used on the web and in mobile devices, but also opened in ArcGIS for Desktop from ESRI or in the open-source QGIS and other desktop GIS clients and systems. There is no need to install any special server software such as MapServer or GeoServer to achieve this.
On the 26th International Cartographic Conference in Dresden, Germany we have announced a new TileServer project which allows exactly this.
The presentation contains a step-by-step guide how to convert GeoTIFF or other raster geodata files into tiles and WMTS online endpoint. Any ordinary webserver is supported - no need to install additional server software - so the publishing process is extremely easy and the maps are very fast.
http://tileserver.maptiler.com/
The TileServer comes with a nice JavaScript interface showing the list of the published maps, sample viewers in Google Maps, Leaflet and other web libraries including copy&paste ready code. Both tiles in a folder as well as the MBTiles are supported.
There are also step-by-step guides for desktop GIS software which is supported:
- QuantumGIS Desktop 1.9+ - open with Layer->Add WMS layer - http://www.qgis.org/
- ESRI ArcGIS Desktop 10.1+ - native WMTS implementation supported http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgis-for-desktop
- ArcBruTiles plugin for ArcGIS 9.3+ - via TMS endpoint http://arcbrutile.codeplex.com/
- GAIA - native WMTS (issues with 3857 to be fixed) http://www.thecarbonproject.com/gaia.php
The maps are of course usable with:
- Web mapping via Google Maps API, Leaflet, OpenLayers, MapBox.js via TileJSON
- iOS mobile devices (iPhone/iPad) via MapKit or RouteMe
- Android tablets and mobile phones via OSMDroid and Google Maps Android API
Check the presentation and feel free to download and try the open-source TileServer-PHP project.
To convert your geodata into tiles you can use our http://www.maptiler.com/.
The TileServer PHP project website: https://github.com/klokantech/tileserver-php/ Video recording of the presentation:
https://plus.google.com/112524594087395104243/posts/YDdRPtah7cn
Slides for presentation:http://www.slideshare.net/klokan/dresden-icc2013tileserver
The TileServer-PHP projects has been co-developed together with NOAA - and in fact it has been successfully used on the official Hurricane Sandy Response Imagery service where it has replaced ArcIMS server for large number of simultaneous visitors - from the web and mobile application as well as GIS clients.
