Geospatial content management system

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A geospatial content management system (GeoCMS) is a content management system where objects (users, images, articles, blogs..) can have a latitude, longitude position to be displayed on an online interactive map. In addition the online maps link to informational pages (wiki pages essentially) on the data represented. Some GeoCMS do also allow users to edit spatial data (points, lines, polygons on maps) as part of content objects. Spatial data can be published by GeoCMS as part of their contents or using standardized interfaces such as WMS or WFS.

A GeoCMS can have a map of registered users allowing to build communities geographically, by looking at users location. The help of wiki for describing geographical layers present a simple way to solve the problem of geographical metadata.

Since the advent of Google Maps and the publication of its API, numerous users have used online maps to illustrate their web pages. Google Maps is in itself not a GeoCMS but is a powerful building block.

Similarly Mapserver is also a powerful building block for creating GeoCMS.

Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware was the first CMS to become a GeoCMS in early 2003, it is now becoming popular on various other CMS especially since the publication of the Mapserver API in 2002 to many scripting languages: PHP, Python, Perl, Java,...

GeoCMS list

GeoCMS comparison

Cartaro Django Drupal MapIgniter Maporama GeoManager mappiamo Midgard Plone Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware WordPress Zikula
Ability to store locations Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Ability to edit points, lines and polygons Yes  ? Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
Number of locations per content item Customizable ? Multiple Multiple (Layer content type) Multiple 1 In/about/at See specific plugin 1 1 Multiple
Maps on content items Yes ? Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, MapBuilder, OpenLayers OpenLayers, Google_Maps, Google_Earth Maporama Maps, Google Maps, Bing Maps, OpenStreetMap Leaflet (software) Mapstraction See specific plugin Mapserver or Google Maps Mapstraction Mapstraction or Google Maps
Syndication formats WMS,WFS,… ? GeoRSS, KML, GeoJSON KML (other as WMS, WFS) WMS, WFS, GeoJSON, KML JSON GeoRSS See specific plugin RSS for maps update GeoRSS, KML GeoRSS, KML
Geocoding No ? Yes Not yet Yes (Maporama Maps, Google Maps) Yes (please refer to Github)[4] Yes (Mapstraction, Yahoo, GeoNames) See specific plugin not yet Yes (Mapstraction) Yes (Mapstraction, Google Maps)
User location sources No ? Manual, Postgis, import Shapefile Manual, Collaboration Yes, customizable XML Manual, SMS, Plazes, GeoRSS, ICBM, Instamapper, Fire Eagle See specific plugin customized maps Google Maps Module
Can utilize spatial database (like PostGIS) Yes Yes Yes in 2.x dev branch of geofield Yes Yes Yes, Idiorm[5]  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
Geographic Features Styling  ?  ?  ? Mapserver GUI (forms)  ? Leaflet (software)  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
License  ?  ?  ? Dual (GPL / Apache v2)  ? GPL  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?


Required Platforms / Main Languages Drupal (PHP), Geoserver, MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite Django (Python) MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite/Oracle_Database PHP, MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite CodeIgniter (PHP), Postgis, Mapserver, RedBeanORM (included)  ? LAMP Midgard (PHP), MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite Plone (Python), ZODB LAMP (PHP) LAMP LAMP

References