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I would like to learn how to build applications using postGIS. I am wondering if there are good open source examples out there that I can take a look at? I am particularly interested in those that not only use postgres to store the map data but make extensive use of the postGIS special functions in the application code (aggregates and the SQL-MM i.e., the ST_* functions). Thanks!

JRR
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PostGIS is a great tool for storing and running all kinds of queries on your geo data. However, to display the maps, you will need another tool. There are many out there.

If you are interested in web mapping: here's a question I asked about web mapping. I ended up storing mapping data in a PostGIS database and then serving it with GeoServer and OpenLayers. Another solid web mapping route is GeoDjango.

Edit: To elaborate more on my previous experience. I had a data set of vector data (polygons) stored in shapefiles (.shp). I needed to display them over google maps and be able select them on a web platform. First, I imported the shapefiles into my PostGIS database.

After setting up GeoServer, I connected my PostGIS database with GeoServer and created a WFS layer. There are different types (like WMS), but I used WFS because its nice for selecting the polygons I was displaying.

Next, I had to display the layer that I added to GeoServer. I used the OpenLayers JavaScript library to do so. They have lots of examples on their site. This one uses GeoServer to serve the map data. Just view the source to see how Openlayers gets the map and displays it.

If you want to create offline maps: Quantum GIS is a good free tool. ArcGIS is very popular also, but is not free.

If I were you I would check out https://gis.stackexchange.com/. You will find lots of stuff there, and it is a very helpful community.

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Nate
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