What's it all about?
This is a demo site for the upcoming OpenLayers module for Drupal.
What does the module do?
The OpenLayers module enables the display of nodes containing geospatial information to be displayed on an map using the OpenLayers framework. Once enabled and configured the OpenLayers module operates in two modes:
- Any node containing data from the Location module displays a map link which shows the node's location on a map (eg this event node has a Location set which enables this map to be displayed).
- Any view can be configured to display a group of nodes as a map, by changing the Page View Type to 'OpenLayers map'. This link shows a view configured to display an OpenLayers map view showing all Meeting nodes (a CCK custom node type).
The module has been configured to display Event nodes with a blue marker - 
- and Meeting nodes are displayed with a gold marker - 
. Clicking the marker displays a window containing information about the node.
Future plans are to use the taxonomy to determine the presentational aspects (node, colour etc) and use other types of geo location (eg geo microformats emedded in the node) to determine location.
How's it configured?
Base Layers: The OpenLayers module can be configured to have up to five 'base' layers - these can include any of the Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, Microsoft Virtual Earth, any WMS server, or any data source supported by OpenLayers.
Icons and Popups: An icon can be set for the markers that indicate each node's location. Each node type can be assigned its own icon overriding the default. The colour and opacity of the popup information window can also be configured.
When's it going to be released?
The module is currently being tested on two sites http://www.surreyarchaeology.org.uk and http://geospatial.bcs.org before being launched. The module will be released under the GPL sometime in July, 2008 from the OpenLayers module project page.
Who are you?
I'm Andrew Larcombe, a freelance software developer writing Drupal, PHP, RoR and C/C++ code - specialising in geospatial techonologies.