Dutch Authorities to Sponsor KML Support for Mapserver
The Dutch Water and Road building Authority is having Keyhole Markup Language (KML) support developed for the Geodata Processor, Mapserver. It will be publishing the source code.
The idea is to serve up 3D geographic data to website users, giving citizens the ability to see where, say, new bridges will be built.
Mapserver is a developer environment for Web applications that generate static or dynamic maps from digital geodetic data. The Open Source software (current version 4.10.2) is platform independent and can be built for most Unix/Linux systems, Windows and Mac OS X. PHP, Python, Per, Ruby, Java and C# are the supported development languages.
According to the Dutch authorities, the contract for the development work has gone to Canada's DM Solutions who are heavily involved in Mapserver development. The authority will be looking to test the code next month. The source code for KML support will be released as Open Source shortly after.
KML is a rendering format for the client component of the Google Earth program, and an XML 1.0 application. It was developed by Keyhole, which was acquired in 2004 by Google. KML is in widespread use for processing of 3D geographic data in Google Maps and Google Earth.
Plans to standardize the KML format started late last year or early this year and are not yet complete. A Best Practice Paper was released in early May by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC); it was drafted by Carl Reed (Google Earth – current version 2.1). Google also has published a reference and a user tutorial.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
TUXEDO has unveiled a new InfinityBook Pro with an AMD Ryzen AI 300
This new notebook offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
Is This the Year of Linux?
Another major organization has decided to kick Windows and Office to the curb, in favor of Linux.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 Now Available
The latest Linux kernel is now available with several new features/improvements and the usual bug fixes.
-
Microsoft Makes Surprising WSL Announcement
In a move that might surprise some users, Microsoft has made Windows Subsystem for Linux open source.
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.