Geospatial content management system
A geospatial content management system is a content management system where objects can have a latitude and longitude position to be displayed on an online interactive map.
These systems are commonly used for collaborative mapping, data visualization, and open-data publishing where spatial content can be edited or linked to informational pages.
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 way to solve the problem of geographical metadata.
GeoCMS platforms are increasingly deploying within modern spatial data infrastructures, where open-data portals and geospatial catalogues support mapping, analysis and publishing workflows.
Recent research on open-source geospatial content-management solutions highlights their use for heterogeneous data integration, interactive mapping and cross-platform publishing in web and mobile environments.
Since the advent of Google Maps and the publication of its API, numerous users have used online maps to illustrate their web pages.
is probably the most advanced Geospatial CMS in the world at this time, with full handling of text, multi-media and geo objects that extend beyond just a point on a map to areas, paths and defined geo feature types.
These frameworks have been used to build open-source GeoCMS applications that combine mapping libraries such as OpenLayers and Leaflet with spatially enabled databases like PostGIS.
GeoCMS comparison
| Django | Drupal | Midgard | Plone | Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware | WordPress | |
| Ability to store locations | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ability to edit points, lines and polygons | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Number of locations per content item | ? | Multiple | In/about/at | See specific plugin | 1 | 1 |
| Maps on content items | OpenLayers, OpenStreetMap, Leaflet, Google Maps | Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, MapBuilder, OpenLayers | ? | See specific plugin | Mapserver or Google Maps | ? |
| Syndication formats | ? | GeoRSS, KML, GeoJSON | GeoRSS | See specific plugin | RSS for maps update | GeoRSS, KML |
| Geocoding | ? | Yes | Yes | See specific plugin | not yet | ? |
| User location sources | ? | Manual, SMS, Plazes, GeoRSS, ICBM, Fire Eagle | See specific plugin | customized maps | ||
| Can utilize spatial database | Yes | Yes in 2.x dev branch of geofield | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Geographic Features Styling | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| License | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Required Platforms / Main Languages | Django MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite/Oracle_Database | PHP, MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite | Midgard, MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite | Plone, ZODB | LAMP | LAMP |