In this course we will take you on a tour through some popular parts of the FOSS GIS toolset. We will focus on Web GIS. Our aim is to make you comfortable with FOSSGIS tools for creating an online map-centric experience.

Setting up map services
1 Day: We will use QGIS and PostGIS to set up a data store and configure our map layers. Then we'll use one or more of MapServer, Geoserver or QGIS server to publish and style these layers via OGC WMS and WFS services.  

OpenLayers
1 Day: OpenLayers is a lightweight web mapping client written in Javascript. With OpenLayers you can display maps in web pages using data layers from standard web services such as the Web Mapping Service and the Web Feature Service. We will build a simple OpenLayers based web page and configure it as a client to the map services we set up on Day 1. We will also show how to customise the basic standard OpenLayers instance to include various map controls and widgets.

GeoDjango
3 Days: GeoDjango is a web application development framework, extending the Django project to include support for GeoSpatial web application development. With GeoDjango you can create web enabled forms that capture both text based data and geographical data (e.g. polygons / lines / points). The Django framework makes use of the model/view/controller (MVC) design pattern (which we will explain) to allow you to build a clean application architecture. Django also provides all the infrastructure to do object relational mapping (ORM). ORM is used to model your data structures in a database backend and automatically save and retrieve objects from the database as they are needed. There are many other great features of Django which we will try to give you a flavour of during this three day course. Through the course we will build a simple Django application that integrates the our map services and takes advantage of our new found skills in OpenLayers.

Prerequisites
This course is not for beginners. To attend this course you should already have knowledge in as many of the following areas as possible: GIS, basic linux skills, basic knowledge of html, basic knowledge of css, basic knowledge of javascript, basic knowledge of at least one programming language (ideally Python), basic knowledge of database design and administration (ideally PostgreSQL). Attendees are expected to bring their own laptop running Ubuntu 12.04 or greater natively or in a virtual machine. 

Price: R7500 excluding 14% VAT per person attending (teas will be provided, excludes meals & accommodation)

T&Cs apply