Overview

Earlier in the course you learned how to add data stored in a few different formats (shapefile, KML, Fusion Tables).  One drawback of those formats is that they aren't well suited to situations in which the data are changing frequently.  (Fusion Tables may be better than the others in this respect, though it has other limitations as well.)  This optional lesson focuses on the usage of a relational database as the source for your web map data.  We'll see how map pages can be built to read in data from server-side scripts that dynamically extract the needed information from the database (which may be kept up to date through other business processes).

Objectives

At the successful completion of this lesson, students should be able to:

• describe the advantages/disadvantages of storing map data in a relational database vs. other data formats;
• use Structured Query Language (SQL) to extract data from a database;
• develop an efficient database schema for the storage of map data;
• understand the difference between client-side and server-side web scripting languages;
• embed PHP: Hypertext Processor (PHP) code in a web page to deliver dynamic content;
• use PHP to connect to a database and assemble the map data required for a mashup;

Note: This is another rather long lesson (two weeks in length).

Questions?

If you have any questions now or at any point during this week, please feel free to post them to the Database Lesson Discussion Forum. (That forum can be accessed at any time by clicking on the Communicate tab and then scrolling down to the Discussion Forums section.)