RecMap.org

The week after the OFWIM (Organization of Fish and Wildlife Information Managers) conference has flown by. I promised people that I'd get Mark Brunners Access application online.

This application will take data from a shape file and convert it into KML. It will also convert the output into GeoRSS, which can then serve as a basic template for the main work we're doing here to syndicate information on outdoor activities.

Thanks to everyone at OFWIM who provided feedback and suggestions on the work we're doing with Google maps.

As a quick note, you can find the page used in the workshop here:

http://recmap.org/?q=node/10

You can also look under the 'recent posts' link on the left navigation to find all new items posted on the site.

Mark already has some fixes in the Access-based tool to convert GIS shape files into KML and GeoRSS files. I'll be tweaking some of the Google map tools we used in the workshop Wed.

Early next week, I'll be updating the site to make these files available.

At this point, instead of building a validator that can validate the recmap xml files, we'll be relying on some of the good RSS validation services out there. Specifically, we'll use the W3C's validator located at:

http://validator.w3.org/feed/

The documentation page now has an example of how your county or city can create a Google map for your own Web site and also create the recmap xml file.

The example consists of 4 parts:

1. A Google API code. This is placed in the index.htm page. If you download this example to try, you'll have to apply for your own Google Maps API code that is specific to your Web site.

The RecMap site is now up and running.

This project grew out of the development of the Missouri River Water Trail web site (http://missouririverwatertrail.org).