Tools and techniques for geospatial web development

While web browsers were initially designed to show static HTML pages, they are now a sophisticated programming environment in their own right. Complex applications can now be implemented in JavaScript running on the user's web browser, interacting with server-side APIs and web services to perform tasks that previously could only be implemented using complex standalone systems.

Web application development has transformed the programming landscape, and geospatial developers have not been left behind. In this section, we will learn about web application development and see how these technologies can be applied to build sophisticated geospatial systems that run within the user's web browser.

Web applications

There are many ways in which you can develop a web-based application. You can write your own code by hand, for example as a series of CGI scripts or you can use one of the many web application frameworks available. In this section, we will...