Thematic Mapping Engine: Source code and technical documentation now available

Many people have asked, - and today, I've released the source code of the Thematic Mapping Engine (TME) under a GPLv3 license. The engine takes statistical data, spatial features and thematic mapping parameters as input and returns a KMZ file. This file can be viewed in Google Earth, or other geobrowsers supporting the KML standard. TME can be accessed from a web interface or a PHP script. 


TME web interface
With the TME web interface, thematic maps can be created in a web browser, without a single line of code. This is achieved through an interactive web form where the user can select between statistical indicators and various thematic mapping techniques. Mapping parameters, like the colour and size, can be readily changed. The form returns a KMZ file which can be visualised directly in the web browser using the new Google Earth plug-in, or downloaded to a computer. 

TME Application Programming Interface (API)
The Thematic Mapping Engine can also be used as an application programming interface (API). This allows thematic maps to be created with a few lines of PHP code. Existing or new applications can use this API to add thematic mapping functionality. This is the code required to create a choropleth map: 

include ('TME_MySQL_DataConnector.php');
include ('TME_Engine.php');

$dataConnector = new DataConnector();
$dataStore = $dataConnector->getDataStore(68, 2005, 0);

$parameters = array( 
'mapType' => 'choropleth',
'indicator' => 68,
'year' => 2005,
'classification' => 'equal');

$map = new ThematicMap($dataStore, $parameters);
$file = $map->getKML();

Requirements
The Thematic Mapping Engine requires the following software (all are open source and available free of charge):

• PHP 5
• MySQL 5+
• Apache HTTP Server 
• Ext JS 2.1
• Google Earth Plug-in

Documentation
This PDF document (7 Mb) gives a detailed description of the Thematic Mapping Engine. The documentation is available under a Creatice Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0.

You should have a basic knowledge of PHP, MySQL and JavaScript before installing the Thematic Mapping Engine.

Download the TME source code on Google Code. 

Enjoy!