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I use OpenLayers, GeoServer and PostGIS in my application. Is it possible to have Google maps offline? No need to connect to internet to get it. I'm working to make my app working offline only for security matters.

If not, then what do you recommend me to replace it with?

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Offline: Do mean a intranet only, app? – warrieka Jan 19 at 11:02
my app should never connect to internet. and since I use Google API to display base map currently. I need to find a way to use it offline or replace it with another service. – Shadin Jan 19 at 11:15
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You can only use the Android Google Maps App to cache maps offine - it is limited to 5 areas of interest and zoom levels. OSM would be a better solution. Nokia Maps downloads entire countries. – Mapperz♦ Jan 20 at 2:17
Can I use the android offline maps for any web application? – Shadin Jan 21 at 5:05

2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

Google will sell you a map server appliance for local use, but I am reliably informed it is expensive.

A better alternative is open street map. A local install on an Ubuntu box with apache and mapnik is easy and cheap.

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but mapnik doesnt have OSM data loaded. – Krystian Jan 19 at 13:52
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@Krystian: the openstreetmap site uses mapnik. updated links to show this. – BradHards Jan 19 at 23:32
do I have to use mapnik even I use GeoServer? – Shadin Jan 20 at 4:49
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Something has to generate the maps (rendering tiles from the OSM vector data). That something is (usually) mapnik. You can choose to load the maps into geoserver, but its usually better to use apache and mod_tile for the maps, and to just use geoserver for your vector overlay data. – BradHards Jan 20 at 5:18
Ok, just one more question plz, which one of options is the best for my case? switch2osm.org/serving-tiles – Shadin Jan 20 at 6:28
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up vote 1 down vote

if you want do develope application without Internet connection I suggest you to use geoserver. You can share geographic data trought it and openlayers works great with it too! but the most disadvantage of it is that you have to care about geographic data by your own.

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I already use geoserver to display my data over the base map. but the base map itself is google map so I'm looking for something would work offline instead of it. – Shadin Jan 19 at 16:11
as I wrote before you have gain basemap by your own in raster format. The answer depends on how big your area data is? There are many sites where you can download vector geographic data for free and then serve its by WMS or other raster service. This is solution to your problem - you can use basemap from some server (for ex. via Google API) or load data to your local server and share it via network without having Internet connection. There is no other posibility. – Krystian Jan 19 at 16:25
ok, so how can I load a base map on my local server without internet? from what I understand this is impossible with Google API. – Shadin Jan 19 at 16:32
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change google api to other framework (for ex. openlayers openlayers.org) then you have to have your data in raster format -> connect it to geoserver (via files or by DB) and voila! you may create tiles from your raster and raster pyramids to increase performance. I would suggest you to use REST services other than WMS services to use with your basemap it is much much faster than WMS. :) – Krystian Jan 19 at 16:37
The original poster said he uses openlayers already. – BradHards Jan 19 at 23:32
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