Building web application to get PostGIS query from user and view result map using GeoServer via OpenLayers?

Question

I'm a newbie in web-map application area.

I just found the small application in this tutorial interesting

I am a bit confused, because when I publish a map using GeoServer and OpenLayers, I have to create a layer in GeoServer first and this layer is fixed with a table from PostGIS and then use OpenLayers to call GeoServer to render the map.

• How can the tutor of that tutorial change the data source of the layer depending on the query input by the users?
• It means there are ways to change the data source of one layer on the fly right?

Please advice me how or can anyone tell me where can I download the code of the app in that tutorial.

Answer 1

You probably need to start at the very beginning to get your head around the basics of GeoServer first.

There is a good Question and Answer set available here on how to use GeoServer

Some good information on OpenLayers Tutorials can be found Here

and some interesting Tutorials on PostGis here

There is a lot of sample code that will help you in those reference ..