GIS for Web Developers: Adding Where to Your Web Applications

Easy to read. Comprehensive. Easily one of the best IT books that I own. I am in Australia, but the US emphasis did not detract from my learning experience.

I was not familiar with GIS system and I got this book to figure out how things work. The book turned out to be a great help for me. Since everything was very new to me I ended up spending a lot of time to learn about the PostGres database, it PostGIS extention and Geoserver. So do not take it as a complete walk through tutorial but it certainly great help when you get stock somewhere. Bear in mind that I am quiet computer savvy and familiar with linux, java and such. Overall, I recommend this book if you are a web developer that wants to deal with spatial data and his needs are beyond things that can be done simply on google Map, yahoo map and such.

Prior to reading this book, my experience with mapping technologies was limited to writing Google Maps applications and using its geocoder. I didn't even really understand what a geocoder was. Scott Davis provides a friendly, easy-going assist to learning the bizarre complexities and conventions associated with real mapping technologies. I was frankly dismayed at the state of the art, with its odd compromises and incomplete, conflicting tools. But Scott leads the reader through the maze quite effectively. If you're ready to move beyond simple markers and lines, this book shows the way to _real_ mapping applications.

GIS FOR WEB DEVELOPERS: ADDING WHERE TO YOUR WEB APPLICATIONS tells how to add geographic information into reports and programming ventures: an important key to advanced programming, as many major database vendors have made geographic data a standard feature of their products. Geographic Information Systems are explained using a simple survey and projects geared to hands-on instruction. College-level students of programming will find it an excellent introduction, as suitable to classroom assignment and use as it is to a lending library. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

If I lived in Colorado, I'd be swoooooooooooooooning over this book. Unfortunately I live in Georgia, and I've been trying to match up the Colorado information to Georgia, and it doesn't work completely. That said, this is a piffling complaint. In my experience so far, every URL works, exactly as described. This book is a perfect description of how to use the tools listed. If genius really is 90% taking pains, Scott is genius++. Thanks, Scott, I'll be using this book for years.