Welcome to the Mapnik Wiki

Mapnik is a OpenSource C++/Python toolkit for developing mapping applications. At the core is a C++ shared library providing algorithms/patterns for spatial data access and visualization.

High-level Python bindings (boost.python) facilitate rapid application development targeting Zope3, Django, and other frameworks. It can comfortably be used for both desktop and web development.

Have fun!
The Mapnik Team

Mapnik Starting Points

• What is Mapnik?
  • MapnikOverview | DemoGallery | mapnik.org
  • Commit Timeline at Ohloh:
    

• Installing Mapnik
  • MapnikInstallation - Guides and notes on installing Mapnik
  • MapnikDependencies - Notes on required dependencies

• Community
  • Mapnik Users: Post Questions | Archive | Nabble.
  • Join #mapnik on irc.freenode.net for Mapnik community conversation and help.
  • Contribute to the Mapnik Wiki

• Tutorials
  • GettingStarted -- 'Hello,world!' using pure Python bindings.
  • XmlGettingStarted -- 'Hello, world' using Python and XML styling
  • Nik2Img -- Read in an XML mapfile and output a map
  • ExampleCode -- Code snippets from Mapnik users
  • XML configuration reference -- Reference to what can be in the XML configuration file
  • IntegrateWithWxPython -- Demonstrate how to integrate mapnik with wxPython
  • FontSet -- Fallback fonts support
  • OptimizeRenderingWithPostGIS -- Optimize rendering speed and simplify the stylesheet with PostGIS

• Core Utilities
  • OgcServer -- The python-based OGC Server with WMS 1.1 and 1.3 support.
  • MapnikViewer -- A QT Desktop App for interactively viewing XML mapfiles
  • Shapeindex - Quad-tree shapefile indexes for a serious speed boost

• External Utilities
  • OSM Slippy Map - Overview OSM rendering | Roll your own
  • Mod Tile - The tool OSM uses to render mapnik tiles for http://tile.openstreetmap.org/
  • TileCache - Use WMS-C to render tiles dynamically, or cached | Example in OL
  • Mapnik-utils - A variety of tools to work with Mapnik using CSS styles, command-line tools, and server-side scripts.
  • Spreadnik - An utility to simplify work with big mapnik stylesheets
  • OpenLayers and Custom Tiles - Tips for server pre-generated Mapnik tiles with OpenLayers
  • Mapnik & OpenLayers - Example sites in the OpenLayers Gallery

• Topics
  • MapDesign -- how to use Mapnik to design better looking maps!
  • MapnikRenderers -- Render with AGG or Cairo
  • IntroductionToGIS -- a brief intro to the world of geographic information systems (projections, geodetics, and polygons, oh my)
  • SymbologySupport -- Tips, tricks and recipes for feature symbolization.
  • LabelingSupport -- Discover the intricacies of label placement.
  • OutputFormats -- Which format to use based on speed, quality, and rendering tradeoffs.
  • Generating Contours - Using Mapnik with GDAL to build contours of the world.
  • ManagingLargeXmlFiles -- Do things once and only once using XML entities.
  • Hooking up Mapnik to PostGIS
  • Scale and Scale denominators -- Scale, Projection and Pixels Per Inch: what it means for determining the scale of your rendered and printed maps.
  • ModServer -- An experimental mod_python server for Mapnik

Developers Corner

• Discussions
  • StableMergeQueue - Mapnik stable releases
  • PackageBuilding - Resources
  • DebuggingMapnik -- TODO!
  • XmlFormatDiscussion -- freeform discussion on Mapnik's XML format
  • ShieldSymbolizerTests
  • Compositing Compositing modes
  • Legending
• Bugs and Upcoming Features
  • DeveloperTodo (currently unsupported features in Mapnik)
  • Tickets by owner - See what to work on.

• Resources for Contributing
  • Active Un-Assigned Tickets (become an owner)
  • PluginArchitecture -- how to write new plugins or use existing datasource parsing plugins
  • Developers list: Signup | Search Archives
  • OpenStreetMap Tickets relating to the use of Mapnik

Trac Starting Points

• TracGuide -- Built-in Documentation
• The Trac project -- Trac Open Source Project
• Trac FAQ -- Frequently Asked Questions
• TracSupport -- Trac Support

For a complete list of local wiki pages, see TitleIndex.