jQuery and GIS distance in MariaDB

I’ve continued building on my MariaDB GIS and node.js example application that I wrote about two weeks back, https://blog.mariadb.org/node-js-mariadb-and-gis/. The application shows how to load GPX information into MariaDB, using some MariaDB GIS functionality, and making use of the node.js platform together with MariaDB’s non-blocking client.

With the GPX data converted into GIS points in the MariaDB database, I wanted to further expand a little on both the GIS aspect and also look at how some additional data could be shown in the application by using jQuery’s Ajax calls to update a piece of the web based application UI.

Node.js, MariaDB and GIS

The availability of the node.js binding for MariaDB’s non-blocking client library together with the GIS capabilities of MariaDB inspired me to make an example of using node.js and MariaDB to import so-called GPX tracks to a MariaDB database and then show them on a map. GPX tracks are what are stored by many GPS devices including running watches and smartphones.

My project makes use of MariaDB’s non-blocking client library together with the node.js platform and on top of that uses the GIS functionality found in MariaDB 5.5 and 10.0.

To start with let’s go through the software and components I’m using:

  • Node.js – The popular Node.js platform built on Chrome’s JavaScript runtime.

Screencast: MariaDB GIS demo

Here’s another MariaDB screencast, this time highlighting some of the GIS functionality in MariaDB.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpDm_8L1oyI

(I recommend watching it in full screen 720p, so you can see the details.)

Some links and notes:

Acknowledgments:

A big thanks to Alexey Botchkov, MariaDB’s GIS guru, for the example data and help with the screencast. …

Wrapping up MariaDB 2011

Parts of the world are already celebrating Christmas Eve and it’s time to relax and spend time with family and friends. Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas this is when there is time for less work. Here are a few words to round off MariaDB’s current state and where it’s heading.

This year culminated in MariaDB 5.3.3, the release candidate of 5.3. This is a significant release that makes years of work available by default in the database server. Earlier releases still required features to be explicitly switched on, but thanks to thorough testing assuring the quality of the new functionality we have now enabled them. …