A geospatial content management system (GeoCMS) is a content management system where objects (users, images, articles, blogs..) can have a latitude, longitude position to be displayed on an online interactive map. In addition the online maps link to informational pages (wiki pages essentially) on the data represented. Some GeoCMS do also allow users to edit spatial data (points, lines, polygons on maps) as part of content objects. Spatial data can be published by GeoCMS as part of their contents or using standardized interfaces such as WMS or WFS.
A GeoCMS can have a map of registered users allowing to build communities geographically, by looking at users location. The help of wiki for describing geographical layers present a way to solve the problem of geographical metadata.
Since the advent of Google Maps and the publication of its API, numerous users have used online maps to illustrate their web pages. Google Maps is in itself not a GeoCMS but a building block for GeoCMS applications. Similarly Mapserver can also be used for creating GeoCMS.
GeoCMS comparison
| Django | Drupal | Midgard | Plone | Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware | WordPress | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ability to store locations | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ability to edit points, lines and polygons | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Number of locations per content item | ? | Multiple | In/about/at | See specific plugin | 1 | 1 |
| Maps on content items | OpenLayers, OpenStreetMap, Leaflet, Google Maps | Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, MapBuilder, OpenLayers | ? | See specific plugin | Mapserver or Google Maps | ? |
| Syndication formats | ? | GeoRSS, KML, GeoJSON | GeoRSS | See specific plugin | RSS for maps update | GeoRSS, KML |
| Geocoding | ? | Yes | Yes (Yahoo, GeoNames) | See specific plugin | not yet | ? |
| User location sources | ? | Manual, SMS, Plazes, GeoRSS, ICBM, Fire Eagle | See specific plugin | customized maps | ||
| Can utilize spatial database (like PostGIS) | Yes | Yes in 2.x dev branch of geofield | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Geographic Features Styling | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| License | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Required Platforms / Main Languages | Django (Python) MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite/Oracle_Database | PHP, MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite | Midgard (PHP), MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite | Plone (Python), ZODB | LAMP (PHP) | LAMP |