Essential Concepts

Refer to the MapGuide Getting Started guide for details about the MapGuide architecture and components. It is important to understand the relationship between a MapGuide Viewer, a MapGuide Web application, and the MapGuide site. It is also important to understand resources and repositories.

Web applications reside on the Web Server. They are normally executed by requests from a MapGuide Viewer. They can in turn communicate with the MapGuide site and send data back to the Viewer.

When you define a web layout, using Autodesk® MapGuide Studio or some other method, you also define toolbar and menu commands. These can be standard pre-defined Viewer commands like pan, zoom, and refresh, or they can be custom commands. Custom commands are a way of extending MapGuide to interact with your mapping data. The custom commands are HTML pages, generated on the server using PHP, ASP.NET, or Java (JSP). These languages can use the Web API to retrieve, manipulate, and update mapping data.

The current version of MapGuide Open Source Web Studio does not create or edit web layouts. It is possible, however, to create and edit web layouts using the Mapagent HTML pages at http://ServerAddress/mapguide/mapagent/index.html. Get an existing web layout, such as the web layout supplied with the sample applications, using the GetResourceContent and GetResourceHeader links. Edit the XML in a text editor, then save to the site repository using the SetResource link.

Many custom commands run in the task area, a section of the Viewer that is designed for user input/output. For more details about the task area and how it integrates with the rest of the Viewer, see The MapGuide Viewer.