Hi,
I also suggest you to have a little closer look to something that looks like you want it to be, and try to learn why it look like it does. Or why is does not look so appealing. For example, in your example request (...&layers=topp:states&styles=population...) you are just asking for a layer 'states', drawn with a style named as 'population' . If you want to see Canada, rivers, oceans etc. you must have the data and styling for those as well. But if you had, then you could as a map with a request like 'draw me a map with deep blue oceans, rivers green with light blue outlines, borders of Canada in blue and US states in red, with pink semi-transparent fill'. Or almost whatever you want. WMS standard has just a bit different syntax, but the difference is not big, actually.
Regards,
-Jukka Rahkonen-
-----Original Message-----
From: geoserver-users-bounces@lists.sourceforge.net on behalf of Dejas Ninethousand
Sent: Tue 2.10.2007 21:36
To: Jason Pickering
Cc: geoserver-users@lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: Re: [Geoserver-users] Base Maps
"Check out the examples included with openlayers."
Isn't openlayers just a javascript api? How will knowing the openlayers
javascript API help me teach GeoSever how to render more map looking maps? I
would think instead I need to be learning how to configure GeoServer to
point to OpenLayers which in turn would be backed by, say, World Wind. I
would think OpenLayers would be completely ignorant of GeoServer and as such
I'm not sure how I would learn to configure GeoServer from the OpenLayers
web site. I'm confused.
"OpenLayers and GoogleMaps are both capable of displaying output from
GeoServer"
I'm more interested in the other way around. I just want to see maps in my
browser as a result of a WMS call served by GeoServer that look as pretty as
those demoed at FOSS4G. Right now all the example maps served from
GeoServer have all white backgrounds. For example, here is a WMS url from
the tutorial:
http://localhost:8080/geoserver/wms?request=GetMap&layers=topp:states&styles=population&srs=EPSG:4326&width=600&height=600&format=image/png&bbox=-126.325,12.797,-63.691,62.905
When I view that in my local web browser I see a solid colored united states
on top of a white background. No oceans, no Canada, no rivers. Just a
feature looking thing. At F0SS4G this image appeared on top of a more
realistic looking Earth.
-- Matt
On 10/2/07, Jason Pickering <jason.p.pickering@anonymised.com> wrote:
Check out the examples included with openlayers. There are many examples
included here including Google maps, Yahoo, etc. Thisr really depends a bit
on the mapping client that you intend to use. OpenLayers and GoogleMaps are
both capable of displaying output from GeoServer, but their API's are
different. If all else fails, read the documentation! 
On 10/2/07, Dejas Ninethousand <dejas9000@anonymised.com> wrote:
>
> I've been looking over the GeoServer documentation for a bit and what
> I'm having real problems understanding is how to back WMS requests with
> other base maps like World Wind. Right now, my maps (e.g.http://localhost:8080/geoserver/wms?request=GetMap&layers=topp:states&styles=population&srs=EPSG:4326&width=600&height=600&format=image/png&bbox=-
> 126.325,12.797,-63.691,62.905) don't look very "map like" because they
> appear to just be features on a white background. How can I set up
> GeoServer to be backed by real map looking data like World Wind or Virtual
> Earth?
>
> -- Matt
>
>
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