HTML5 And GIS
ESRI Shapefile - HTML5 Viewer
http://mapperz.blogspot.com/2010/07/esri-shapefile-html5-viewer.html
This is a neat way to display ESRI Shapefiles online without using any GIS software.
(Note: Not compatible with Internet Explorer)
Two shapefiles are displayed here cities of the world and associated text along with Countries of the World with a line style and polygon fill style.
Notes: Keep shapefiles as small as possible, smaller shapefiles returns faster display results.
Faster than ArcIMS in some cases. But depends on the hosting server.
Mapperz Version, styles and fills changed, though seems slower, compare the difference.
The two files required are the .shp (geometry in lat/lng WGS84) and the .dbf (Table)
http://mapperz.110mb.com/shape/simple.html
source code changed:
var map = new Map('map', [
// country shapes
new Layer('http://mapperz.110mb.com/shape/110m_admin_0_countries', { fillStyle: '#76e97c', strokeStyle: '#18841D', lineWidth: '0.5' }),
// dots for cities
new Layer('http://mapperz.110mb.com/shape/110m_populated_places', { fillStyle: '#8A2BE2', /*textHalo: '3', textStroke: 'white',*/ textFill: 'rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.6)', textProp: 'Name', font: 'bold 9px sans-serif' })
]); Links [source code:]
http://github.com/RandomEtc/shapefile-js
More complex version involves 10 shapefile layers.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/shapefile-js/naturalearthdata.html
source:
http://badassjs.com/post/845509816/rendering-binary-shapefiles-with-javascript