OpenArchaeology.net

If we accept Spherical Mercator tiles and the ZXY storage scheme as standard and still wish to use all the nice WMS servers we know, we can easily set up a middle tile server like this:

For example, this request gets a OSM-like tile from a conventional Bavarian WMS server:

http://lucasdom.homelinux.org:8077/services/smtile?baseurl=http://www.geodaten.bayern.de/ogc/getogc.cgi%3fREQUEST=GetMap%26SERVICE=WMS%26VERSION=1.1.1%26LAYERS=UK500,TK50&x=8711&y=5643&z=14

The advantage of this over cascading WMS is that the middle server does not need to know the targeted server URL in advance, and the client (possibly a handheld) only has to provide the URL and the tile indices (x, y, z). In this example, I’m assuming that the targeted WMS server supports EPSG:4326, which is true in almost all cases.

A middle server of this type is currently up and running in my home computer. The images you see here are static ones. The URL to get them from the middle server is provided in the code boxes:

http://lucasdom.homelinux.org:8077/services/smtile?baseurl=http://shagrat.icc.es:80/lizardtech/iserv/ows%3fREQUEST=GetMap%26SERVICE=WMS%26VERSION=1.1.1%26LAYERS=mtc250m,mtc50m,mtc25m,mtc10m,mtc5m&x=132657&y=97914&z=18

Medieval quarter in Barcelona (Spain). Source: Institut Cartogràfic de Catalunya. Corresponding OSM tile with the same indices:

x = 132657
y = 97914
z = 18

http://lucasdom.homelinux.org:8077/services/smtile?baseurl=http://www.geosignal.org/cgi-bin/wmsmap%3fREQUEST=GetMap%26SERVICE=WMS%26VERSION=1.1.1%26LAYERS=RASTER4000k,RASTER1000k,RASTER500k,RASTER250k,RASTER100k,RASTER50k,RASTER25k,RASTER5k&x=1027&y=717&z=11

A French town called Tours. Source: Geosignal. Corresponding OSM tile with the same indices:

x = 1027
y = 717
z = 11

http://lucasdom.homelinux.org:8077/services/smtile?baseurl=http://www.geodaten.bayern.de/ogc/getogc.cgi%3fREQUEST=GetMap%26SERVICE=WMS%26VERSION=1.1.1%26LAYERS=UK500,TK50&x=8711&y=5643&z=14

A German town called Ingolstadt. Source: Bayerische Vermessungsverwaltung. Corresponding OSM tile with the same indices:

x = 8711
y = 5643
z = 14