Whats the easiest way to get sql 08 spatial data onto a map?

Question

I've got a DB with a whole bunch of records containing lat and long of points I want to get onto a map. The level of detail I need is down to Australian street level and up to the country level and it can be either pure map data (suburbs, streets, etc) or aerial photos. This is purely for personal purposes and the output doesn't need to be production quality. I assume either Bing maps or Google Earth is the way to go - can anyone point me in the right direction for a very fast, simple implementation? Thanks!

Answer 1

This could be some start - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd434647.aspx#id0080059

SQL Server Management Studio 2008 includes a simple visualizer in the form of a Spatial results tab in the Query results window. This visualizer works with a geography or geometry column in the query results and plots the spatial data types on a grid. If multiple spatial columns appear in the query results, you can choose the one to visualize. The column to be displayed must be in the SQL Server binary format; using ToString() or STAsText() won't work with the visualizer.

Answer 2

Regardless of what client side tool you choose for the mash-up you'll want to have an API for retrieving your SQL Server data in either image or vector format. I haven't had any hands on experience with it but GeoServer should be able to work with SQL Server Spatial Data.

From their about page:

GeoServer can display data on any of the popular mapping applications such as Google Maps, Google Earth, Yahoo Maps, and Microsoft Virtual Earth. In addition, GeoServer can connect with traditional GIS architectures such as ESRI ArcGIS.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

The best approach I've found for this so far is Craig Dunn's Geoquery. I need to spend a little more time getting familiar with it but on the surface it looks like a pretty neat tool.