Select points on a map

Question

I am just beginning design work on a problem that I'm sure has been solved before.

In a web based application, I need to:

a) present a map
b) place a set of points (map-pins) on the map
c) allow the user at his browser to draw a simple closed curve on the map with his mouse
d) send the path of that curve back to the server
e) on the server, select from the set of points those that are within the closed curve.

What are the best API's to use for this problem? (I know I can and will do more research with Google, but I'm figuring there is probably someone who has done this that can give me some pointers to narrow my search space.)

Thanks.

Answer 1

Try http://www.geoext.org/ as a starting point and use http://geoserver.org/ on the backend.