Most PHP sites out there are concerned with pulling and pushing things from a database, or maybe even providing a simple, useful service to its customers. Then, there are the more advances sites - performing functions like high-end financial transactions and even mapping solutions for developers. It's this last function that PHPBuilder.com's new article covers.

In GIS Mapping with PHP, the author steps you through the creation of a simple application to plot a single point on a pre-drawn map of the world (hey, it's a start). To plot your point you need to get the longitude and latitude of the place/thing/UFO and plug it into the functions that he has provided. Using PHP and GD to alter the image of the map with a red square, you can see clearly where the point you entered is located.

I created something similar to this for our local chapter of the wireless users group to map out some of our points for distances tests, and it works perfectly. The hardest part of the whole this is figuring out the map scale. Once you have the pixel-to-degree ratio, the rest is downhill...