The AS Mapviewer is a viewing component to view spatial data; the Mapviewer is part of the Oracle Application Server (all editions).
Some example applications/solutions:

European Roadmap	Viewing Network Data	Field Office Information	San Francisco with Georaster data	multiple styles on dynamic BI data	Dynamic (JDBC) theme, dynamic Bar chart style and rendering rule

More examples can be viewed at OTN.

How to start with MAPVIEWER ?
You may DOWNLOAD Mapviewer pre-configured within an OC4J (*) in a QUICKSTART KIT together with some demo data from OTN.

* OC4J = Oracle Container for Java = the quickest Java Runtime Engine and the foundation of the Oracle Application Server.

The "classical" Mapviewer is a pure Java application (mapviewer.ear - 9MB), which runs on a JVM such as the Oracle Application Server (OC4J).
Maps are rendered as an image (png) and send to the browser - after any interaction the whole page is rendered again.

The inbuilt demos perfectly do illustrate the use of SQL to access, filter and manipulate the spatial data. Very smart and easy !

SQL example:
SQL>select GEOMETRY from counties
will deliver a map with the county bounderies (contained in the spatial column GEOMETRY).

As under in the "Simple Spatial Query Visualizer" (part of the Mapviewer Demo) I used in the

SQL query field 1: select geoloc from de_nuts1 --> shows the bounderies of the german counties (in grey)
SQL query field 2: select geoloc from deflusse --> shows the rivers of Germany (in blue)

Result:



After having started the Mapviewer with: http://localhost:8888/Mapviewer you may access the Admin API and under the resp. tab you may run the DEMOS to get acquainted with "classical" Mapviewer:



ORACLE MAPS
Since February 2006 the Mapviewer contains a separate module (best hidden secret...) named ORACLE MAPS.

The cool thing about ORACLE MAPS ? - its like Google maps and because of its Web2.0 and built in AJAX functionality the maps do refresh after every interaction in its container on the page, which ofcourse is quicker, than to refresh all the page. For more details on ORACLE MAPS consult the separate page.

At the bottom of the Mapviewer Demos (above screen) you can access ORACLE MAPS Tutorial and DEMOS !
So you just need to install MAPVIEWER and have ORACLE MAPS inbuilt automatically.

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Useful Links around MAPVIEWER:

Oracle AS Mapviewer (with Oracle Maps) Index Page:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/mapviewer/index.html

Oracle Spatial (Option) Index Page: http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/spatial/index.html

Quickstart Kit: http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/mapviewer/index.html (download & ready-to-go)

NAVTEQ / MVDEMO Demodataset on OTN: http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/mapviewer/index.html

10 Spatial Demos - Flash: http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/spatial/viewlet_demo_idx.html

Oracle AS Mapviewer Sample Screenshots:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/mapviewer/htdocs/screenshots/index.html

More Interesting Material:

Pro Oracle Spatial Book:
http://www.dbazine.com/olc/olc-articles/kothuri1 (the new 11g coming soon)

Integration of Discoverer and Mapviewer: http://www.oracle.com/technology/pub/articles/lokitz_location.html


How To JDeveloper and Mapviewer:http://www.oracle.com/technology/oramag/oracle/05-may/o35map.html