Making maps 101 - a few things I've picked up

index-shp.sh

cd [directory where your shapefiles]
shapeindex *.shp
for i in *.shp
> zip `basname $i .shp` `basename $i shp`*;

leaflet-example.js

    var geojson, map;
    $(document).ready(function(){
        var spin_opts = {
          lines: 12,
          length: 7,
          width: 4,
          radius: 10,
          color: '#fff',
          speed: 1,
          trail: 60,
          shadow: true
        };
        var target = document.getElementById('spinner');
        var spinner = new Spinner(spin_opts).spin(target);
        var streets = new L.TileLayer('http://{s}.tile.cloudmade.com/[My API key]/998/256/{z}/{x}/{y}.png');
        var bb = {{ bbox }};
        var sw = new L.LatLng(bb[1], bb[0], true);
        var ne = new L.LatLng(bb[3], bb[2], true);
        var bbox = new L.LatLngBounds(sw,ne);
        map = new L.Map('map');
        map.addLayer(streets);
        map.fitBounds(bbox);
        $.getJSON('{% url complex-counties %}', function(data){
            spinner.stop();
            parse_map_data(data);
        });
    });
    function parse_map_data(data){
        $.each(data, function(key,val){
            geojson = new L.GeoJSON();
            geojson.on('featureparse', function(e){
                e.layer.on('click', function(e){
                    shape_click(this);
                }, e.properties);
            });
            geojson.addGeoJSON(val);
            map.addLayer(geojson);
        });
    }
    function shape_click(shape){
        var content = "<h3>" + shape['name'] + "</h3>";
        var popup = new L.Popup();
        var point = new L.LatLng(shape['center'][1],shape['center'][0]);
        popup.setLatLng(point);
        popup.setContent(content);
        var bb = shape['bbox'];
        var sw = new L.LatLng(bb[1], bb[0], true);
        var ne = new L.LatLng(bb[3], bb[2], true);
        var bbox = new L.LatLngBounds(sw,ne);
        map.fitBounds(bbox);
        map.openPopup(popup);
    }

LoadData.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

# For this script to work you must set the Django settings file
# as an environment setting before importing LayerMapping

# Alternatively you can place
# export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=settings
# in your .bash_profile
# or paste this code into a $ manage.py shell

import sys
import site
import os
vepath = '/home/web/sites/demo/lib/python2.7/site-packages' # adjust for your env
prev_sys_path = list(sys.path)
# add the site-packages of our virtualenv as a site dir
site.addsitedir(vepath)
sys.path.append('/home/web/sites/demo/map_demo') # adjust this, too
sys.path.append('/home/web/sites/demo/') # and this

new_sys_path = [p for p in sys.path if p not in prev_sys_path]
for item in new_sys_path:
    sys.path.remove(item)
sys.path[:0] = new_sys_path

os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'map_demo.settings' # put your settings info here

from psycopg2 import IntegrityError

from django.contrib.gis.utils import mapping, LayerMapping, add_postgis_srs
from map_demo.california.models import County, Place # put your models here

try:
    add_postgis_srs(900913)
except IntegrityError:
    print "The Google Spherical Mercator projection, or a projection with srid 900913, already exists, skipping insert"

# Adjust to find your data files
County_shp = '/home/web/sites/demo/data/county/tl_2010_06_county10.shp'
Place_shp = '/home/web/sites/demo/data/place/tl_2010_06_place10.shp'

County_mapping = {
        'state_fips'  : 'STATEFP10',
        'county_fips'  : 'COUNTYFP10',
        'county_ansi'	: 'COUNTYNS10',
        'geo_id' : 'GEOID10',
        'name' : 'NAME10',
        'name_trans' : 'NAMELSAD10',
        'mpoly' : 'MULTIPOLYGON',
}

Place_mapping = {
        'state_fips'  : 'STATEFP10',
        'place_fips'  : 'PLACEFP10',
        'place_ansi'	: 'PLACENS10',
        'geo_id' : 'GEOID10',
        'name' : 'NAME10',
        'name_trans' : 'NAMELSAD10',
        'mpoly' : 'MULTIPOLYGON',
}

County_layer = LayerMapping(County,
                      County_shp,
                      County_mapping,
                      transform=False,
                      encoding='iso-8859-1')

County_layer.save(verbose=True, strict=True, progress=True)

Place_layer = LayerMapping(Place,
                    Place_shp,
                    Place_mapping,
                    transform=False,
                    encoding='iso-8859-1')

Place_layer.save(verbose=True, strict=True, progress=True)

models.py

from django.contrib.gis.db import models

class County(models.Model):
    state_fips = models.CharField(max_length=10)
    county_fips = models.CharField(max_length=10)
    county_ansi = models.CharField(max_length=10)
    geo_id = models.CharField(max_length=10)
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    name_trans = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    mpoly = models.MultiPolygonField()
    objects = models.GeoManager()

    def __unicode__(self):
        return self.name

class Place(models.Model):
    state_fips = models.CharField(max_length=10)
    place_fips = models.CharField(max_length=10)
    place_ansi = models.CharField(max_length=10)
    geo_id = models.CharField(max_length=10)
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    name_trans = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    mpoly = models.MultiPolygonField()
    objects = models.GeoManager()

    def __unicode__(self):
        return self.name

more-views.py

def complex_counties(request):
    counties = County.objects.all()
    bbox = json.dumps(counties.extent())
    if request.is_ajax():
        d = {}
        for county in counties.geojson():
            geojson = json.loads(county.geojson)
            properties = {'name': county.name_trans, 'bbox':county.mpoly.extent, 'center':county.mpoly.point_on_surface.coords}
            geojson['id'] = county.geo_id
            geojson['properties'] = properties
            d[county.geo_id] = geojson
        return HttpResponse(json.dumps(d), mimetype='application/json')
    else:
        return render_to_response('complex-county.html', { 'bbox': bbox }, context_instance=RequestContext(request))

openlayers-example.js

var map, vector, wkt, features, options, geom;
var collect = [];
var f = [];
var src = new OpenLayers.Projection('EPSG:4326');
var dest = new OpenLayers.Projection('EPSG:900913');
window.onload = function(){
    options = {
       'projection' : new OpenLayers.Projection("EPSG:900913"),
       'numZoomLevels' : 20,
       'displayProjection' : new OpenLayers.Projection("EPSG:4326"),
       'units' : "m",
       'maxResolution' : 156543.0339,
       'maxExtent' : new OpenLayers.Bounds(-20037508,-20037508,20037508,20037508)
    };
    map = new OpenLayers.Map('map', options);
    layer = new OpenLayers.Layer.OSM("OpenStreetMap (Mapnik)");
    map.addLayer(layer);
    map.setCenter(
        new OpenLayers.LonLat(-97, 38).transform(
            new OpenLayers.Projection("EPSG:4326"),
            map.getProjectionObject()
        ),
    5
    );
    vector = new OpenLayers.Layer.Vector("Regions");
    wkt = new OpenLayers.Format.WKT();
    {% for county in counties %}
        features = wkt.read('{{ county.mpoly }}');
        geom = features.geometry.transform(src, dest);
        collect.push(geom);
        var feat = new OpenLayers.Feature.Vector(geom);
        f.push(feat);
    {% endfor %}
    vector.addFeatures(f);
    map.addLayer(vector);
};

tilemill-counties.css

#counties {
  polygon-opacity: 0;
  line-width: 2;
  line-color: #123456;
  line-opacity: 0.4;
  line-join: round;
}

tilestache-setup.sh

apt-get install python-software-properties
add-apt-repository ppa:developmentseed/mapbox
apt-get update
apt-get install libmapnik2-dev
apt-get install python-mapnik2
cd /home/tiles/
apt-get install python-virtualenv
virtualenv .
source bin/activate
cd tilestache/
pip install -r requirements.txt
apt-get install nginx
vi /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/tiles # added a reverse proxy for the app to serve it to my host box
invoke-rc.d nginx restart
gunicorn "TileStache:WSGITileServer('configs/demo.cfg')"

urls.py

from django.conf.urls.defaults import *

from california.views import *

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    url(r'^counties/$', counties, name='counties'),
    url(r'^places/$', places, name='places'),
)

views.py

from django.shortcuts import render_to_response
from california.models import *

def counties(request):
    counties = County.objects.all()
    return render_to_response('basic-county.html', {'counties': counties}, context_instance=RequestContext(request))

def places(request):
    places = Place.objects.all()
    return render_to_response('basic-place.html', {'places': places}, context_instance=RequestContext(request))