One of the most frequent questions I get about web programming for GIS is “how do I control access to my web maps and protect my data?”. Its a very important question for web GIS applications that allow online editing because you certainly would not want everybody with internet access to be able to edit your GIS data. Even if your web application doesn’t provide editing capabilities there is often a need to control access to it. Some data may be sensitive, such as the location of endangered species activity or critical infrastructure. Other data is proprietary information that cost you or your client a lot of money to collect and thus you need to prevent competitors from accessing it. Continue reading “New Course: PHP registration, login, and content management system”