Time for Action – getting dynamic data

Let's specify a ProxyHost and get data from Flickr in real time.

1. We can use the example we just created, as we'll only be adding two things to it.

2. First, we'll need to define the URL of our proxyhost. It can be a CGI script, python script, etc. A CGI script is provided by OpenLayers at http://trac.osgeo.org/openlayers/wiki/FrequentlyAskedQuestions#ProxyHost.

   If you use that file, be sure to have Python installed. By default, the file would go in c:/xampp/cgi-bin using Xampp on Windows or on Linux: /usr/lib/cgi-bin or /var/www/cgi (the location may vary between distributions). In your code, specify the ProxyHost, changing the URL to point to your ProxyHost:

   OpenLayers.ProxyHost = '/cgi-bin/proxy.cgi?url=';

3. Next, we'll need to add the Flickr domain to the allowed host variable in the proxy file. Edit the proxy file and add the Flickr URL to the list of allowedHosts (near the top of the file provided by OpenLayers). At the time of writing, the last item in...