So, with GeoCommons you can export all the features from a dataset in GeoJSON format. This is very useful. Then can it be displayed in Openlayers? Why yes it can!
I use the following strategy, wrapping the response with a little bit extra so that the GeoJSON format can read it properly.
var url = "http://geocommons.com/overlays/128725/features.json?limit=100"; var p = new OpenLayers.Format.GeoJSON(); OpenLayers.loadURL(url, {}, null, function (response) { var gformat = new OpenLayers.Format.GeoJSON(); gg = '{"type":"FeatureCollection", "features":' + response.responseText + '}'; var feats = gformat.read(gg); vector_layer.addFeatures(feats); });
Have a look a the live demo of this example of loading points from a Geocommons dataset straight into an OpenLayers map
(Note that I am using an OpenLayers.ProxyHost proxy to make it work in FF)
It is of course very basic in terms of styling, but it’s a start!
Incidentally the points are from “CARMA, India Power Plant Emissions, India, 2000/ 2007/Future” (carbon monitoring)