InterMap - web ArcIMS and WMS client

Dear all,
We are planning the future direction of our current InterMap WMS web client.

To avoid working in isolation or duplicating a lot of work already done we are open to contribute to existing W*S clients, or invite others to participate in the design and implementation of an InterMap version 2. We have a number of requirements for the client that we must include and a number of features we aim for. I will list these below and hope some interested people are willing to participate.

The targeted user community is people working in developing countries with poor internet connections.

Design decisions:
- Java based, using GeoTools API
- XML services with XSLT for (e.g.) html output (processed on the server)
- Client runs on a servlet engine
- Combined image of active layers is transfered to browser to minimize traffic between server running InterMap and client using InterMap
- Javascript limited to functions that improve performance of client to ensure support of a wide range of browsers
- No applet
- Expandable by design to support new services like WPS, WTS etc...

Technical requirements:
- Support for access to WMS, WFS and WCS services
- WFS provides view option and extract option to store an AOI in selected format to local system
- WCS provides view option and extract option to store an AOI of a coverage in selected format to local system
- Support for ArcIMS image and feature services
- Support for feature extraction when available
- Flexible map size
- Zoom (including quick zoom through gazetteer service), pan, select & identify
- Transparency of layers
- Time dimension support, including the generation of animations
- SLD support (both client and server side SLD)
- WMContext support to open, save and email a WMC.
- Integration of metadata information, e.g. link back to metadata catalog
- User defined, but initially automatically chosen image format (jpeg with compression setting, gif, png)

Optional:
- User defined settings
e.g.
- Default image size
- Default image format and quality (jpeg, png, gif)

Looking forward to your inputs, thanks,
Jeroen

- Add layers on the fly from not pre-configured W*S servers (combine layers from different servers on user request)

Jeroen

Hi Jereon,

I replied to your email with this but missed that you had created this forum, so I'm reposting the mail here, with an addition about adding layers.

I would encourage you to look at using Mapbuilder as it supports many of the requirements you have listed. It is highly configurable and extensible. It is more of a client-side solution in Javascript than what you have proposed below, however we do commit to supporting IE and Mozilla based browsers.

It includes support for Context (load and save), WMS, WFS (rendering is somewhat limited at this point, but will be improved). WCS support would require a coverage portrayal service. In the near term we will be implementing CSW client support and probably WPS client support. It supports client side coordinate transformations (a limited set of projection at this point, but easy to extend). It already has WMS time series support (have a look at the demos).

We can also dynamically add WMS/WFS data to an existing context document. Have a look at the contextEditor demo. This is at the prototypee stage so not everything works yet but you can add layers. Click on Browse WMS servers, pick one from the list (ESRI ones may or may not return anything, Bird Studies is a good one to test with) then select "add to the map" for any layer. you can save the result by clicking on the save button (the last one in the row, needs a better graphic).

I have an instance of mapbuilder installed at http://geoservices.cgdi.ca/mapbuilder/ and the sourceforge page is at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mapbuilder

We are close to doing a new release. If you want to try it out, I suggest getting the CVS head version rather than the 0.1 release since much has changed since that release.

Cheers,

Mike Adair