From: Hr. J. L. <lo...@lw...> - 2008-05-20 09:01:00
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__________________________________________________________________________ NOTE: This is a copy from a thread on the mapbender-users mailing list. I did the cross posting intentionally, for the case that there are mapstorer users which do not monitor the mapbender list. But: PLEASE DO NOT VOTE OR REPLY TO THIS THREAD IN THE MAPSTORER LIST Use the mapbender mailing list instead, please. That way we can avoid confusion and redundancies. __________________________________________________________________________ Dear Mapbender users and devs, Dear Mapstorer Community: Should there be done some work to bring mapbender and mapstorer closer together? Here are some of my thoughts: With mapbender we have an open source WebGIS environment that once installed and customized it can be maintained even by not-so-advanced users. After some training, an end user with some GIS knowledge, but no deeper computer knowledge should be able to use the mapbender GUI and keep GIS projects up to date. But mapbender offers no possibility to manage the geodata itself, that´s not what it was designed for. Assuming that the UMN Mapserver is the most widely used WMS Server, it would be great to have an application to manage Mapfiles with the same simpleness. I think of changing colors, symbols, labeling or things like that via a web-based user interface. Well we have an application that can do that, the mapstorer! Unfortunately, the `team play´ of mapbender and mapstorer ist not as comfortable as it could be. A mapfile, managed by mapstorer has to be exported and imported into mapstorer manually. Maybe this mechanism could be simplified by an additional mapbender module and some slight changes in the mapstorer export function (Like: export to mapbender, autoimport). Dealing with two independent applications, we have a different user management, thus forcing two logins. So the second desire for the ,getting together´ would be a way to combine the user management, if possible. Mapstorer in the current development stage is a nice and usable application with comprehensive functions but it still has some shortcomings. I´d like to state some improvement suggestions at this place, knowing well that it is a lot of work in total and that it won´t be solvable over night. Interested users and potential developers should also have a look in the mapstorer wiki, where future development is indicated: http://212.79.172.185/mswiki/index.php/Future_Development/Functions_Exchange * Mapstorer has only a basic user management at this stage, this should be improved in order to have multiple independend administrator instances , each with their own set of mapfiles. Possibly even more detailed user permissions. At the moment I use independend databases for each project, what´s a real dirty workaround. * Mapstorer currently only supports mapserver 4.x Mapfiles, it would be great to have 5.0 syntax to be able to use mapbender with up-to-date mapfiles. The ,big solution´ would be to make mapstorer ,speak´ SLD, too. * If one wants to make the mapbender / mapstorer combination usable worldwide, mapstorer would need multi language support. At the moment it´s English only, what is ,quite international´. * Currently the mapfile management is ,mapfile orientated´ not ,layer orientated´. Making layers independent form mapfiles, would simplify the management of more complex projects and reduce redundancies in the database, if a layer is used more than once. That are only some important points, one could think of thousands of potential improvements. But thereover we should not forget what we already have: *A nice gui, that allows to do small changes in the map layout on-the-fly without deeper knowledge about mapserver / mapfile internals, including uncomplex creation of mapfiles and the handling of metadata. All parts of a mapfile are neatly arranged in a tree structure. * Mapfiles can be stored, exported, combined and edited, all via user interface. That reduces greatly the risk of typos, forgotten lines, quotes or brackets, which would prevent a mapfile form working. There is no need to download the mapfile, open it in an editor, save it and upload it agein. *A mapfile import function that works quite well now and does logging, too. One can use existing mapfiles, or even convert ArcGIS Projects using AMEIN. * Easy file based data management with web-based upload. *A plugin system, with ready to use plugins like the postgis plugin (for data management) and the db-backup plugin. This system will also make future developments more easy. So, all in all it is already a usable and very helpful system, but it could be so much more. Will it pay of for the users to have if some of the stated points would be realized? Would it improve OpenSource WebMapping? What is the effort for the devs to get some of the stated improvements done, will it be worth the work? What points are easy to put in action, what points require a greater deal of energy? To make it more easy for you to give a short reply to a long post, I will ask again a very general question: Should we bring mapbender and mapstorer closer together? Please vote +1, 0 or -1 and state your view shortly, what made you decide like that. Best regards Johannes |