[Community] Fwd: Introducing OpenLayers v1.0

Thu Jul 6 05:05:20 EEST 2006

On Jul 1, 2006, at 10:05 AM, Ludwig Max Brinckmann wrote:

> I had a quick playaround with OpenLayers and this is what I think:
>
> nice: the ability to hook in WMS Layers so that the rendering is  
> done on the client side. This means the overall rendering is  
> quicker (+ no unneccessary data transfer) as there is no multi-hop  
> (from WMS to Primagis, from PrimaGis to user). The tiling is also  
> nice.
>
> not so nice: I do not like the approach of coding in all points  
> into a Javascript file that goes out to the client. I am not  
> particularly fuzzy about my own copyright of points in Yunnan, but  
> this is an issue for many: just download the javascript and you  
> have all the data from the site. With too many points I think this  
> will also get a bit cumbersome and handling things with rules etc  
> is much better and much more thought through (wrt scaling etc): I  
> can just add a point to my shapefiles or postgis and the map will  
> automagically change, while here I will every time also have to  
> regenerate the Javascript (no doubt this can be automated, but the  
> less data duplication I have, the better).

Ludwig,

For many applications, transferring data -- not just a picture of the  
data -- to the client will give you better performance, or at least  
the impression of better performance. More responsiveness. Ideally,  
the javascript sent to the client would be subject to the same  
styling rules as other PrimaGIS data.

>
> As OpenLayers is an early release, I do not want to go on about  
> missing features. Yet the most intriguing aspect, the uncluttered  
> appearance, will disappear if one adds too many layers and there is  
> no legend at the moment. With more detailed maps a good legend  
> becomes ever more important. E.g. I just added a WMS Server 'Human  
> Footprint' to my map (www.yunnanexplorer.com/map), nice image, but  
> what the f..k does it mean?

Agreed. I also note that there is not much support for map  
projections at this point.

>
> I think the problem is at the moment that too many people are  
> trying to do exactly the same thing: and as usual everybody gets to  
> the point, where is actually becomes complex work but is not yet  
> truly useful for users. The open mapping scene needs a shakeout and  
> consolidation if you ask me.
>
> Ludwig

I think there will be consolidation soon. The lead ka-Map developer  
is inclined to replace parts of that project with OpenLayers. Ka-Map  
was on the scene first, but seems to have hit an architectural soft  
patch if I understand it correctly. Thanks for taking a look. I  
really appreciate your evaluation.

Luiz, I'd like to see that done too, although I don't know exactly  
when I will get to it.

cheers,
Sean

>
> On 6/29/06, Luiz Vital <luiz.vital at gmail.com> wrote: Hi,
>
> I have already downloaded this release, but have only hacked it with a
> plain MapServer WMS Server. I think i'll be playing with dynamic
> generated markers soon.
>
> It would be nice to port that WMS Server from ZCO trunk to the  
> zope3 branch.
> Any thoughts on that? haven't yet looked at the ZCO/WMS.py code.
>
> []s
> Luiz Fernando
>
>
> On 6/29/06, Sean Gillies <sgillies at frii.com> wrote:
> > PrimaGIS needs a "slippy" map UI, and OpenLayers seems like it could
> > be useful. I think that Luiz Vital has been experimenting a bit.
> > Anything to report, Luiz?
> >
> > cheers,
> > Sean
> >
> > Begin forwarded message:
> >
> > > From: Christopher Schmidt < crschmidt at CRSCHMIDT.NET>
> > > Date: June 29, 2006 9:55:40 AM MDT
> > > To: MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU
> > > Subject: Introducing OpenLayers v1.0
> > > Reply-To: Christopher Schmidt <crschmidt at CRSCHMIDT.NET>
> > >
> > > OpenLayers is an BSD-licensed pure JavaScript API for building map
> > > applications on the Web. OpenLayers offer offers the ability to
> > > display a number of different types of data in a configurable  
> mapping
> > > interface.
> > >
> > > On behalf of the OpenLayers development team, I have the honor and
> > > pleasure of presenting version 1.0 of OpenLayers.
> > >
> > > 1.0 Release API URL:   http://openlayers.org/api/1.0/OpenLayers.js
> > > Latest Stable API URL: http://openlayers.org/api/OpenLayers.js
> > > 1.0 Release Tarball:   http://openlayers.org/download/
> > > OpenLayers-1.0.tar.gz
> > >
> > > You can see some example OpenLayers applications here:
> > >
> > >     http://openlayers.org/gallery/
> > >
> > > The 1.0 release includes support for display of:
> > >
> > >   * Markers
> > >   * Popups
> > >   * Tiled WMS Images
> > >   * WFS Results (as points)
> > >   * Textual (tab-seperated) data
> > >
> > > Development continues at a fast pace. Currently, the development
> > > branch of OpenLayers supports:
> > >
> > >   * ka-Map data
> > >   * WorldWind data
> > >   * Untiled WMS Requests
> > >   * GeoRSS data
> > >
> > > Our next release will support drawing and reprojection of vector
> > > data on
> > > to:
> > >
> > >   * Google Maps
> > >   * Yahoo Maps
> > >   * Microsoft Virtual Earth
> > >
> > > One of the many goals of OpenLayers is to allow users to use  
> one API,
> > > and one look and feel, but display data from any source. To that
> > > end, we
> > > have created a system which allows for any data provider to create
> > > their
> > > own layers to be displayed alongside any others in OpenLayers.  
> The API
> > > is inspired by the Google Maps API, designed to make the simple  
> things
> > > easy, and the difficult things possible.
> > >
> > > OpenLayers makes an excellent, easy to set up compliment to  
> Mapserver
> > > WMS servers, allowing one to quickly and easily browse a new  
> map that
> > > you may have set up, changing only the 'map' and 'layers'
> > > parameters of
> > > your WMS request. Additionally, the next release of OpenLayers,  
> with
> > > ka-Map support, will allow users who have previously needed a more
> > > complex setup to get started with tiled interfaces to their  
> mapfiles
> > > more quickly and easily.
> > >
> > > Development of OpenLayers is currently funded in part by  
> MetaCarta:
> > >
> > >     http://www.metacarta.com/
> > >
> > > Please give OpenLayers a whirl and let us know what you think!
> > >
> > >     http://openlayers.org/
> > >
> > > --
> > > Christopher Schmidt
> > > Web Developer
> >
> > ---
> > Sean Gillies
> > http://zcologia.com
> >
> >

---
Sean Gillies
http://zcologia.com