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I strongly prefer text files (and their usefulness with version
control) over GUIs for most things, but to add to the text file
editing pain, we still have a number of cases where an error in
configuration causes everything to just stop working, usually with
some gibberish console error like "j is undefined", instead of a
message pointing at the problem. That can be challenging to resolve
even for those of us with years of GeoMoose experience... I suspect
it is something that would cause most people who are staring out to
just give up.<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12/14/23 19:02, Brent Fraser via
geomoose-psc wrote:<br>
</div>
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cite="mid:da751963806e40138754986f249bf508@2794015228044bb78234d29831b73cc4">
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fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
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<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Hi Dan
(and others),</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br
fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">So
many things to consider, but to stay focused I would say: </div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> Keep
it simple, and stick to what we're good at: integrating best
of class packages (such as mapserver, GeoServer, and
OpenLayers).</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br
fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">I
would look for a good mapserver mapfile editor (or style
creator) project and integrate that into our workflows.</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a
data-fr-linked="true"
href="https://github.com/MapServer/MapServer/wiki/MapFile-Editors"
id="isPasted" fr-original-style=""
style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 102, 147); text-decoration: underline; user-select: auto;"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://github.com/MapServer/MapServer/wiki/MapFile-Editors</a></div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br
fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">As for
vector styling (especially via GM's mapbook), do we have any
users interested in doing that? If we do, something like
GeoStyler might be the answer. Our involvement could be as
simple as adding How-to (or even just a link) to our doc.</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br
fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">A
couple of years ago I started writing a GeoMoose
Implementation Roadmap to help new users create a working site
with their data. It was scary how much text file editing you
had to do on the server (and you better get the syntax right).</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br
fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Best
Regards,</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Brent</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br
fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"
contenteditable="false"><span fr-original-style=""
style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </span></div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br
fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
</div>
<hr id="previousmessagehr" fr-original-style=""
style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; user-select: none;">
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span
fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><strong
fr-original-style=""
style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">From</strong>:
"Dan Little via geomoose-psc"
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:geomoose-psc@lists.osgeo.org"><geomoose-psc@lists.osgeo.org></a><br fr-original-style=""
style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<strong fr-original-style=""
style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Sent</strong>:
12/14/23 9:25 AM<br fr-original-style=""
style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<strong fr-original-style=""
style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">To</strong>:
GeoMOOSE PSC <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:geomoose-psc@lists.osgeo.org"><geomoose-psc@lists.osgeo.org></a><br
fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<strong fr-original-style=""
style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Subject</strong>:
[geomoose-psc] When Open Specs Close<br fr-original-style=""
style="box-sizing: border-box;">
</span></div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br
fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
</div>
<div dir="ltr" fr-original-style=""
style="box-sizing: border-box;">
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">- <a
href="https://github.com/openlayers/ol-mapbox-style/pull/940#issuecomment-1855415159"
fr-original-style=""
style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 102, 147); text-decoration: underline; user-select: auto;"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://github.com/openlayers/ol-mapbox-style/pull/940#issuecomment-1855415159</a></div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br
fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">We
use a "vendored" version of the ol-mapbox-style-spec to
power GeoMoose's styling right now. This may have an effect
on us over the next few months that motivate moving some of
the styling engine over to something like GeoStyler's. </div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br
fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">This
does force me to shine light on a few GeoMoose things that
I've been struggling with in the last two years:</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">1.
How can we keep being the "plug-in-data-and-go" solution?
How do we become the best at that? MapServer can feel very
difficult to work with despite its performance. I think
MapServer 8 is a great piece of software and I understand
many of the design decisions but if I've grown up on E**I
stuff, at this point, it'll be difficult to approach.</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">2.
How can we get better at vector styling? This may be Ahab's
Whale but is definitely something I think about. Styling in
the app, styling data, how do we serve data that is easy to
style? Etc. etc.</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br
fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Things
I know we can't make a part of our standard install and
expect easy uptake:</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">-
Cloud</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">-
Docker</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">-
"Compile."</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br
fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">There
are solutions I would love to think about but have left off
the table:</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">-
Create a mapfile editor. It's been tried but with narrow
constraints it might work.</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">-
Jump to QGIS server and/or piggy back on it to allow
publishing whole apps. Keeping up with these changes are
likely a full time job.</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">-
"F**k it, we're the mapserver now!" Collaborate with or upon
a solution written in rust or go that support cross platform
compilation. Double click a binary, it starts the server, go
through the wizard to tell it where some data is, and you're
off to the races. Want it as a service? Sure here's the
10-step guide to making it work with pm2 or on Debian.</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br
fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Thank
you for taking the space for this. 😆 I genuinely want us to
have a product that people can use, use easily, and provide
some real benefit to the ecosystem in ways other projects
aren't. I love that this team has always focused on what it
takes to do GIS in the trenches and what that user profile
looks like.</div>
<div fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br
fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<fieldset class="moz-mime-attachment-header"></fieldset>
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