<div dir="ltr"><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Revisiting this thread to link to this RFC that was recently posted to the Mapserver-Dev list:<br></div><div><a href="https://mapserver.org/development/rfc/ms-rfc-138.html" target="_blank">https://mapserver.org/development/rfc/ms-rfc-138.html</a></div><div><br></div><div>Thread<br></div><div><a href="https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/mapserver-dev/2024-February/017105.html">https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/mapserver-dev/2024-February/017105.html </a><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, Jan 5, 2024 at 4:53 AM Bob Basques via geomoose-psc <<a href="mailto:geomoose-psc@lists.osgeo.org" target="_blank">geomoose-psc@lists.osgeo.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">All,<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">Is MappyFile a possible contender for use in setting something up for editing of Mapfiles?
<a href="https://www.osgeo.org/projects/mappyfile/" target="_blank">https://www.osgeo.org/projects/mappyfile/</a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">Another related thought, should there be an approach to styling where a basic predefined set of styling is prebuilt and installed by default with the specialized stuff being things that more advanced users
would/could tinker with under the hood?<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">Bobb<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">From: </span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">geomoose-psc <<a href="mailto:geomoose-psc-bounces@lists.osgeo.org" target="_blank">geomoose-psc-bounces@lists.osgeo.org</a>> on behalf of Jim Klassen via geomoose-psc <<a href="mailto:geomoose-psc@lists.osgeo.org" target="_blank">geomoose-psc@lists.osgeo.org</a>><br>
<b>Date: </b>Thursday, January 4, 2024 at 10:46 AM<br>
<b>To: </b><a href="mailto:geomoose-psc@lists.osgeo.org" target="_blank">geomoose-psc@lists.osgeo.org</a> <<a href="mailto:geomoose-psc@lists.osgeo.org" target="_blank">geomoose-psc@lists.osgeo.org</a>><br>
<b>Subject: </b>Re: [geomoose-psc] When Open Specs Close<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:rgb(255,51,51)">Think Before You Click:
</span></strong><span style="font-size:11pt;color:rgb(255,51,51)">This email originated
<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">outside </span></strong>our organization.</span><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11pt">That looks promising.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt">On 12/27/23 16:23, TC Haddad via geomoose-psc wrote:<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt">Yesterday I edited the wiki page that Brent linked to, to add the GeoCat Bridge QGIS plugin, which was recently referenced on the MapServer list as another mapfile syntax generator.
Mentioning it here because I had been testing their "StyleViewer" this last week, and it's pretty uncomplicated to use, and the tabbed interface allows flipping from MapServer to GeoStyler syntax pretty easily, so that's potentially a single (well-supported?)
UI that helps with both raster and vector styling. Screen grab here for the curious:
</span><a href="https://imgur.com/a/VM4XRbH" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:11pt">https://imgur.com/a/VM4XRbH</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt">I think having users do their styling in QGIS is the way to go if at all possible, and there are other QGIS plugins (e.g. SLYR:
</span><a href="https://github.com/north-road/slyr" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:11pt">https://github.com/north-road/slyr</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt">) out there that are already tailored to enticing migration from the E**I ecosystem of styling (LYR
files) to QGIS. So that means with some documentation glue, users could be coached on how to bring existing cartography into QGIS from the proprietary world, and then transfer it to MapServer or GeoStyler cartography for use in GeoMoose, without too many steps.
<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt">At least, this is what comes to mind on the cartography side from my "GIS in the trenches" experience with users in small communities.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt">Tanya<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt">On Thu, Dec 14, 2023 at 8:14 AM Dan Little via geomoose-psc <</span><a href="mailto:geomoose-psc@lists.osgeo.org" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:11pt">geomoose-psc@lists.osgeo.org</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt">>
wrote:<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt">- </span>
<a href="https://github.com/openlayers/ol-mapbox-style/pull/940#issuecomment-1855415159" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:11pt">https://github.com/openlayers/ol-mapbox-style/pull/940#issuecomment-1855415159</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt">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. <u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt">This does force me to shine light on a few GeoMoose things that I've been struggling with in the last two years:<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt">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.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt">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. <u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt">Things I know we can't make a part of our standard install and expect easy uptake:<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt">- Cloud<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt">- Docker<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt">- "Compile."<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt">There are solutions I would love to think about but have left off the table:<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt">- Create a mapfile editor. It's been tried but with narrow constraints it might work.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt">- 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.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt">- "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.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt">Thank you for taking the space for this.
</span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Apple Color Emoji"">😆</span><span style="font-size:11pt"> 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.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="font-size:11pt">_______________________________________________<br>
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