[Mapbender-dev] GSoC 2010

Tue Mar 23 06:13:28 EDT 2010

On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 5:51 PM, Arnulf Christl <seven at arnulf.us> wrote:

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> Siddharth Prakash Singh wrote:
> > Hello devs,
> >
> > I will be applying for the GSoc 2010 project - "RESTful API for
> Mapbender".
> > I need to discuss few things to write a proposal for the project -
> >
> > 1) What data format to use - JSON or XML ?
> > I personally prefer JSON as it mingles well with Javascript. We can also
> > have support for both data format like Twitter API supports both.
>
> Heelo Siddharth,
> thanks for taking up this idea, I am very interested in getting this
> started as it has a lot of potential.
>
> It will probably be a good idea to use both JSON or XML, I am personally
> pretty agnostic on this. Maybe others on the list who are deeper in the
> software have a more comprehensive opinion on this.
>
> > 2) What resources/functions to expose to the clients? I am not a
> Mapbender
> > expert (as an administrator). So I need your views positively on this.
>
> Part of the exercise will involve finding out exactly this. As a
> starting ppint but far from a definite list I would suggest to follow
> the CRUD paradigm and find out what Mapbender entities we might need:
>
> * User
> * Group
> * OGC WMS Service
> * Application
>
> Create: (these will all need an up front user authentication)
> * New OGC WMS service in Mapbender (with auto generated unique ID and
> relation to an owner)
> * New container (that is the old Mapbender "GUI", now "Application")
> * New service (that is the OGC WMS serice) in the container. The result
> would be a representation of the serivice in a Mapbender Application.
> * New Mapbender User (including core metadata like name, email,
> organization, etc.)
> * New Group ...
> * New member in Group
> * and so on...
>

I don't understand what OGC WMS service is. But as a software developer I
can make out that I don't need to know exactly what an OGC WMS service is.
In terms of code, it will be adding some row in the database. Is this true?
If not can you expand it bit more in terms of what needs to be done.

Rest of them are fine.

>
> Read: (some will all need a user authentication, except for "public"
> information, see other discussion thread)
> * OGC WMS service using the unique Mapbender id, again with user
> authentication...
> * OGC WMS service using the Online Resource URL
> * User metadata via unique Mapbender id
> * All OGC WMS services related to user id
> * Application...
>
>
Same thing goes here.

> Update:
> * more or less the same...
>
> > Please also enlighten me on other issues I will have to face while
> working
> > on this project. I am also exploring more about writing a Restful API in
> > PHP.
>
> I am nut sure what you mean? We will want to have at least 1/3 of the
> time up front for designing the Resource and their representation. This
> is somewhat unusual for a hacker but it makes the software so much
> better. So plan for a lot of communication and learning in the start up
> phase.
>

Yeah I will put up lot of time in the beginning of the project on
discussions and communication via mailing list. But could you explain a bit
more about what do you mean by saying "designing the resource and their
representation".

>
> Then we will want to implement the API with a test driven development,
> that means first write the test, then the code to satisfy it. Christoph
> acn point you to relevant information on how to achieve this in the
> Mapbender Wiki.
>
> And last but not least we need a comprehensive documentation, which
> should naturally evolve during the implementation phase and not be added
> on as an appendix after everything is done.
>
> Now - all of this is how it ideally works out. In reality there will be
> lapses and issues and confusion. Therefore I suggest to follow an agile
> methodology and make a fixed reporting window of no more than 15 Minutes
> at least twice a week on IRC where you can report problems and show
> stoppers. It will be my job to point you in the right direction to
> resolve them.
>

Yeah I am fine with this. Weekly reporting two times is ok.

And we were also discussing about authentication method? Plain curl or
OAuth. You suggested me to go for both.

>
> > Waiting for your suggestions and comments.
> >
> > Regards
> > Siddharth
>
> Best regards,
> Arnulf.
>
> - --
> Arnulf Christl
>
> Exploring Space, Time and Mind
> http://arnulf.us
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-- 
Siddharth Prakash Singh
http://www.spsneo.com
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