[mapserver-dev] pdf output development?

[Jan Hartmann]

I am wondering if MapServer support for the "Canvas" tag could do what 
Steve suggests in a more simple way. Originally, only Safari, Opera and 
Firefox supported this tag to allow (simple) 2D drawing, but recently a 
surprisingly simple Javascript interface for IE has become available, 
translating Canvas command to native IE VRML commands. It requires just 
one single scrip tag in the web page.

See the tutorial at the Mozilla site at: 
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Canvas_tutorial
and the IE interface (from the Google stables) at: 
http://excanvas.sourceforge.net/

This is something I have long been looking for. The graphics are very 
simple, so the functionality is nothing like PDF or SVG, but I could 
imagine that a driver for MapServer could fulfill many needs. I can use 
it already by letting Mapserver generate raw coordinates and catching 
them with some sort of Ajax, but a separate driver would be very neat of 
course.

How about it?

Jan

Steve Lime wrote:
> Hi Brent: It's neat to see the possibilities in this area. As an asside I don't think format options
> will be useful though. Just too many options. I've wondered if XHTML/CSS could be used, kinda
> like query templates. You'd reserve space for the map, legend etc... with css and div's and render
> to that space with the appropriate driver.  (wonders about tools like webkit, gecko,...) Would be 
> great to author a map layout in a web editor with text and stuff like that surrounding the map. If
> you could do that you'd have a winner. Easy to create with a true map-like presentation.
>
> As for where to go? I wouldn't favor supporting compile-time options, rather run-time defs via
> output formats. I think there room for both Cairo and Haru assuming one isn't clearly better than
> the other. Any opinions there?
>
> Steve
>
>   
>>>> Brent Fraser <bfraser at geoanalytic.com> 01/06/09 5:31 PM >>>
>>>>         
> Hi All,
>
>   I've been investigating some enhancements to make the pdf output more suitable for printed map production.  So far, aside from some minor bug fixes, I've coded a few new FORMATOPTIONS in my local copy of mappdf.c to allow more user control over the placement and scale of the map on the page:
>
>   OUTPUTFORMAT
>     NAME pdf
>     MIMETYPE "application/x-pdf"
>     DRIVER pdf
>     FORMATOPTION "PAGE_WIDTH=612"           # (font points)  8.5 inches wide (72 points per inch)
>     FORMATOPTION "PAGE_HEIGHT=792"          # (font points)  11 inches tall
>     FORMATOPTION "MAP_MARGIN_LEFT=144"      # (font points)  2 inches to the right
>     FORMATOPTION "MAP_MARGIN_BOTTOM=144"    # (font points)  2 inches up from the bottom of the page
>     FORMATOPTION "SCALEDENOM=50000"         # 1:50,000 scale when printed
>   END
>
> Here's a sample of the output (using the HARU pdf library): http://139.142.13.163/Download/Mapserver/topo2_enh_scale3.pdf
>
> And I've been able to compile Thomas Bonfort's Cairo-based work on Windows XP/VC++ to produce: http://139.142.13.163/Download/Mapserver/topo2_cairo.pdf (note that my modifications for scale and placement have not been applied to this).
>
> It seems like there's been a renewed interest in pdf output lately, so I'm wondering how to proceed with development.  Should we allow a choice of PDF renderers (Cairo, PDFlib-lite, Haru) at compile-time/run-time?  Re-implement PDFlib/Haru following "plugin" method of the Cairo implementation?  Leave them separate for now and see how much PDF-output interest there is in the Mapserver user community?
>
> Opinions welcome...
>
> Thanks!
> Brent Fraser
>
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