Is ErMapper's IWS helpful with MapServer?

[Chris Tweedie]

Frank is correct in this aspect. ERMapper has a product in their range called
RightWebMap which is a web based javascript viewer capable of combining
streaming ECW with your traditional wms / arcims output.

See http://www.ermapper.com/integration/ for further information.

Take a look, it might be what you are after.

Chris.

Quoting Frank Warmerdam <warmerdam at POBOX.COM>:

> On 9/23/05, Carlo Calvino <carlo.calvino at email.it> wrote:
> > Hello everybody,
> > anyone knows if ErMapper's Image Web Server is of any help with MapServer?
> > Has UMN Image Web Server alone the same capabilities of ErMapper?
> > Some people use these two applications together: I wonder why.
>
> Carlo,
>
> I'm no expert on IWS, but I'll try to give my impressions.
>
> First UMN MapServer does not have the same capabilities as IWS.
> IWS maintains up open connection from the client to the server to
> continuous update an image view as the user roams around and zooms.
> This give a significantly more interactive experience than can ever be
> achieved with MapServer in a traditional http request environment.   You
> can think of ka-Map/Google maps as an attempt to provide something
> vaguely similar, but IWS (potentially) can make this seamless.
>
> I would add that IWS delivers content with ECW compression which
> is significantly better than JPEG for instance.  MapServer could deliver
> individual images in ECW format, but it really depends on having a
> client that supports ECW.  IWS achieves that by requiring a custom client
> app or plugin.
>
> On the other hand, MapServer certainly can quite practically and
> efficiently serve from massive image databases.
>
> My understanding is that IWS just serves image data from a big pre-rendered
> image file on disk.  For that reason, it is not suitable for complex,
> and dynamic
> rendering which is well addressed by MapServer.
>
> I'm not too sure how they could be effectively used together.  It would be
> nice if the IWS client could also pull a layer from WMS (perhaps it does?)
> Then mapserver could serve dynamic content overlayed on imagery
> from IWS.
>
> So, from my point of view MapServer is a generic mapserver for dynamic
> and static content to a generic web browser.
>
> IWS is a custom imagery delivery solution requiring a custom client side
> plugin, but can provide a degree of interactivity and performance that
> would otherwise be essentially impossible to achieve.
>
> Best regards,
> --
> ---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
> I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
> light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
> and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent
>




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