[Qgis-developer] Re: [Qgis-user] QGIS mapserver project

[Martin Dobias]

On 5/11/07, Marco Hugentobler <marco.hugentobler at karto.baug.ethz.ch> wrote:
> Dear QGIS developers and users
>
> I'm happy to announce the start of the 'QGIS mapserver' project:
>
> http://karlinapp.ethz.ch/qgis_wms/qgis_wms.html
>
> The idea of QGIS mapserver is simple: instead of using QGIS just as a desktop
> GIS, it can also be used as a server. The benefit is that bug fixes and
> extensions for the server also improve desktop GIS (and the other way round).
> So no need to develop two different GIS for desktop and server. And
> everything written in plattform independent C++ using the excellent Qt
> library.

Hi Marco,

great work! The time when QGIS will conquer the world is getting closer :-)


> From a technical point of view, QGIS mapserver is an application linked to
> libqgis_gui.so and libqgis_core.so. QGIS mapserver composes a set of
> maplayers according to the client request, the QGIS libraries render
> everything into a QImage (offscreen buffer). The server sends back the image
> (as jpg or png) to the client byte by byte. And thanks to Martins clever
> redesign of the QGIS libraries, QGIS mapserver doesn't need a running
> X-server on Unixes.

Btw. is it necessary to link also to gui library?


> QGIS mapserver doesn't (yet) have the same number of features as the
> maperservers which are around for many years. But it is already usable as a
> basic WMS server with SLD styling capabilities. It already supports
> GetCapabilities and GetMap over HTTP GET and allows client defined styling
> with SLD.

How would you compare SLD with QGIS display capabilities? Is SLD a
subset or superset of what can be displayed with QGIS libs? I'm
wondering whether SLD could be useful also for saving layer's
symbology...


> And now the most important thing: QGIS mapserver is opensource (GPL) ->
> everybody is kindly invited to contribute with code, documentation, testing,
> bug reports, constructive critisism, etc. Contact me if you are interesting
> in joining development of QGIS mapserver, there is still a lot to do...

At some point in future I should deploy a web application with mapping
support, so I'll take a look if this mapserver is usable enough. It's
a pity that QGIS doesn't support advanced symbology and the labeling
is still very inmature - these features are quite important for a good
mapserver.

Cheers
Martin