[fdo-users] General FDO queries

[Chris Tweedie]

Hey guys, I have quite a few queries after diving into the FDO code. I am certainly not a C guru, but have at least gotten 3.2.2 compiled from source! This is leading on from a post i sent to mapguide-users a few weeks back but have since gotten my hands a lot more dirty.

First and foremost ... what is the relationship between the Autodesk Mapguide Studio FDO and the OSS Mapguide Server FDO? If i build a new provider, does Studio need to reference it also? I am really at a loss how the two co-exist at the moment. I am looking to modify in particular the FDOWMS Layer configuration dialogs but are at a loss where to start. I was initially thinking that the dialog's are created from the server FDO but now i'm not so sure (perhaps these bugs lie with Autodesk and not FDO??). Most of the following points are connected to the Studio interface as this is what we need to change (although any workarounds will be gratefully accepted!).

1. Remove dependancy on all WMS layers being image/png and allow the client to choose an appropriate type from a dropdown of supported formats. (See FDOWmsConnection.cpp Ln 657). The comments mention this can be changed in the "FDO WMS Configuration file" ... where is this magical file??

2. Use layer->GetTitle instead of layer->GetName when populating the Studio "featureclass" dropdown. Currently you can expect a nice list of say WMS_Schema:LayerID which isn't as helpful as the title. Minor fix i'm sure.

3. Moving on from 2), make the featureclass dropdown a multi-select box. I'm not sure what the correct term is, but basically you should be allowed to select multiple WMS layers to form a mapguide "layer". Currently this is not possible as its a 1:1 relationship. From what i can see in the code, it makes allowances for multiples in the CURL request code so it appears to be a matter of modifying the interface?? (see FdoWmsGetMap.cpp Ln 135)

4. Add a transparent checkbox to the config. If the user selects say image/png or image/gif, give them the option of toggling the TRANSPARENT KVP that is used to build the request URL. Currently its hardcoded to false. Argh! (see FdoWMSGetMap.cpp Ln 32)

If someone could explain how the Studio builds the dialogs i am confident i could fudge my way through fixing the afore-mentioned annoyances.

Cheers,

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Chris Tweedie