[Mapbender-dev] Roadmap

astrid.emde at wheregroup.com astrid.emde at wheregroup.com
Wed Nov 11 07:19:58 EST 2009


Hello devs,

we talked about the roadmap in the last IRC meetings.

We agreed on the following points:
* we want to create a roadmap, follow it, and make it transparent to our
users.
* we want to do retrospective every 3 month. We want to connect this
meetings to the yearly events (FOSSGIS, Bolsena, INTERGEO, xmas)
* we want to set up the roadmap before the next develper sprint (before
12.12.2009)
* we want to build up the roadmap in the trac [4]

Christoph made suggestions for the roadmap [3]. In the discussion on IRC
we added a section on service security (owsproxy, http digest, basic
authentication).
We will further discuss the roadmap in the next IRC meetings [5].

If you want to join the discussion please send a mail or come to the next
IRC meeting.

Best regards

Astrid

[1] http://logs.qgis.org/mapbender/%23mapbender.2009-11-02.log
[2] http://logs.qgis.org/mapbender/%23mapbender.2009-11-09.log
[3] http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/mapbender_dev/2009-October/001868.html
[4] http://trac.osgeo.org/mapbender/roadmap
[5] http://www.mapbender.org/IRC_Meeting

On Fri, October 30, 2009 10:40 pm, Arnulf Christl (Seven) wrote:
> Christoph,
> thank you for taking this up, it is a very good suggestion. I cannot
> contribute as much as I would like to yet but I believe that all your
> points are good and probably also come iin the right priority.
>
> I would like to see some REST-oriented ideas come up, for example
> submitting WMS and WFS service capabilities Links or documents to Mapbender
> without having to log in and open a web administration interface.
> Mass-create accounts in the same way and enhance notifications,
> monitoring.
>
> I am pretty unsure what this would involve technical-wise and will
> unfortunately not be at the next sprint (at least I did not check yet).
>
> Good too see this happening.
>
>
> A side question: If something is broken on
> mapbender.telascience.org/current - should that also be reported using the
>  general Mapbender ticket system?
>
>
> Regards,
> Arnulf.
>
>
>> We don't really have a roadmap. We talked about creating one a lot, but
>>  we never came         around to actually doing it. I think it's time
>> we should create a roadmap, follow it, and make it transparent to our
>> users. We should make retrospectives at least every three months to see
>>  what we have accomplished.
>>
>> Please allow me to show you a roadmap that is guided by my impressions.
>>
>>
>> (1) Improve visual appearance
>>
>>
>> Mapbender looks just like it did five years ago. Users out there don't
>> know that the technology under the hood has improved tremendously in
>> these five years. It seems like Mapbender is a GIS antique shop from
>> the good old Web 1.0 days. I propose we improve the appearance by these
>> steps
>>
>> (a) rely more on the jQuery library
>>
>>
>> it has a lot of interesting plugins, like tablesorters. It also offers
>> a lot of unobtrusive effects. jQuery UI has a lot more of these plugins
>> we should use, for example use their tabs module instead of our own. By
>> this we remove code from Mapbender and make it leaner and easier to
>> maintain.
>>
>> (b) adopt the jQuery UI style conventions
>>
>>
>> I've written about this in a previous mail. We should use their class
>> definitions and map them to our existing modules. People could create
>> themes with the jQuery UI theme roller. Again, this will also make
>> Mapbender easier to configure, and easier to maintain.
>>
>>
>> (c) a new logo
>>
>>
>> it's already in the make, but it should be finished soon. Could be used
>>  in a nice default splash screen.
>>
>> (d) possibly implement the pseudo slippy map. The Mapbender map is
>> considered old-fashioned as well. It could be updated to a pseudo slippy
>>  map, a proof of concept exists. The OpenLayers viewer for untiled WMS
>> is not spectacular either.
>>
>>
>> (2) Allow other map clients
>>
>>
>> we should be able to allow other mapping clients, in order to allow
>> tiled maps as well. I see these options
>>
>> (a) map Mapbender API to Openlayers API. By this, the Mapbender and the
>>  OL client could be made interchangable. However, the OpenLayers API is
>>  huge and the question is where to stop. I assume this would be the
>> hard way.
>>
>> (b) use Mapstraction. The Mapstraction library comes with a code
>> template you have to fill with an adapter to your map client for each API
>> function. The set of functions is not so big, and could be finished in
>> reasonable amount of time. However, not all functionality is covered
>> (like adding map services). But we would also be able to display other
>> maps like Google or Yahoo without the OpenLayers overhead. Which could be
>> nice for smaller apps.
>>
>>
>>
>> I've omitted other important things like update script or installer,
>> basically because I think we should focus on marketing and show what
>> Mapbender is capable of, without hurting the eyes of potential users.
>>
>>
>> I would recommend we create a new folder for modules that have been
>> refactored. By this, we would maintain the current status, and still be
>> free to make huge changes. I think the Mapbender core is quite stable
>> and will not be subject to severe changes.
>>
>> Storing the modules at another location will allow us to address the
>> modules we think most important, and be able to create a stunning new
>> application within the next three months. This new application should
>> be made public and linked to intensively, in order to attract attention
>> to the Mapbender project.
>>
>>
>> I propose we create the roadmap before the next dev sprint, so we can
>> focus on our top prioritiy and not get lost in discussion. We should not
>>  plan too much and only address the topics we deem most important in
>> order to gain momentum and make good progress.
>>
>> Please contribute to this discussion. This is just my roadmap and maybe
>>  the project would benefit more from other improvements. Let's talk
>> about it and vote before the dev sprint.
>>
>> Have a nice weekend
>>
>>
>> Christoph
>>
>>
>> --
>> ----------------------------------
>>
>>
>> Aufwind durch Wissen!
>>
>>
>> Qualifizierte OpenSource-Schulungen
>> bei der www.foss-academy.eu
>>
>> ----------------------------------
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________
>>
>>
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>>
>>
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>> Germany
>>
>>
>> Christoph Baudson
>> Anwendungsentwickler
>>
>>
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>> Fax: +49 (0)228 / 90 90 38 - 11
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>> 6788
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>>
>>
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>
>
> --
> Arnulf Christl
>
>
> Exploring Space, Time and Mind
> http://arnulf.us/
>
>
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