[Mapbender-dev] GSoC 2010

[Arnulf Christl]

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Siddharth Prakash Singh wrote:
> Hello devs,
> 
> I will be applying for the GSoc 2010 project - "RESTful API for Mapbender".
> I need to discuss few things to write a proposal for the project -
> 
> 1) What data format to use - JSON or XML ?
> I personally prefer JSON as it mingles well with Javascript. We can also
> have support for both data format like Twitter API supports both.

Heelo Siddharth,
thanks for taking up this idea, I am very interested in getting this
started as it has a lot of potential.

It will probably be a good idea to use both JSON or XML, I am personally
pretty agnostic on this. Maybe others on the list who are deeper in the
software have a more comprehensive opinion on this.

> 2) What resources/functions to expose to the clients? I am not a Mapbender
> expert (as an administrator). So I need your views positively on this.

Part of the exercise will involve finding out exactly this. As a
starting ppint but far from a definite list I would suggest to follow
the CRUD paradigm and find out what Mapbender entities we might need:

* User
* Group
* OGC WMS Service
* Application

Create: (these will all need an up front user authentication)
* New OGC WMS service in Mapbender (with auto generated unique ID and
relation to an owner)
* New container (that is the old Mapbender "GUI", now "Application")
* New service (that is the OGC WMS serice) in the container. The result
would be a representation of the serivice in a Mapbender Application.
* New Mapbender User (including core metadata like name, email,
organization, etc.)
* New Group ...
* New member in Group
* and so on...

Read: (some will all need a user authentication, except for "public"
information, see other discussion thread)
* OGC WMS service using the unique Mapbender id, again with user
authentication...
* OGC WMS service using the Online Resource URL
* User metadata via unique Mapbender id
* All OGC WMS services related to user id
* Application...

Update:
* more or less the same...

> Please also enlighten me on other issues I will have to face while working
> on this project. I am also exploring more about writing a Restful API in
> PHP.

I am nut sure what you mean? We will want to have at least 1/3 of the
time up front for designing the Resource and their representation. This
is somewhat unusual for a hacker but it makes the software so much
better. So plan for a lot of communication and learning in the start up
phase.

Then we will want to implement the API with a test driven development,
that means first write the test, then the code to satisfy it. Christoph
acn point you to relevant information on how to achieve this in the
Mapbender Wiki.

And last but not least we need a comprehensive documentation, which
should naturally evolve during the implementation phase and not be added
on as an appendix after everything is done.

Now - all of this is how it ideally works out. In reality there will be
lapses and issues and confusion. Therefore I suggest to follow an agile
methodology and make a fixed reporting window of no more than 15 Minutes
at least twice a week on IRC where you can report problems and show
stoppers. It will be my job to point you in the right direction to
resolve them.

> Waiting for your suggestions and comments.
> 
> Regards
> Siddharth

Best regards,
Arnulf.

- --
Arnulf Christl

Exploring Space, Time and Mind
http://arnulf.us
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