[mapguide-internals] Google Summer of Code 2010

[Trevor Wekel]

Hi Jason,

You are absolutely right.  Rohit's proposal has been accepted into GSoC 2010.

MapGuide Development Community,

I am pleased to introduce Rohit Razdan as our first Google Summer of Code student.  He is a Geoinformatics Major from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur with a strong desire to contribute to the MapGuide Community.

The proposal Rohit submitted to GSoC 2010 consists of two parts:

Linux Platform Support
----------------------
The MapGuide user base is having difficulty using MapGuide Open Source on Linux.  Many current Linux  distributions, including popular ones such as Ubuntu 9.10 are unusable due to the fact MapGuide does not compile under GCC 4.4.  In addition, RPM binary packaging for CentOS/RedHat (our primary targets in the GIS space) has not been implemented yet. Third party dependencies are also outdated in some cases. I propose to update the code base to current standards and create easy installation experience for linux users on many different distros. With these updated install packages I also propose to build a couple of live Cds which would be loaded with GIS software and Mapguide, interfaced together. I also intend to create extensive documentation and step by step guides for this.


Layer and GUI Element Visibility Control through Permissions
------------------------------------------------------------
For my second part, MapGuide Open Source has a well defined role and permission based security model.  However, this model has not been extended to facilitate map authoring and application creation. I intend to extend this to enable control of layer inclusion on a map based on user and group information.  If the user has permission to read both the LayerDefinition and FeatureSource for a specific layer, that layer will be included on the map. 

If time permits, then I intend to extend the security model to selectively display GUI elements. The controls available would change depending on the security 'clearance' of the user. This is pretty complex project and should probably be in the future ideas section, but I am definitely going to attempt some part of it.  



Please note that the Autodesk sponsored OSGeo LiveDVD work has already covered a portion of the Linux Platform Support project.  GCC 4.4 compilation and RPM packaging are still sorely needed, especially now since RHEL 6 is officially in beta.

Even with the slight reduction in the platform support project, I believe Rohit will still be very busy this summer.  According to the GSoC timelines, the first month is a "community bonding" period.  I propose that we use this time to help Rohit get up to speed and to write three RFCs:

- Native Support for GCC 4.4.
- Permissions based Layer Visibility
- Permissions based GUI Element Visibility

Writing the RFCs will allow Rohit to become even more familiar with the MapGuide code base and our processes.  And having the RFCs written ahead of time may help us avoid a few roadblocks along the way.

Welcome aboard Rohit!

Trevor

-----Original Message-----
From: mapguide-internals-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:mapguide-internals-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Jason Birch
Sent: April 26, 2010 1:39 PM
To: MapGuide Internals Mail List
Subject: [mapguide-internals] Google Summer of Code 2010

Cool, looks like Rohit's idea got accepted:

http://socghop.appspot.com/gsoc/org/home/google/gsoc2010/osgeo

Jason
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