[mapguide-internals] A better QUERYMAPFEATURES (Re: The selection of a feature appears to be inefficient)

[Zac Spitzer]

QUERYMAPFEATURES could also return the selected features as GeoJSON?

On Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 5:38 PM, Jackie Ng <jumpinjackie at gmail.com> wrote:
> I want to necro this discussion as this is something we should seriously
> address post-2.4.
>
> So what is the root problem for such excessive round-tripping? The answer is
> simply that QUERYMAPFEATURES does not fulfill the requirements that our
> current lineup of client-side viewers are demanding, so we have to make
> additional requests to other APIs or web extensions glue to work-around the
> shortcomings of this API. Some examples:
>
>  1) Select and give me back attributes of all features? Sorry,
> QUERYMAPFEATURES can only return attributes for one. That's why the AJAX
> viewer has to then make an additional call to
> getselectedfeatures.[php/jsp/aspx] and why Fusion has to make at least 4
> extra requests (!!!) through various PHP glue (!!!!!) to get the required
> attribute information. QUERYMAPFEATURES should return all the attributes
>
> [Benefit: no additional requests for extra attribute data]
>
>  2) QUERYMAPFEATURES also modifies the server-side selection, so it requires
> a follow-up GETDYNAMICMAPOVERLAYIMAGE request to update the selection image.
> If we can utilise data URIs to return the actual selection image back inline
> (as base64 encoded content) as part of the response, this eliminates the
> extra request. Sure, not all browsers support data URIs (you know which
> one), so we can workaround that by letting the client specify if they want
> the inline selection image (browsers that support data URIs will say "yes"
> and those that can't will say "no").
>
> [Benefit: no additional requests for browsers that support data URIs. Those
> that don't will fall back to existing behaviour.]
>
>  3) QUERYMAPFEATURES for tooltip requests doesn't need attribute
> information, so don't include this information.
>
> [Benefit: Less data through the wire]
>
> So how can have have a better QUERYMAPFEATURES that can satisify all of the
> above requirements? Let the client specify what bits of information they
> want. So:
>
>  1) and 2) wants attribute information, with an inline selection image if
> possible
>  3) Only wants tooltip and hyperlink information
>
> We could bitmask this request information like so:
>
>  Attributes = 1
>  InlineSelection = 2
>  Tooltip = 4
>  Hyperlink = 8
>
> The MapGuide Server would then use this mask to figure out what pieces of
> information to return back to the client.
>
> This would obviously need an XML schema update and a change to
> MgFeatureInformation (or maybe a new class?), which I've yet to fully figure
> out, but I want to just get the discussion rolling.
>
> Thoughts? Would this solve the issues of excessive roundtripping and
> selection inefficiency?
>
> - Jackie
>
> --
> View this message in context: http://osgeo-org.1560.n6.nabble.com/The-selection-of-a-feature-appears-to-be-inefficient-tp4210532p4988955.html
> Sent from the MapGuide Internals mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
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-- 
Zac Spitzer
Solution Architect / Director
Ennoble Consultancy Australia
http://www.ennoble.com.au
http://zacster.blogspot.com
+61 405 847 168