[mapguide-users] Advanced WMS provider configuration

[Jason Birch]

This is a reply to a post on fdo-users, but I thought others might find
it useful.

The FDO provider for WMS allows some fairly complex configurations
through an XML config file, including multi-layer feature sources,
different settings for image types, transparency, etc.  Unfortunately,
none of this complexity is exposed in the Studio user interface.

The schema for this configuration file is available here:

http://trac.osgeo.org/fdo/browser/trunk/Providers/WMS/Docs/XmlSchema/Fdo
WmsOverride.xsd

And some example XML configuration documents can be found in the
provider unit tests:

http://trac.osgeo.org/fdo/browser/trunk/Providers/WMS/Src/UnitTest

To be used in MapGuide, the configuration document needs to be stored as
ResourceData associated with the FeatureSource.

You're on your own building these XML configuration files, but once you
have one, there's a relatively easy way of uploading them to MapGuide.

- In your Studio install directory look for the file called
ProviderEditorMap.xml

- Comment out the lines dealing with the WMS provider

<!--
    <Entry>
        <ProviderName>OSGeo.WMS</ProviderName>
 
<Editor>Autodesk.MapGuide.Studio.UI.FeatureSourceEditors.WmsEditor</Edit
or>
    </Entry>
-->

- This will expose the raw connection attributes for the WMS provider
(the URL goes in the FeatureServer property) but will also give you
links to easily upload the configuration documents

Jason

On Wed, 11 Apr 2007 08:56:11 -0700, "Jason Birch" wrote:
> Hi Chris,
> 
> To my knowledge, the FDO installed with Studio is not used for 
> interacting with the server.  It's there for creating packages and has

> no relationship with the providers dialog.  Unfortunately, Studio's 
> dialog mechanism is proprietary and there is no known API for creating

> or extending them.  You can disable the use of the dialog (reverting 
> to a generic FDO dialog box) by commenting out the appropriate section

> of ProviderEditorMap.xml.  However, this only affects the connection 
> dialog, and it looks like you're wanting the behaviour of the Layer 
> Editor to change.
> 
> As far as the XML configuration file goes, have a look in the UnitTest

> directory for some examples.  They seem to cover most of your
comments.
> 
> 
> http://trac.osgeo.org/fdo/browser/trunk/Providers/WMS/Src/UnitTest
> 
> The schema for this file appears to be here:
> 
> http://trac.osgeo.org/fdo/browser/trunk/Providers/WMS/Docs/XmlSchema
> 
> I'm not sure how these would be referenced in MapGuide; perhaps they 
> could be uploaded as ResourceContent?
> 
> It seems like most of the limitations that you're seeing are with 
> Studio's ability to configure the WMS provider rather than with the 
> provider itself.  If those XML files can be read as ResourceContent, 
> then you should be able to disable the Studio dialog for WMS, upload 
> the content through the generic UI, and be off to the races with 
> multi-layer sources, transparency, etc, etc.
> 
> Then we'll just have to wait for Studio to catch up with the 
> capabilities of the WMS provider, or add some custom dialogs to Web 
> Studio to support these additional items.
> 
> Jason
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris Tweedie
> Subject: [fdo-users] General FDO queries
> 
> 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,
> 
> --
> Chris Tweedie