[mapguide-users] .NET Objects for working with Mapguide Resources

Sun May 25 08:19:31 EDT 2008

Hi Kenneth, Darrin,

Regarding the LinQ and XSD codegen - is it possible to generate a C#/VB.NET
serializable codebase out of XSD? I have been experimenting a while ago with
some custom codegen engine based on .NET 2.0 (due to generics support), and
I think it's doable - even without LinQ. The basic concept is similar to
VS.NET's own codegen tools:

1) Fetch the XSD (or XML with embedded schema)
2) Generate codebase of desired flawour (C#, VB.NET, J#...)
3) Generated serializable object definitions, according to (compatible with)
source schema

...generate codebase-embedded FDO-based spatial queries based on entity
relationships?... :-)

Kenneth, I presume you were thinking of the same thing (1, 2 and 3)?

Regards,
Maksim Sestic

  _____  

From: mapguide-users-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:mapguide-users-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Kenneth
Skovhede, GEOGRAF A/S
Sent: Sunday, May 25, 2008 00:13
To: MapGuide Users Mail List
Subject: Re: [mapguide-users] .NET Objects for working with Mapguide
Resources

I'm not sure what you mean by "work with the web tier API".
There are two different API's that are refered to as Web tier, the
MapGuideDotNetApi.dll and the http interface.
Both of them are supported by MaestroAPI, using the LocalNativeConnetion and
HttpServerConnection.

You can set up a http connection like this:
ServerConnectionI connection = new HttpServerConnection(new
Uri("http://localhost/mapguide/mapagent/mapagent.fcgi"
<http://localhost/mapguide/mapagent/mapagent.fcgi> ), "Anonymous", "");
And one using the local connection like this:
ServerConnectionI connection = new LocalNativeConnection("serverconfig.ini",
"Anonymous", "");

The http connection is portable and does not require the mapguide dll's. The
native is a bit faster, because the http protocol and webserver introduces
overhead.

Once you have a connection, you can read an object from the repository,
using either interface, by issuing the following:
LayerDefinition layer =
connection.GetLayerDefinition("Library://layer.LayerDefinition");

And write it back like this:
connection.SaveResource(layer);

Or modify, and save under a new name:
layer.BackgroundColor = Color.Blue;
connection.SaveResource(layer, "Library://new layer.LayerDefinition");

There are also functions to generate the full paths, from name and type.

Regards, Kenneth Skovhede, GEOGRAF A/S

Kenneth Skovhede, GEOGRAF A/S skrev: 

Yes. I have moved the entire site over on the MapGuide wiki.
Documentation can now be found here:
http://trac.osgeo.org/mapguide/wiki/maestro
And for the API:
http://trac.osgeo.org/mapguide/wiki/maestro/MaestroAPI

Too bad about the LinQ dependancy, it would be a lot cleaner to do it that
way.

I have not exposed functionality in the way you ask, but it is there.
You can do it with code like this:
Stream s = ... stream with Xml data ...
LayerDefinition layer =
(LayerDefinition)con.DeserializeObject(typeof(LayerDefinition), s);
layer.BackgroundColor = Color.White;
s = con.SerializeObject(s);

The methods could actually be static, but they are not because they use the
server version to restrict/convert the version's of the documents.

It is possible to serialize/deserialise the objects manually, using the
XmlSerializer from .Net:
XmlSerializer ser = new XmlSerializer(typeof(LayerDefinition));
layer = (LayerDefinition)con.Deserialize(s);
layer.BackgroundColor = Color.Green;
ser.Serialize(s, layer);

There is a function in the Utility class that strips the UTF-8 BOM:
s = Utility.RemoveUTF8BOM(s);

Regards, Kenneth Skovhede, GEOGRAF A/S

Darrin Maidlow skrev: 

Hi Kenneth,

Thanks for the feedback.  You are very right in that dual development
streams would be a bad thing and a waste of a lot of time.   What I was
hoping to accomplish with that XSD codegen was to create a set of relatively
light weight objects to roundtrip the xml.  Eliminate the use of XML tools
for working with the mapguide entities, then return the entities back to XML
for use with the Mapguide API.    I was not planning a full API project.
Again, you are right in that there is still some messing around needed to be
done with the linq code - I had problems with nulls just as you mentioned =)

To answer your question, as far as I can see, the linq dll is required for
the generated code to function.  A lot of the generated functionality
requires methods that exist within the linq to XSD dll file.

I spent some time trying to find more info on the MeastroAPI today, but was
not able to find much.  Likely because of the move over to osgeo.  I have
not had a chance to actually work with the API again yet, but perhaps you
could answer a couple questions for me.

Does Meastro API come with the abovementioned objects I was looking for?
Can I shove some XML from the repository into a new object, do some work,
and then spit the new XML back out?  If so, I'm assuming that I could
continue to work with the web tier API from Mapguide?

thx

darrin

From: mapguide-users-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:mapguide-users-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Kenneth
Skovhede, GEOGRAF A/S
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2008 12:04 PM
To: MapGuide Users Mail List
Subject: Re: [mapguide-users] .NET Objects for working with Mapguide
Resources

That is a smart way to convert Xsd to classes. Is it possible to extract the
generated code and use it without LinQ for .Net 2.0?

I'm not sure what you mean by "wanted to stay closer to the core API". Your
generated classes expose the MapGuide Xml as .Net classes.
You can then use .Net objects "directly" instead of handling Xml. That is
exactly what the MaestroAPI does.

I have implemented a connection interface that enables you to communicate
with MapGuide either via the MapGuide API, or through Http.
If you use the LocalNativeConnection exclusively, MaestroAPI is doing the
exact same thing your code does.

If you (or someone else) has questions about MaestroAPI usage, please ask
away.
If you (or someone else) find missing functionality, or has improvements for
MaestroAPI, let me know.
I have a short introduction to MaestroAPI usage here:
http://code.google.com/p/mapstudioos/wiki/HowToUseMapGuideAPI
(The site is being migrated to here:
http://trac.osgeo.org/mapguide/wiki/maestro)

I like your code, and if you are up for it, I think we both could benefit
from one great API extension, rather than two good ones.
I have learned that after you have the serialization in place there are many
places where you must handle trivial stuff like 
converting null string to empty string, empty collections to null
collections, etc. MaestroAPI handles much of this already,
and I would be sad to see you spend your time implementing that for another
project.

Regards, Kenneth Skovhede, GEOGRAF A/S

Darrin Maidlow skrev: 

Hi Maksim,

I looked at early on in my learnage, but wanted to stay closer to the core
API provided by Mapguide Project / Autodesk.   ADN support could offer some
help with the built in API, and if needed escalate off to the devs.  I did
also have some problems getting the Maestro API running - but that was right
around the transition between 1.1 and 2.0 - and working all night with too
much redbull probably didn't help either =)

darrin

From: mapguide-users-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:mapguide-users-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Maksim Sestic
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2008 7:40 AM
To: 'MapGuide Users Mail List'
Subject: RE: [mapguide-users] .NET Objects for working with Mapguide
Resources

Hi Darrin,

Thanks for the tip. Please take a look at Kenneth's Meastro API:

http://trac.osgeo.org/mapguide/browser/trunk/Tools/Maestro/MaestroAPI

It relies on .NET 2.0 for MG types (de)serialization.

Regards,

Maksim Sestic

  _____  

From: mapguide-users-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:mapguide-users-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Darrin Maidlow
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2008 15:28
To: mapguide-users at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: [mapguide-users] .NET Objects for working with Mapguide Resources

Hi List,

I've written two posts I thought I would share with you on the topic of .NET
based MG dev.  The first describes a method I've worked out to create
relatively robust .NET based objects based on the Xml Schema Definitions
provided with the server.    Please note, I currently am only working with
MGE 2009.  I have not tried this code on MGOS.  If you do try them on MGOS,
please let me know what results have.

In a nutshell, one can get the resource XML from the resource service, load
it into the object with the provided .parse method, manipulate the object
(without having to use xml) e.g. add child objects, change properties etc,
and finally spit it back out to XML for saving back to the repository.  Yay
no longer need to be jealous of the PHP guys and their object factories =D

The second is a dynamic authoring example using these objects, manipulating
the MapDefinition before the viewer has loaded it.

Both come with full source code, and Visual Studio 2008 projects.   I hope
they are helpful to the other .NET devs out there. 

http://www.webrade.com/blogs/darrin/2008/05/16/CreatingNETObjectsForMapguide
XMLSchemaDefinitionsXSDUsingLINQ.aspx

http://www.webrade.com/blogs/darrin/2008/05/21/DynamicAuthoringInMapguideEnt
erpriseBeforeTheViewerHasLoaded.aspx

Enjoy.

darrin

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