[mapguide-users] mapguide and fusion - a status report

[Paul Spencer]

Hi all,

there seems to be some confusion and frustration around Fusion and its  
relationship to the MapGuide Open Source project that I would like to  
try and clarify.

There are currently three versions of Fusion:

  * version 1.0
  * version 1.1
  * the development version

Version 1.0 is the version that the MapGuide project is currently  
using.  It is the *stable* version.  It has many acknowledged problems  
and is not as polished as the AJAX Viewer in some respects, making it  
a less desirable platform for MapGuide Open Source application  
development.

Some of these problems have been addressed by upgrading to a new  
version of the OpenLayers library that Fusion is dependent on.   
Updating Fusion to use the newer version of OpenLayers caused some  
necessary changes that were beyond the scope of what could be  
considered a bug fix release.  Therefore these changes could not be  
incorporated into Fusion 1.0, and so we elected to release an official  
1.1 version with these fixes in order that some MapGuide Open Source  
developers would be able to get past at least some of the issues in 1.0.

Version 1.1 is currently being released and includes many bug fixes  
related to updating to the new version of OpenLayers, as well as a few  
other bug fixes.  We hope to address a few more bug fixes before we  
finalize the release, but many issues are being deferred to a future  
release too.

One of the unfortunate side effects of updating to a new OpenLayers in  
Version 1.1 is that the existing MapGuide Open Source templates  
(Slate, Aqua, etc) do not work because the templates used an  
unsupported OpenLayers API method that changed when OpenLayers was  
released (this was entirely our fault when the templates where created).

MapGuide Open Source has included Fusion 1.0 since version 2.0.0.   
Minor bug fixes to Fusion were included in the 2.0.1 release I think.   
When the 2.0.2 build was prepared, it was decided by the MapGuide Open  
Source Project Steering Committee that updating to Fusion 1.1 did not  
meet the criteria of a bug fix release (partly because it included new  
features and changes beyond bug fixes, and partly because it still  
isn't a final release).

The development version of Fusion is where the developers are actively  
working on Fusion, specifically on improving performance and  
stability.  This includes updating the version of OpenLayers to the  
latest version and updating to the latest version of the Jx user  
interface library.  The update to OpenLayers didn't change anything  
this time around, but the update to Jx has caused a significant  
internal change in Fusion and in how templates are built.  Because the  
MapGuide Open Source templates are heavily dependent on Jx and were  
completely customized, they will have to be rebuilt for the new  
version of Jx in order to work at all (both the javascript and the CSS/ 
image skins).

When the Project Steering Committee decides to release MapGuide Open  
Source 2.1.0, a new version of Fusion will (I hope) be included.   
Given the timeframes of what is going on in both projects, I am  
hopeful that we can complete the current round of development activity  
in Fusion and release a new version (likely 2.0) in time to be  
included in MapGuide Open Source 2.1.0.

This has left MapGuide Open Source users wanting to work with Fusion  
in a tricky position.  Version 1.0 is not really useable and Version  
1.1 doesn't work without changes (albeit minor ones) to the MapGuide  
Open Source templates.  The development version is entirely unuseable  
until the current round of development activity stabilizes.

I don't really have a solution for MapGuide Open Source users wanting  
to work with Fusion beyond what has already been discussed on the  
various mailing lists.

I would like to acknowledge and thank those folks who have taken the  
time and effort to use Fusion and report issues to us.  I know that we  
haven't been able to satisfy everyone and are generally slow in  
responding, this is something that I hope to improve on in the future.

Paul

__________________________________________

    Paul Spencer
    Chief Technology Officer
    DM Solutions Group Inc
    http://www.dmsolutions.ca/