mapserver and XML status?

[Steve Lime]

Hi Terry: I have been meaning to reply, just kept slipping my mind.

I don't think more dependencies nor the C++ agurment are major
impediments. I think the most often used argument for not doing pure XML
mapfiles is that what we have now works well so why bother. That and it
would be a large (unfunded) undertaking to switch.

So, in truth there is nothing happening with XML and mapfiles. It keeps
being bantered about from time-to-time, but never goes anywhere.
Eventually it will but when is anyone's guess. That said, your idea
sounds like a neat one and one that I would welcome. There are immediate
benefits and if a schema were kept up-to-date, long term as well.

(I started the DTD as a documentation tool out of curiosity way back
and you're right, it's way out of date and should probably be removed
from the distribution.)

Steve

>>> Terry Brown <tbrown at NRRI.UMN.EDU> 11/12/2004 10:51:14 AM >>>
What the status of mapserver vis-a-vis XML technologies?

Particularly for the mapfile end of things - I see the mapfile.dtd
in the source tree, but that seems incomplete.

I saw some comment about not wanting to introduce XML-Schemas
because the only open source tools to handle them require C++ (or
Java), and you don't want to add more dependencies to mapserver.

But it seems to me that XML components could be developed along side
mapserver without making mapserver dependent on them - e.g. a schema
for writing map files in XML with an XSLT translation to the current
ascii mapfile format in the mean time, so those who wanted could use
it.  I know it's difficult once you let XML get its toe in the door,
where to draw the line, do you fold a lot of documentation into the
schema, etc. etc.

Does this sound like something that might be useful?  I'd be up for
writing a draft XML-Schema with an automatic translation to a DTD as
a starting point.

Out of curiosity and strictly as an aside, do the cross server
interchange protocols (WMS?) use web services / SOAP type
technologies at all?

Cheers -Terry

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Terry Brown               Natural Resources Research Institute
Research Associate        5013 Miller Trunk Highway
tbrown at nrri.umn.edu       University of Minnesota, Duluth
Ph. 218 720 4345          Duluth, Minnesota 55811
Fax 218 720 4328          http://beaver.nrri.umn.edu/~tbrown/