MapServer and Sensor Observation Service

[Frank Warmerdam]

On 1/27/06, Daniel Morissette <dmorissette at dmsolutions.ca> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> We are working with Tom to implement a Sensor Observation Service (SOS).
> Since they already have a bunch of WMS/WFS services based on MapServer,
> they would like to have this as an extension to MapServer, with the same
> configuration mechanism that their administrators are already used to.
> However, the SOS is in this grey area of features that may or may not
> belong in MapServer depending on how we look at them.
>
> So we are considering two options on which we would like to have your
> opinion:
>
> 1- Implement SOS as a new service type supported by MapServer (i.e.
> mapsensor.c) just like the current WMS/WFS/WCS support, an optional
> feature that could be enabled/disabled at compile-time.
>
> 2- Create a separate project independent of MapServer for the SOS. It
> would be built on top of map.h and libmap, but would not be part of the
> MapServer source and distribution.
>
> In both cases, the result would be more or less the same: a SOS that is
> configured via a the same MapServer mapfiles that are used for WMS/WFS,
> and that uses the same data access methods from maplayer.c... the
> question is really whether we think that this feature belongs in
> MapServer (#1) or not (#2).

Daniel,

Could you briefly describe the SOS, and how it would be
integrated with MapServer?  Is this another datasource,
we we read from remote sensors and then plot the results
as point features?  It is another way of publishing MapServer
point data (where mapserver is the server)?  Both?

If the implementation were able to be quite localized to one
module in MapServer, and if it sorts of fits with the mapserver
role of publishing geospatial data on the web, then I don't
think I would mind it living within the mapserver tree.

Best regards,
--
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent