[mapserver-dev] MapServer 5.6.0-beta1 release

[Daniel Morissette]

The MapServer Team is pleased to announce the release of the first beta 
for the 5.6.0 release. We have decided to delay the 6.0 release a bit to 
leave some time to stabilize the rendering enhancements that are planned 
for 6.0, and to have a 5.6.0 release this fall which contains a few new 
features and performance enhancements. Here is a quick summary:

New features in 5.6:

   * MS RFC 51: XML Mapfile schema and XSLT (see 
http://trac.osgeo.org/mapserver/wiki/XMLMapfiles)
   * MS RFC 52: One-pass query processing, making WFS queries on 
database backends much much faster
   * MS RFC 55: Improve control of output resolution, allows printing 
maps at printer resolution using a mapfile defined for screen resolution
   * MS RFC 57: Labeling enhancements: ability to repeat labels along a 
line/multiline

(RFCs are available online at http://mapserver.org/development/rfc/)

Preview features that will be fully functional only in 6.0:

   * MS RFC 50: OpenGL Rendering Support
   * MS RFC 54: Rendering Interface API

Other notable enhancements include:

   * Security fixes (also backported to 5.4):
     * Improved security relative to untrusted directories and mapfiles 
(RFC 56)
     * Fixed several security issues found in an audit of the CGI 
application (#2939, #2941, #2942, #2943, #2944)
   * Performance optimizations:
     * Load all GDAL image bands in one pass for faster processing (r9260)
     * Optimized access to very large shapefiles (#2930)
   * Several enhancements/fixes to OGC Web Services specs support
   * Several enhancements/fixes to all flavors of MapScript

As usual there an a large number of additional small enhancements and 
bug fixes. For a complete list is the HISTORY.TXT file at:

   http://svn.osgeo.org/mapserver/tags/rel-5-6-0-beta1/mapserver/HISTORY.TXT

We have started working in a 5.4 -> 5.6 migration guide. It will become 
part of the official documentation soon, but in the meantime you can 
view some draft content online at:

 
http://trac.osgeo.org/mapserver/browser/trunk/mapserver/MIGRATION_GUIDE.TXT

The release can be downloaded at:

   http://mapserver.org/download.html OR
   http://download.osgeo.org/mapserver/mapserver-5.6.0-beta1.tar.gz

This is the first of three planned beta releases and if all goes well a 
final release should occur on October 24th, the day of the FOSS4G Code 
Sprint in Sydney. The full release plan can be viewed at:

   http://trac.osgeo.org/mapserver/wiki/56ReleasePlan

We need your help to ensure a high quality product so please help out by 
testing your applications with this new code base.

Thanks! - The MapServer Team