[mapserver-dev] Call for discussion on MS RFC 115: Upgrade and cleanup of Tutorial and Demo datasets

Tue Mar 1 06:43:17 PST 2016

Hi,

I like the mapfiles of the new tutorials. They are simple but complete, they work with standard WMS clients and it will be easy to add new examples later.

- LAYERs in the "single_layer.map" and "two_layers.map" mapfiles are without STATUS lines. Everything seems to work OK but is that a good practice?
- It would be good if  the OpenLayers live example could a have a Refresh button that would reload the app and clear the browser cache from old tiles. If users point the application to the local service and edit their local mapfiles the change may not show on the map because of caching. Perhaps single tile mode would suit better for the demo.
- How about adding a new demo "map with debug" as number 3 or 4 with MS_ERRORFILE, DEBUG, and other debug options from http://www.mapserver.org/optimization/debugging.html? When people start playing with their own data and edit the demo mapfiles they must know how to debug because typos in file paths etc. just can't be avoided.
- Also a mapfile with classification would belong to the basic examples
- If OSM data are used then we will need a mapfile with an example about how to add an attribution text

I wonder if we could write instructions for the community about how to create and share more demo mapfiles. Users do also know some nice tricks.

+1 for using GeoPackages for data. I have been wondering if SQLite/SpatiaLite/GeoPackage could be used for storing the mapfiles as well but that goes beyond the tutorial.
MS4W is good for Windows users now again because of its new life and updates.

-Jukka Rahkonen-

Seth G wrote:

> Hi list,

> It was a great experience to attend the recent Paris code sprint, and to put some faces to the names on this list.
> To try and keep some momentum on updating the tutorials/demos there are a list of issues below that people may want to provide input on.

- we are using OpenLayers3 for the tutorial as it is part of the OSGeo suite, rather than for example Leaflet.
- we planned on using shapefiles for the simple example, but perhaps now would be a time to recommend geopackages as best practice?
- we plan on storing .MAP files, and .HTML files alongside the document sources. Hopefully this will make it easier to keep the tutorials up to date, but some may prefer to keep the docs/HTML separate? The map files and HTML will be copied to a zip folder so they can be downloaded to run locally. The map files will be uploaded to the OSGeo server for the live demo.
- parts 2-4 of the existing tutorial focus on building a web UI using MapServer. We have assumed that more recent systems nearly all use a separate JavaScript mapping library to create the UI (OpenLayers/Leaflet/desktop GIS). For this reason they will not be updated.
- with regards to installation is it ok to recommend ms4w as the easiest way for installing on Windows?
- what is the current load on the server? Would an increased number of live demos be easy to support? If not a virtual machine to run the demos could be something that could be sponsored?

Once the quick start tutorial is completed I can test it out on a few some GIS people who have never used MapServer before (who I presume are the target audience).

In relation to Steve's comments - we had planned to create single feature demos as a step 2 (based on RFCs etc), but to keep a "start to finish" tutorial using the same MAP file with increasing complexity. 
Agree that if there are any standards/best practices it would be great to list these so we can stick to them for the tutorial.

Regards,

Seth

On 29/02/2016 20:52, Lime, Steve D (MNIT) wrote:
> Looks like a great start. Some comments:
>
>    - I'd completely forget about legacy demos except for perhaps inspiration. They'll do nothing but cause confusion.
>    - Suggestions for other in depth tutorials:
>      -> anatomy of a MapServer application - how to arrange mapfiles, includes, data, templates, web assets, configuring Apache. Would be nice to endorse a structure...
>      -> MapServer security
>      -> queries (modes query, nquery, itemquery) and templates (new style only). You can really do a lot with standard queries including generating custom JSON/GEOJSON services and many user simply don't know what's possible.
>      -> run-time configuration, parameter validation and setting defaults.1
>      -> integration with common client platforms - OL2/OL3, Leaflet, Google Maps, Bing. Some super simple demos will go a long way, both for background/overlay map support but also for query support.
>
> One thing I always enjoyed about the OL demos was how succinct they were - one feature highlighted at a time. I would encourage some of that here if possible...
>
> Is there any plan to make this downloadable?
>
> Steve
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: mapserver-dev [mailto:mapserver-dev-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On 
> Behalf Of Daniel Morissette
> Sent: Sunday, February 28, 2016 6:28 PM
> To: mapserver-dev at lists.osgeo.org
> Subject: Re: [mapserver-dev] Call for discussion on MS RFC 115: 
> Upgrade and cleanup of Tutorial and Demo datasets
>
> Big thanks to Julien, Lars, Lars and Seth for undertaking this. It was 
> for sure long overdue.
>
> I'd like to remind everyone that they laid out a clear plan in the RFC 
> and are awaiting your feedback. The plan includes both updating the 
> tutorial pages on the website, and also preparing a new "official" 
> demo dataset to replace the original Itasca demo.
>
> We'll leave another couple of days for feedback and then proceed with 
> the vote to adopt the RFC.
>
> Daniel
>
>
>
> On 2016-02-26 11:13 AM, Julien Enselme wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> The state of the new tutorial at the end of the code sprint can be 
>> found here: [1]
>>
>> The first six sections have text. Only the live example of the first 
>> section is working on the site. The others will be corrected soon (at 
>> least I hope).
>>
>> [1]: 
>> http://gislars.github.io/mapserver_docs/tutorial/index.html#tutorials
>> -for-mapserver-6
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> --
>> Julien Enselme
>> Software Engineer
>> Ioda-Net SÀRL, Switzerland
>>
>> On Thu, 2016-02-25 at 15:08 +0000, Lime, Steve D (MNIT) wrote:
>>> Will do, just wanted to say that it's great to see this taken up as 
>>> a new piece of work... --Steve
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: mapserver-dev [mailto:mapserver-dev-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] 
>>> On Behalf Of lars lingner
>>> Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2016 3:57 AM
>>> To: MapServer Dev Mailing List <mapserver-dev at lists.osgeo.org>
>>> Subject: [mapserver-dev] Call for discussion on MS RFC 115: Upgrade 
>>> and cleanup of Tutorial and Demo datasets
>>>
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> at the current OSGeo Codesprint we started work on an updated 
>>> version of the MapServer tutorial.
>>>
>>> Please have a look at our RFC [1], [2]. We would like to ask for any 
>>> feedback or additions. By end of the week we hope to have a first 
>>> version ready. The work will continue and should also be cover the 
>>> tutorial within OSGeo-Live, where the release cycle starts in April 
>>> this year.
>>>
>>> We would also like to ask how we can add a live demo to  
>>> demo.mapserver.org
>>>
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> Lars
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> [1] http://mapserver.org/development/rfc/ms-rfc-115.html
>>> [2]
>>> https://github.com/mapserver/docs/blob/branch-7-0/en/development/rfc
>>> /
>>> ms-rfc-115.txt
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> mapserver-dev mailing list
>>> mapserver-dev at lists.osgeo.org
>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/mapserver-dev
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> mapserver-dev mailing list
>>> mapserver-dev at lists.osgeo.org
>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/mapserver-dev
>
>

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