Version 3.3 wish list...

[Stephen Lime]

Hi: I'm working on 3.3 and wanted to let people know what to expect featurewise
and to ask again for bug reports and feature requests. I've already gotten a number
of them and will incorporate as many as possible. Here's a list of new stuff or changes.

 - label overlap removal will now be the normal mode of operation, cached labels cannot overlap
     (labeloverlap option goes away...)
 - support for label angle and size from shapefile attributes
 - simple multi-item query support
 - addition of tileitem as means of supporting tiling by filename in addition to tiling by directory
 - selected features graphics (eg. show selected features in a hi-lite color)
 - layer ordering control
 - text underlines
 - the ability to define features (point,line,polygon) directly in the mapfile and via URL's
 - fully functional label rotation w/buffering
 - fixed legend creation with multiline labels
 - query of tiled data
 - raster data classes (i.e. reclass and recolor on-the-fly)
 - true type fonts for scalebars
 - additional scalebar styles
 - named symbols (eg. SYMBOL cross or SYMBOL circle)

and the most important addition, MapScript. MapScript is a Perl interface to the MapServer
C API. All relevant C functions and internal data structures will be accessible using Perl. This
means users will be able to write custom online or offline map creation scripts pretty easily. With
Perl's database and network connectivity this means you'll be able to pull features from Oracle
or other remote data sources (eg. text files) and add them to a map. Users could control colors,
symbols and expressions. Create graphics using on module and embed them into the map. Lots
of possiblities.

Again, now is the time to make suggestions, feature requests and bug reports. Thanks.

Steve


Stephen Lime
Internet Applications Analyst
MIS Bureau - MN DNR

(651) 297-2937
steve.lime at dnr.state.mn.us