[mapserver-users] FWD: MapServer, ArcIMS, or SVG??

[David Graham]

Steve Simpson wrote:

>I forgot to add that development and deployment will have to be on Windows NT/2000.  Thanks.
>
Not a problem for MapServer.  Does give you some advantages if you are 
doing raster data in MapServer (allows for ECW and a better ESRI Binary 
Grid acess) if you have the appropriate libraries.

>
>
>Steve
>
>---------- Forwarded Message ----------
>
>FROM:      Steve Simpson <steve at sitesusa.com>
>TO:      mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu <mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu>
>DATE:      Tue, 4 Dec 2001 17:39:27 -0700
>
>RE:      MapServer, ArcIMS, or SVG??
>
>Hello listers,
>
>This mailing list seems to be great and MapServer looks like a great
>technology.  I hope you can help me.  Here's my situation:
>
>I just started a job working for a mapping demographics company and
>I am in charge of putting a complex app written in MapBasic online.  I don't
>have any previous gis experience but have lots of enterprise java and some
>Microsoft experience.  I've had to quickly become familiar with the multiude
>of technologies in gis.  The natural fit for our solution is MapXtreme, but it's
>to expensive.  There seems to me to be three options:
>--ArcIMS
>--MapServer
>--SVG
>I know that you all will say, use MapServer, but try to be objective.  We want
>to do this QUICKLY, even if it means doing it in a quick and dirty way. 
>
Both ArcIMS and Mapserver have a good bit of learning curve. 
 Unfortunately MapServer has a big problem with documentation. Although 
it is getting better in recent months.  It would help if someone would 
decide to roll MapServer 3.5 as a release and we could move onto 3.6. 
 Then maybe we could all pitch in on some good quality release documents.

Basically everyone who is doing anything interesting is using MapServer 
3.5.  It seems to have most of the features that people are looking for 
(PostGIS, GDAL, TrueType, etc...).  Unfortunatly the code changes day to 
day.  Check the bug list and see if there is anything you can't live 
with.  Then grab the latest.

> The only two
>development choices are Java and Microsoft.  Sorry, based on the experience of the
>others who will be working on it and the speed we want to get this done, that is what we're 
>looking at.  And, I'm leaning towards Microsoft being the better option.  (I am very experienced
>in Java, but Microsoft is all the others know.)  Some questions:
>--Can MapServer be used with Java or Microsoft (Active Server Pages)?
>
My quick and dirty solution to using MapServer with Java Servlets has 
been to run the CGI as an external process using 
java.lang.Runtime.exec().  You can pass it all kinds of parameters in 
HTTP GET format.  You can either make a MapServer template file in the 
java.util.Properties format and read it back in on 
java.lang.Process.getInputStream() or you can specify mode=map on your 
query to the CGI and then read the actual map image back in on the input 
stream.  I have done both and they work fine.

>
>--Would ArcIMS be more of a natural fit for Java or Microsoft?
>
ArcIMS runs in a Servlet engine under IIS as one of the default 
configurations.  Presumably you could use the same servlet engine to 
build your own Java backend.  ArcIMS also lets you control access 
through JDBC connection to a database system.

We have both ArcIMS and MapServer here.  We use them with different 
clients.  Mapserver is faster (at least for our applications).  No 
dought about it.  It is a lean mean little piece of C code.  Not sure 
how much of ArcIMS is happening within Java and how much is native code. 
 ArcIMS is very flexable, but MapServer gets more and more fexible every 
day.

>
>--SVG seems to be a cool technology.  However, on some websites, it mentions
>how with it, you can take the maps created in MapInfo or ESRI's desktop products
>and put them online to make them interactive.  But, we need more than that.  I need
>SVG to be able to actually do the part that the desktop product does of creating the map.
>Pardon my ignorance, but I assume SVG can't do that?
>
No experience with SVG

>
>Well, that's about it.  I would really appreciate any tips here.  I have scoured this and the MapInfo
>mailing list, but am still not certain what direction to take.
>
>Regards,
>Steve Simpson
>steve at sitesusa.com
>
>