[mapserver-users] XML mapfile?

[Daniel Morissette]

C F wrote:
> 
> It seems that this and many other problems I encounter could be solved by
> making the .map file format XML based.  I searched the archives and have
> seen quite a bit of discussion on it but I didn't a conclusion.  The benefit
> for me being that I could download and easily parse and retrieve any
> information I needed using XPath.  Is this being considered at all?  If so,
> I'd be happy to contribute to the discussion and development (wherever I
> could, but I don't know the C language yet) if that would help.  A
> combination of an XML mapfile, XSLT templates and XPath extremely powerful
> compared the current template files.  


I think that Steve has been considering a switch to XML eventually, but
I don't think there is any formal plan.

I agree that XML might give more flexibility to the user by allowing him
to read the mapfile from external tools, but it would be at the cost of
performance (i.e. speed) when parsing the mapfile for every request. 
Combine this loss of performance with the fact that XML would be harder
to edit manually than the current format, and you know where I stand
personally.  

I'm not saying that if we were redesigning from scratch I wouldn't
consider XML (we use it a lot in other apps), but since we've already
got a very good (fast and simple) mapfile format then I won't be the one
initiating a switch to XML mapfiles.

Note that MapScript already gives you access to almost every piece of
information from the mapfile, so when the CGI cannot do what you need
then the logic path is to switch to MapScript, and then sky is the
limit.

My 0.02$
-- 
------------------------------------------------------------
 Daniel Morissette               morissette at dmsolutions.ca
 DM Solutions Group              http://www.dmsolutions.ca/
------------------------------------------------------------
  Don't put for tomorrow what you can do today, because if 
      you enjoy it today you can do it again tomorrow.