[Mapserver-users] Chameleon 1.0

[Dave McIlhagga]

Hi all,

As we first discussed at the MapServer User Meeting in Minnesota in 
June, last week we released version 1.0 of Chameleon.  You can visit the 
chameleon project page at the new site we have setup for hosting open 
source mapping projects at:

http://www.maptools.org

Chameleon was developed with PHP-MapScript and MapServer version 4.0. 
Chameleon allows for the development of MapServer-based web mapping 
applications through a tag-based system in Chameleon templates where 
parameters for the various 'widgets' are set in Chameleon tags within an 
HTML document.  Much of our future application development work will be 
completed within the Chameleon architecture.

More high level information about Chameleon can be found on our website 
at http://www.dmsolutions.ca

A few Key Notes about this initial version of Chameleon:

1. You'll notice that there are two versions available -- Chameleon 1.0 
and an alpha release of Chameleon 1.1.  This is because Chameleon 1.0 
was developed for use only within an OGC environment so map files are 
not directly supported.  Instead, OGC Contexts define your map 
definition with all data coming from WMS Servers.  Chameleon 1.1 on the 
other hand uses Map files and will also support OGC Contexts by the time 
of its release.

2. Many of the widgets in the initial version of Chameleon are very 
JavaScript heavy.  This does NOT mean that Chameleon applications have 
to be this way -- these widgets were developed to meet the needs of the 
initial clients who funded this work.  New lighter widgets are in 
development and we are beginning to see new applications with Chameleon 
1.1 that are much lighter on the client side.

3. Between version 1.0 and 1.1 there have been some changes to the 
widget naming convention to improve this among other changes, so please 
be aware that templates written with 1.0 will not necessarily work in 1.1.


IF a pure WMS-based environment is what you are looking for, version 1.0 
will do the trick.  The key message is that if you want to use Chameleon 
in a traditional MapServer environment -- version 1.1 is what you will 
need.    However, although it is quite stable, it is not in release 
state yet and users should be aware they will encounter issues as with 
any alpha-release software.


So give it a try, and let us know what you think!

One final note -- I should mention that this work was completed in 
support of the CGDI WMS Client Component (CWC2) project for 
GeoConnections.  Chameleon is expected to be used broadly by partners of 
GeoConnections as a key technology for enabling the Canadian GeoSpatial 
Data Infrastructure (CGDI).

A special thanks to all of the developers, designers and testers of the 
software to date both at DM Solutions and our Natural Resources Canada 
partners at GeoConnections, Centre for Topographic Information - 
Sherbrooke and Canada Centre for Remote Sensing.

Dave
-- 
Dave McIlhagga
President, DM Solutions Group

http://www.dmsolutions.ca
EMail : mcilhagga at dmsolutions.ca
Phone : 613-565-5056 x15
Fax : 613-565-0925