[Mapserver-users] MUM Presentation / MapClient

[Jan Hartmann]

Hello list,

I finally managed to put the text of my MUM presentation about 
"MapClient" at:

http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/mum/consess2/hartmann/main.html

It took so long because I wrote the complete documentation to go with 
it: User's Guide, Reference Manual and thirty examples, covering all 
aspects of the program.

So what is it? MapClient is a user interface for MapServer. It allows 
you to build complete MapServer applications for Mozilla 1.3 and up, 
Netscape 7.1 and up, and Internet Explorer 5.5 and up. It is about 2000 
lines of W3C compliant JavaScript/DOM code, and should be very easy to 
use, at least in its basic form. Just include "window.js" in your HTML 
page and you are able to:

- access the complete functionality of MapServer, MapScript and PostGis
- create movable and resizable windows and put maps in them
- create movable buttons, menus and sliders to send requests to
   MapServer
- create draggable zoom and pan boxes
- create standard webpages (via serverFrames)
- use advanced features like job scheduling, multi-server access and
   multi-page applications

If you want to do more than just glance at it, please download and 
extract the archive at:

http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/mum/consess2/hartmann/mapclient.zip

You can run everything locally from "main.html". If you have a running 
MapServer installation, you can also run the examples. Just adapt 
"examples.js" and "examples/examples.map" to point to your MapServer 
CGI, as described in the User's Guide. When you run main.html from your 
own server, you'll see tiny run-buttons all over the User's Guide next 
to the examples, so you can not only look at the code, but also run it 
(and experiment with it).

AFAICS the program is as good as finished in this basic form. It has so 
many new features as a Web application that it will need much practical 
experimenting to see in what direction things should be developed 
further. I am working now on a large web atlas with dozens of very 
detailed historical maps of Amsterdam. If some of you would care to 
experiment with your own data, feedback would be appreciated very much.

Enjoy,

Jan