[Mapserver-users] SVG versus Flash

[Steve Lime]

With SVG you're not limited to the method you mention. The development
version has had some new features added so that you can you normal
MapServer queries/templates to generate SVG. Here's a message I sent to
the list a while back:

------------------
Here's an example link that shows SVG MapServer output:

http://maps.dnr.state.mn.us/cgi-bin/mapserv40?map=/usr/local/www/docs/testing/svg/test.map&mode=itemnquery&qitem=cty_name&qstring=/./&qlayer=county


It's super simple, and just dumps MN counties to a SVG document.
There's a smile animation (provided by a student over at the UMN) that
you see when move your mouse over an individual county. The mapfile
and
templates can be found at:

  http://maps.dnr.state.mn.us/testing/svg/svg_simple.zip 

Note that you'll need the CVS version of MapServer for this stuff to
work. I've tried the above URL with Mozilla (native SVG support,
animation doesn't work) and IE (Adobe plugin) with success.

Please pass along questions or comments!
------------------

I've only worked with SVG briefly, but was quite impressed with its
potential. It seems much more ammenable to on-the-fly creation than
flash (since it's ascii). Biggest downside, and it's a huge one, it the
lack of client software. The Adobe plugin works great, but their support
for non-windows clients sucks, and there is little else out there that
supports a significant portion of the SVG spec.

Steve

Stephen Lime
Data & Applications Manager

Minnesota DNR
500 Lafayette Road
St. Paul, MN 55155
651-297-2937

>>> Bart van den Eijnden <bartvde at xs4all.nl> 1/20/2004 1:52:02 PM >>>
Hi list,

if you want to use vector-based clients, Mapserver basically has 2
options:

1. use Flash swf output
2. use GML output on the WFS interface and transform this into SVG
(xslt)

Can anybody name some strong or weak points of both techniques, and are

there any working implementations out there?

I know there is a very good comparison at:
http://www.carto.net/papers/svg/comparison_flash_svg/ 

but I am just wondering if anybody has some experience with this choice
or 
even with both techniques and Mapserver.

Thanks in advance for any input on this.

Best regards,
Bart
_______________________________________________
Mapserver-users mailing list
Mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu 
http://lists.gis.umn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mapserver-users