[Mapserver-users] SVG versus Flash

ozialien ozialien at cox.net
Wed Jan 21 13:52:39 EST 2004


Has anyone considered a SHP->XML Format->XSLT->SVG?



-----Original Message-----
From: mapserver-users-admin at lists.gis.umn.edu
[mailto:mapserver-users-admin at lists.gis.umn.edu] On Behalf Of Steve Lime
Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 9:34 AM
To: mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu; bartvde at xs4all.nl
Subject: Re: [Mapserver-users] SVG versus Flash


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/testin
g/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
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