MapserverXML?

[Larry Shaffer]

This is a continuation of the 'Foundation and Mapserver MAP file manag e
tool' thread ...


# Sean Gillies <sgillies at FRII.COM> emailed the following
#   on Thu, Dec 15, 2005 at 9:27 AM (9:27 AM South Dakota, USA):
>http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?
MapScriptXMLDataModelProjectProposal

Brilliant! I wish that project had come to fruition by now.


Being a new guy to Mapserver, but not XML, I was somewhat shocked that
such a Web-centric application didn't have an XML format for its base (or
transfer) document by now - so excuse me if this has been ranted about
before. But, at the risk of opening a can of whoop-ass on myself...


#start concept fraught with theory

My recommendation would be for the community to agree upon a DTD/Schema
for Map files (let's call it MapserverXML for the sake of this email) and
write a 'bombproof' XSL Transformation that will take a valid
MapserverXML file and produce a correctly formatted Map file. Then power-
users could use whatever XML editor they want (like oXygen <http://
www.oxygenxml.com/>) that has Schema-aware code completion, validation,
debugging, etc, and 'regular' users (who don't know Mapserver, or GIS)
could use any editor a programmer can build to parse/manipulate a
MapserverXML file. A happy and valid XML creative process.

Only when the MapserverXML file is previewed or output for Web use is it
converted (via XSLT) to an actual Map file instance (libxslt2?).
Therefore, there would be no need for Mapserver to 'change' to read an
XML format - only the community needs to agree upon a MapserverXML
Schema/DTD. Any changes to Mapserver would be great, but not really
necessary to achieve an XML workflow.

Naturally there would need to be a translator to convert regular Map
files into the MapserverXML format, but once done, the MapserverXML file
becomes the working file and future Map files just export instances to be
read by Mapserver.

What I'm seeing from this recent list thread is that Map file creation/
manipulation needs to be extensible and flexible (with strict
formatting), while the need to look at or manually edit the Map file
should remain optional. Sounds like a job for an XML.

There are so many libraries and tools to work with XML efficiently now
that it seems odd to spend a bunch of time and effort making direct
editors for the Map file format...

#end concept fraught with theory


-- 
Larry Shaffer
Shaffer Interactive
and 
Media Guy for
Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, Inc.
http://www.bhigr.com




# Sean Gillies <sgillies at FRII.COM> emailed the following
#   on Thu, Dec 15, 2005 at 9:27 AM (9:27 AM South Dakota, USA):

>
>Where were all you XML config people two years ago? ;)
>
>http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wiki.pl? 
>MapScriptXMLDataModelProjectProposal
>
>cheers,
>Sean
>
>---
>Sean Gillies
>sgillies at frii dot com
>http://zcologia.com/news